Leif

I promise you every single one of those 3 is borderline awful this season. Their best midfielders aren't on the field; Pellegrini & Gonalons. That would have been interesting. This is more predictable - surely we win. That said, there's nobody who can't outplay our current midfield.

Last season, Roma would average 3 goals per game. This season, they struggle to score 1 per game. (3 times they've scored more than once in the league this season). That's the compromise for having statistically the 'best defence in the league', and it's certainly a bad compromise. Atletico Madrid are suffering from the same syndrome. Beating them wasn't the feat it would've been in seasons prior. I hope we get them again at a later stage.

True. Kent has had a fair share of Chelsea players, and it's calm as can be with birds singing etc.

Enjoying handmade pesto gnocchi in his silk shirt under a Renaissance cathedral outside, following a long lunch & walk by a lake with the Mrs in fine 19 degree celsius weather vs Enjoying a chicken salad or steak pie inside a dark restaurant which, if he's lucky, may have views of skyscrapers and a grey sky, following an afternoon of avoiding places with fanatic fans in & around London, negotiating the terrible congestion, all with a yearning to just get home and turn off the London city buzz. No idea where he'll take the Mrs if they like peace / beauty. North Italy vs London. It's not about the league.

Exactly. If a player has only been on the radar for 1 season, and for that season, shown he needs to improve greatly, how do you draft him into your starting XI as the Premier League champions? You can maybe get away with it once in a blue moon (with Kante, who'd literally proven he can win this league), but it is not a solid or safe strategy. Sidenote: I hope nobody talks about 'Makelele rates him' again. When asked about Bakayoko, Makelele literally choked, stumbled over his opening words, and offered up a very sugar coated sentence while avoiding answering the specific 'Is he good enough for Chelsea?' (asked more or less in those words.) I cringed when I saw it. Back to a relative point - Bakayoko would've been an incredible signing for, let's say, £28m (with up to £10m+ extra in performance-related add-ons, if he actually turns out great), with the intention of him being a bench player first. That, is solid. That is a Bayern/Madrid/Barcelona move. What we've done here is amateur. You don't defend titles with moves like this.

*They have the best defensive record in Italy, definitely, but far from the best defence, just as definitely. They don't even know their consistent defensive lineup. And, we've also had the 'best defence record' - with Gary Cahill at the heart of it. *All of their defensive credit goes to Alisson. I saw a stat that showed out of 9 or 10 games, 7 or so of those games he saved 100% of shots. And those shots got to him since he has nonsense defenders in front of him, protected by a very 'solid' but technically limited & rigid midfield. Roma would swap their defenders for Juve's or Inter's in a heartbeat. Presuming they could keep Kolarov and fight off Nagatomo (And if stats mean much, we should be starting Bats ahead of Morata, and Roma should be top of the table. But the reality is that despite stats, on the field, they're not up to par.)

I'll randomly search Twitter right now with key words from my post, and see what others have to say. I'll post whatever comes up, I won't go digging for what fits my narrative. Edit: My post had pretty specific observations, and those seem generally shared on Twitter. Pop onto Roma forums, copy & paste my post and ask them (I'd rather share their opinions on here, not Twitter, but screenshotting is so much more finger work!). I'm not saying all Roma fans will agree, but i'm not talking rubbish, and hundreds of thousands of Roma fans no doubt see the same. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands will see something else - just like some of us like Cahill, some of us don't. Some of us think we need to start Fabregas, some of us don't. One thing's for sure. No compliments are coming up re: the players / positions I criticised, bar 2 defenders. If i could find positives besides Dzeko/Kolarov/Alisson, i'd post them. Put no stock in Fazio - like Fabregas, opinion changes weekly.

My post was pretty spot on I think, but offer rebuttals if you have any. I've said this before, but i'll be shocked if i'm not the only one on here watching every Roma game, and talking to Roma fans after every game. But if you do too, i'd love to discuss their season, manager, board, new signings, etc. Fun club to dissect.

I don't think he's any less solid than other teams CB's this season, and his ambition to get the ball forward is only a good thing if he keeps up his defensive side. Everything in moderation. Except own goals.

Exceptions to a rule don't define the rule, don't be so bizarre. Funnily I added a piece about him to my post before you replied; just took a while hitting save since more text was being added.

Just because you're new doesn't mean you'll get better. Just because you're 'young' doesn't mean you'll get better. These are weak points when put against the plain facts from having seen him play before his arrival. It is possible to gain a lot of perspective on a player very quickly. And we do ourselves a disservice if we don't accept how important a person's mentality & intelligence is in relation to their potential as a footballer. That mentality shines through within just a few games, for every player. And we clearly didn't sign the brightest apple in the basket. Those apples never then become shiny on their own. They are what they are, and Bakayoko is what he is. (Rarely, they will turn shiny, if a dedicated carts-man emanates passion for his apples; but an already bruised and not-so-good apple has no chance when the carts-man changes every week.) Besides, 23 isn't young. At 23, we could clearly see the quality in Hazard, Neymar, Bale, Kroos, Fabinho, Kovacic, Verratti, Isco, De Bruyne, we could go on and on. These are professional footballers, not amateurs. If you're not good at 23 while surrounded by quality players, you won't be great at 27; other than the very rare occasion like Drogba, who sits alone in that basket. We can't really use him as an example though, because any tall, incredibly strong striker will find a way to score one way or another. So really there's no examples of players at 23, playing how Bakayoko plays now, going on to become comparable to our great players of the past decade. What you see is what you get.

This should be easy, but so should've been our last game against them. Nainggolan has lost his magic in a flash, it's bonkers, but he's essentially useless for Roma now; every single sense has been dulled. Strootman has become perhaps their weakest midfielder, but continues to play when fit. No threat. Unless he shows more pashun than whoever he's shoulder-to-shoulder with. Dzeko is in good form. Their goalkeeper is quietly one of the best in Europe this season. 9/10 of their new signings are awful & flopped so far (especially up front, like Under, Defrel). Their most effective player is... Kolarov. The rest of defence is 90% incapable players that the fans want out, they just can't defend well, and 10% defenders who can't defend but are decent going forward. They're half the team of last season.

That stings even as a CFC lover.

We're trending in Tokyo.

Sick of seeing a midfield '2' instead of '3'. We only need Hazard & Morata up top, no need for Pedro as much as we need further stability and ability in the centre. Bakayoko is erratic and Fabregas is slow. How on earth will we control the game?

Palace fans say he's been one of their best players, but that he'll never ever score a goal.

I've only & just right now watched 2 videos of him, and I don't think 5 seconds of footage could pass without him being on the ground.

Is this Malcom a 'young Brazilian talent' who's just 'burst onto the scene', us having never heard of him before? Is he a potentially great player, no doubt with the body of a boy? Not again, thanks.

Stats like this So, he didn't make more passes than any other player. Can't we just use our eyes instead of stats + proclaiming about his form in past seasons, which we barely even watched?

And that's how you know our players aren't good enough, generally. The very best players barely even need instruction, and it is their instinct which makes them world class, the likes of Xabi Alonso, Puyol, Terry, Suarez. You could've banned them from training and they'd still turn in top performances most games. I don't like that our players are more like boys than men. Edit: To elaborate - Even when the coach is trying to instil very particular routines into the team, the very best players can miss those lessons, come into the game next week, and through their own intelligence figure out after 5 minutes of play what sort of runs, tempo & such his teammates are using. Great players study the game, and play games in their mind even on rest days. Our players don't seem to take that sort of initiative. If they did, we'd know about it. There certainly are players, young ones too, mainly in the other leagues, who show in their performances that they understand all the fundamentals of all the positions on the pitch. They help their teammates by understanding their teammates. By watching, listening, copying, complimenting. Does Cahill understand Morata? Does Alonso understand Azpilicueta? I don't think so. They're not all hopeless though. Some of our players don't lack that deep understanding: Fabregas, Pedro, Azpilicueta. They see the whole game; 2 of them are simply past it physically.

He's my captain, and there's nobody else I'm calling captain. Would be brilliant, though painful of course for Cahill, to stick banners around the bridge with 'Capitan #28' or something.

He's 17. Comments in the match thread like 'he didn't do anything special' (as a centre back in midfield) are silly. He was strong, composed, on the floor less than most, calm, perfect with his movement, perfect with backing out of tackles that would've had him carded. 17. He can be anything we make him. What a shame he won't have a consistently 'there' manager here.

Right, I guess first impressions are just something I made up.

A chance for our youngsters to shine since it's an absolutely pointless cup. So bring on Pedro & Fabregas, fuck yeah! Then complain about how many games our players have to play

I really don't think Drinkwater is an improvement over anyone we already had in the squad, including our youngsters. And when you're not at your best, like us, the signings you make need to improve your squad. Bad signing straight up. It's like signing a shitter Meireles.