Given the overall standard of performance, an excellent result for us. I expect a far better performance at home and fancy our chances to progress.
That's a harsh punishment. My Lord, this could lead to mutiny. You know how much the crew appreciates me.
Glad you're so pleased that we lost every match to Juve,Inter and Milan for the 4th time in the entire history of our club but do keep posting about how great we look against top competition. Talk about spin. That said, I do think the team looks better at times but not sure why going 0-0-7 against the top teams this year should just be hush hush for some reason. I don't know why you can criticize every manager we've had since you've posted here but now have become Jose's publicity manager.
Dont make stuff up. The only manager I have ever went after was the last plum and rightly so. I have always backed managers and was the one at the time most vocal about keeping Rudi and why he should have been the one to benefit from a new attack in Jan that year. Nobody is happy about not winning more matches but I look to performance level and not points to see were the club is truly at to settle on my gut feeling. It tells me the club is much better than the stats you are throwing out to spin your "black and white" story. The setup allowed Roma to win both matches against Napoli. Tammy missed a 1 v1 sitter against Napoli at home. Mancini missed headers in both.When Napoli arrived, they were expected to blow Roma out of the water, on a great run. The tactics stopped them while Roma made 3 or 4 big chances. Thats solid and could/should on another have easily went Roma's way. The games against Juve and Milan had some very Italian calls. The only performances Roma had no chance and I can say is disappointing is in the Inter games. When looking at that overall, what I am "happy" with, is the performance level improvements shown. The team has a chance again in 1 short season instead of being blown out of the water and will close the gap next year with recruitment. The shift in momentum has been building throughout the season here. When consistency arrives which I expect to see over the following season and beyond, it will be because of the good foundational work done in this season. I would have expected you to be able to read what was happening better. You are becoming the king of the back handed compliment towards the manager. Its becoming a frustration to read your posts and see between the lines of your thinking. A shame as you have went for me, arguably the best poster on this board to this.
We defended well - especially Smalling who was incredible - but suffered too much pressure mainly caused by losing possession far too easily too much of the time. I was disappointed by that because leading up to Pellegrini's goal - a duplicate of Zaniolo's second against Bodo - we had settled down and looked to be playing well. The tie remains evenly balanced going into the return leg. A pity to lose Miki to injury; I don't know whether he will play again this season.
Just want to give a shout out to the retards who blame Ibanez for Leicester’s goal yesterday, when he makes an excellent interception to stop a 1v1 and Karsdorp/Cristante don’t track the run of Barnes who steals it and squares it to Lookman for the goal Please send me your addresses so I can mail you a set of glasses
I will take the criticism to heart about possibly being too negative but I'm not "against" Mourinho. I'm hoping he turns out to be the best manager we've ever had. At the same time, I'm still very much on the fence about his prospects at Roma. If it seems that every post I add something negative it's really that every single thing I think about his time here so far is like that: a positive with an accompanying concern. I certainly don't buy into the either "for him" or "against him" binary many commentators seem to have embraced. It has made much discussion since Mourinho was hired complete mush. On one side, you have some people who really don't like him because he was an ass at Inter and are eager to laugh at his failures. If he were anywhere else but Roma I could see this. On the other hand, you have people acting like he graced Roma with his presence and all we should do is praise him and find any possible excuse or bright spot. It's hard to make a comment like "Mourinho got A right but got B wrong" even when it seems completely obvious. That kind of narrative disconnect and bandwagon praise irks me and I read a lot of it concerning Mourinho. The example you took such exception to was THE huge talking point I heard/read over and over this time last year: completely unacceptable that we couldn't beat top Serie A teams under Fonseca. Another was our continual embarrassments in European competitions. I agreed those were hardly acceptable and was also never a big Fonseca fan. OK in some regards but certainly not exceptional and not the right personality for Rome. However, mentioning that Fonseca had no true defensive mid to put the brakes on matches getting too spread or make us less vulnerable on counters, had lost Zaniolo, had bad calls, had a weak bench, had Dzeko half-assing most of the time, etc. was absolutely no excuse for never beating Juve, Milam and Inter or complete thrashings in Europe. This isn't to defend Fonseca or compare him to Mourinho. It is to point out how selective narratives around a club can be. Again, everything I think about the club so far under Mourihno is simply a mixed bag. The locker room chemistry and team spirit / attitude seems quite positive and, above all, resilient. That is a HUGE plus in his favor. However, him bringing us to the next level likely depends on talents like Zaniolo buying into that 'for the badge' spirit as well as some decent bench players feeling enough a part of the process and sticking around. We can't replace half the roster this summer. I'm really not sure if that's happening or not. Is it merely picking out the negative to wonder about it? For example the striker position: Tammy Abraham -- obviously Jose's idea and he has been very good. Without Jose, he wouldn't have come or even been on our radar. Huge positive! But then I think about Eldor and it's a real head-scratcher that he's played almost no meaningful minutes since the first few matches even though he has the highest assist/goal rate on the team by a wide margin. I can't help but wonder if Mourinho made a mistake not finding a match every now and then to play him. Now it seems finding a 2nd striker may be added to the very long list of summer moves. I've read arguments that we can't afford losing a single point extra this year so Tammy always has to be out there. However, in the same breath, the same people argue that shoring up defensive responsibilities even if it resulted in some draws against bottom of the table sides we've been plowing over for years by pressing and attacking them more resolutely is brilliant building for the future. Can these both be true? Maybe there's some positives and negatives? Maybe some wise decisions mixed with some errors? All that said, the real issue with Roma for years is, above all, not the manager but that we have a Europa League level roster and that's the main reason Di Francesco, Fonseca and now Mourinho all get EL level results with it. Pellegrini (and Spina if in last year's form) are probably the only players on the team who would play significant minutes for a top team. Yet, if you think my negativity about Mourinho is bad, take a gander at the negativity that surrounds Pellegrini! You can tactic and tweak all you want but at least 2-3 top players at their positions -- probably more as I'm not sold on some players currently getting renewed with raises -- are needed before the manager makes a whole lot of difference in taking the next step. The #1 thing with a bullet that paying Mourinho's high salary has to fix is attracting and maintaining a higher level roster. That simple. This summer will tale the tell in that regard.
A defensive midfielder would'nt have had covered Fonsecas weakness and the inclusion of Zaniolo who you have argued has been a big extra for Mourinho is contrary to what we have seen. A Zaniolo who has spent the year finding his feet and while its nice to see him back playing, he has only performed to his capable standards in a handful of games so far. We can have patience with him after 2 years out. The reason I pointed out the above was given how you have posted this past season, now removing teams like Atlanta and Lazio from being labelled as big games seems disingenuous and arguing in bad faith. If Roma had had lost them I sense you would have included them in the list to further your view. Atalanta and Lazio were considered big games last year and they are this year. Roma entered those games the past seasons, and anyone with a clue knew a schooling was about to happen. This year we already have a feeling we have a realistic chance of claiming points regularly. Of course tactics and tweaks can only cover up so much but that is Jose's forte. They have closed the gap against rivals because of tactics. Youre using another case of lies, damned lies, and statistics when the performances tell us the opposite and the betting value is actually on Roma for those paying close enough attention. Tammy has exploded as the year went on and is a pleasure to watch up top of course, but there is little difference in quality of the starting line ups at this time from last season when adding up the plus and minus of players coming and going. The difference in quality of playing squad, we will hopefully see cemented this coming summer. Add in 2 or 3 quality players in the needed positions from here and this squad will push on leaps and bounds.
You do realize that my post you're talking about says "we are 0-0-7 against Inter, Milan and Juve this season BUT we have been pretty good against the Europa League contenders like Atalanta, Lazio and Fiorentina" right?