All Roads Lead to Roma: Bradley in the Eternal City v. I

He's a Juve fan, screw that.

Also, we already used up our 2 non-EU player spots.

 

It goes without saying that if one of your central defenders is 18 (Marcos) and the other one is also a Brazilian (Castan), there will be some exciting times on defense.

 

More like we have literally a nobody in goal. Both Castan and Marcos are solid.

Marcos is one to watch.

 

This has been pretty well covered, but Cameron benefits from the human shield of central middies placed in front of him by Pulis. I'm a fan of Cameron, but he'd have to do much more 1v1 defending, and I'm sure Roma have many targets that would be better suited for the job.

 

Rainy day quote.

 

Bradley starts in the cup today. It looks like a strong lineup with some backups mixed in.

Stekelenburg; Piris, Romagnoli, Burdisso, Balzaretti; Bradley, De Rossi, Pjanić; Destro, Osvaldo, López

 

Marcos and Castan will each develop into twice the player Omar will ever be.

 

You also said something along the lines of Bradley being one of the, if not the only American player that's good enough to play in Serie A so yeah...

lol, Castan is older and not much better


Anyway, looks like Bradley and DDR will be both be starting against Atalanta today in a Coppa Italia match.

 

I wonder if Bradley will be playing regista today or DDR. Interesting to see where Bradley and DDR line up when they are both on the field as Zeman has said they are very similiar players, and seem to be in direct competition with each other for playing time.

 

My guess is Bradley playing right mid.

 

Yet they keep playing together and/or not being substituted one for the other....

 

How do you know? Do you have a time machine?

 

Roma's system would not be good for Omar, so can we get over this Roma needs Omar talk. There will be clubs in the EPL and Bundesliga interested in him.

 

Yes, would you like a ride?

 

Sure, why not?

 

Pick you up at 8?

 

Can you get me one of those sports almanac books. I've got an idea.

 

You still won't get Lloraine.

 

You can keep her. I just want the loot. I can buy some other chick some fakeuns.

 

Zonal marking offers a nice piece on Zeman's attack vs Fiorentina . .

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/12/11/roma-4-2-fiorentina-roma-attack-three-v-three/

The key story was that Roma played three-against-three high up the pitch, and in combination with speedy transitions from defence to attack (because of Zeman’s love of verticality and only playing a sideways pass following a forward pass), they simply exposed the Fiorentina back three readily on the break. Fiorentina’s centre-backs generally like sticking tight to their opponents – Facundo Roncaglia, for example, followed Francesco Totti when the Roma captain received the ball in deep positions (conceding the free-kick that resulted in the first goal) – but they simply got dragged out of shape and left too much space in central positions.
The three-on-three situation was obvious, but equally important was the directness offered by Bradley and Florenzi. They burst forward immediately as soon as they got the ball – Bradley’s end product was frequently disappointing, but he was the only midfielder not replaced by Zeman, because his continuous running from midfield to attack was overwhelming Fiorentina on the break. Roma should have scored far, far more than four goals – Mattia Destro’s finishing was very poor, while decision-making on the break wasn’t always up to scratch.

 

Stoke (and Pulis) pretty much the soccer antithesis of Zeman's scheme at Rome.

It's like jailbreak soccer on steroids.

 

I actually think Cameron would be the one US defender who would be great at Roma in Zeman's system. Unfortunately, he's doing pretty well at Stoke and is not going to Roma any time soon

 

Here's a video I made of Bradley against Fiorentina.