closed Roma 3-0 Chelsea

[Jase 43,479]

AS Roma 3-0 Chelsea
PRE/POST-MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS



2017/18 Champions League Group Stage Matchday 4
31st October, Tuesday, 2017
Stadio Olimpico
19:45 Kick Off (UK time)

[Fernando 6,462]

I actually think Conte saved cahill for this match..... 

I was happy to see cahill in the bench today! 

[manpe 10,861]

9 minutes ago, Fernando said:

I actually think Conte saved cahill for this match..... 

I was happy to see cahill in the bench today! 

He should stay there! Rüdiger offers so much more, surely Conte must see that.

[Pizy 18,368]

Let us hope we can control a bloody football this time around. We could hardly string together 2 passes against them last time.

Please, please let Kante be fit for this. We need to win the midfield battle.

[Reddish-Blue 2,347]

50 minutes ago, manpe said:

He should stay there! Rüdiger offers so much more, surely Conte must see that.

But...he's the captain!  You can't leave the Captain out of the side! 

[Last Sicarius 610]

For me should start:
Tibo
Azpi-Luiz-Rudiger
Zapa-Kante-Fabs-Bakayoko-Alonso
Hazard-Morata
If Kante is fit he must starts and with 3 middlefield we should dominate this. If he ist put Luiz at dm and get Christensen.

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

If we can, 3 man MF of Kante - Baka (form not good but big physical presence) - Cesc. Roma dominated the MF against us and hopefully our wing backs press their fullbacks at moments as opposed to sitting off. Won’t be a straightforward match on their turf though. They look a really exciting energetic team. 

[Jase 43,479]

6 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

If we can, 3 man MF of Kante - Baka (form not good but big physical presence) - Cesc. Roma dominated the MF against us and hopefully our wing backs press their fullbacks at moments as opposed to sitting off. Won’t be a straightforward match on their turf though. They look a really exciting energetic team. 

Unless we switch to a back 4, playing 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 is a double-edged sword. If we go with 3-5-2, we'll have no width and risk letting their FBs have freedom to bomb forward at will. If we play 3-4-3, we'll most definitely get dominated in midfield but will have more width and able to check their FBs.

[Leif 6,006]

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.

[Kajo 176]

After their good performance at the Bridge they should be up for a fight. It will be tough game for us hopefully we'll be able to get some point out of this game.

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[LAM09 6,744]

I'd like Conte to field a similar team to the one yesterday with Drinkwater starting. Really hope Cahill doesn't slide back into the starting XI.

 

 

[Kieran. 6,317]

21 hours ago, Leif said:

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.

What are you talking about 

 

Literally everything you just said is false, besides Dzeko being in good form.

[bigbluewillie 1,859]

22 hours ago, Leif said:

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.

 Leif

For someone who has over 7,000 post, I am totally amazed by your assessment of Roma.

Other than that I'm speechless, you are so wrong it's unbelievable.

Or is this a wind up, tongue in cheek comment?

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

Remember after the Champions League Final, Madrid v Juventus, the next day I went on to read & watch all the expert analysis on the tactical side of the game.

The vast majority of them, and I'm not talking about Daily Mail kind of "experts", but big ex footballers and current managers, said the three at the back formation is never going to work against big teams.

3-4-3, 3-5-2, either way, you are going to lose the wide areas or the midfield area. Exactly like what happened with Juventus against Madrid - Marcelo and Dani Carvajal had a field day against Alex Sandro and Dani Alves who were left for dead in the wide areas, with no support because there was no wide players to track back and help them. All this while allowing Cristiano and Isco to come inside and create a midfield four (Modric, Kroos, Casemiro, Isco) and add an extra attacker (Cristiano). 

Think a back four would be more balanced against top sides, although there is no natural left back in the squad.

 

                                                                                                                       Hazard          Morata          Pedro

                                                                                                                                   Kante       Fabregas

                                                                                                                                         Bakayoko

                                                                                                                     M.Alonso D.Luiz Rudiger Azpilicueta

                                                                                                                                           Courtois

[Leif 6,006]

2 hours ago, AChes1ofus said:

 Leif

For someone who has over 7,000 post, I am totally amazed by your assessment of Roma.

Other than that I'm speechless, you are so wrong it's unbelievable.

Or is this a wind up, tongue in cheek comment?

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. 

[Leif 6,006]

3 hours ago, AChes1ofus said:

 Leif

For someone who has over 7,000 post, I am totally amazed by your assessment of Roma.

Other than that I'm speechless, you are so wrong it's unbelievable.

Or is this a wind up, tongue in cheek comment?

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.

 

[Antonio8 736]

24 minutes ago, Leif said:

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. 

opinions of fans are important 

then there are numbers:    they are the best defence in Italy (5 goals) they scored 18 goals with 12 goalpost 

they play one match less in serie A  

 

[Leif 6,006]

9 minutes ago, Antonio8 said:

opinions of fans are important 

then there are numbers:    they are the best defence in Italy (5 goals) they scored 18 goals with 12 goalpost 

they play one match less in serie A  

 

*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.)