For as bad as Bilan were with individual mistakes and cheap giveaways that cost them yesterday, you can already see they have improved with how they move the ball in general play. Pioli will turn them around within a few games imo.
I can't get over Roma having an Englishman on defense... I think the last English defender in Italy who really started at a big club was Des Walker at Samp when they were in the Euro Cups. Maybe there were others but am not sure how much they played.
What about MLS? Who were the top English defenders playing there? EDIT: Aside from trolling falvo... the match yesterday was passable at best. I know that many people here would excuse Fonseca for having won vs a direct competitor with a depleted team, but we could've easily not won, and we won't win many of the consecutive matches where we're missing the same players, so it's really a small win in a long war, and the war doesn't look that good. The only way we're getting into CL is if Atalanta and Lazio get into trouble made by their own as well. Which shouldn't have been the case this season.
Last ones I can recall were Ian Buttrerworth , Ashley Cole and maybe Jordan Stewart but they all sucked. GK Chris Woods played one year and he was good but the team was crap. Scottish defender who had a lot of English league and later EPL experience , Richard Gough was really good.
My main take away from the match is that the makeshift lineup wasn't smooth by any stretch but I loved the grit and determination by every single player. This injury disaster may actually help team psychology if we can get through it without dropping too many points before getting some players back. Even some of the players that I had questions about have reacted strongly to the dire situation. Dzeko has been playing "angry" and even chasing some balls down from behind after a losses of possession. (I was really wrong about questioning his "commitment" if he wasn't moved this summer.) Pastore wasn't exceptional passing however I would shut up completely about him if his effort was always like it was yesterday. No one expects him to be a plus defender but at least yesterday he played hard, ran to get in the way to stop advantages from developing, contended for 50-50 balls ect. . . When he dug in against two Milan players to win the 50-50 and draw a free kick -- in the 95' minute no less -- I seriously rewound to be sure that was actually him.
Also a shoutout to Mancini who did very well in a position that is not natural to him. He did pretty well.
The war looks fantastic. When you can hold the enemy advance with fewer numbers waiting for your reserves to arrive you are going well. Lazio? You do realize right now we are sitting ahead of them and we have done that with the most makeshift lineup possible. CB playing MF. FB playing reserve wing. Our only AM playing on the wing because we have no Wingers. Cetin came on and showed he has real quality, still early but he has the tools for sure. Our only real MF right now is Veretout. The fact he won with that lineup vs ACM is amazing. Forgive him because we could have lost. Hell, with that lineup I fully expected to lose. Also, I'm not sure what game you were watching but Roma were clearly the better team and could have scored 2 or 3 more goals. Fantastic performance, IMO
yeah, we're doing alright all things considered. It's a tough season/squad to project for me, personally. I think I'll give it to the winter mercato to truly assess.
My expectations were pretty low coming into the season. I thought we would be battling for a EL spot. The roster was a mess, we had no money and we were playing in 3 competitions.
To your point about Lopez and someone else mentioned his handling. The simple act of a goalkeeper going back to catching the ball seems to be almost coached out of keepers today and their first instinct is to always deflect it away. Lopez seems to prefer to catch and hold and that stands out. I think the best way to describe it is that he de-escalates situations because of this. Whereas the likes of Olsen deflects the ball into the incoming attacker or pushes it wide so it falls to their wide player and they immediately have a chance to put the ball back into the box and we're back under pressure. A year late in signing but better than never.
Agree. I'm really happy with Lopez thus far. I never expected him to be the 2nd coming of Allison nor does he have to be.