Serie A Campaign 2014-2015 Thread

[McLewis]

Going to use this threat to track all of our Serie A games as it's become a bit of a chore to create a separate thread for every game. Going to merge all other Serie A game threads into this one.

[Lupi]

great game, a lot better than what i expected forza Roma

for Torino, idk what to say really going from immobile to quag and kaddouri( even though i think he has great potential) is not the best strategy. they probably going to lose darmian and then they be in whole lot of trouble.

[McLewis]

That was what we needed to get back on track. Ljajic's goal was obviously the pick of the 3. He's getting back his confidence at the right time as well and with Florenzi probably not 100%, he may be in line for some game time as he's in better form than Iturbe.

The biggest part of this game for me was Strootman's return. Words cannot describe what having that lad back will mean for this team. Just need to get him match fit again now and the international break should help quite a bit with that.

[flameas]

Nice win that over Torino was. Though I wish Totti had scored also and we had kept triying to score more. Atleast those players who werent gonna be called to national teams should have tried to keep the intensity up a little more.

[McLewis]

Tired legs were behind that, I would imagine.

[Lupi]

scrappy game, rather lucky win against Atalanta. Ljajic continued his run of form the team as a unit weren't up to their normal standards. too many errors but we got helped by ljajic and defencive errors Atalanta made

[McLewis]

Definition of a grind job. Played like crap, but still got the win that was needed.

Ljajic was immense. Can't let him go when he's in this type of form.

[McLewis]

Maicon, Yanga-Mbiwa and Astori all back in the squad for the match tomorrow. Torosidis the only defender out injured, but with Maicon not fully fit, don't be surprised to see Florenzi at RB again. He didn't have that bad a game against CSKA. Then again, he wasn't challenged much either.

Could be a good game to continue working Strootman back into match fitness by bringing him on late. This time maybe for someone not named Radja Nainggolan.

My impression on this game is that we are favorites on paper obviously, but Inter under Mancio is decidedly different than they were under Mazzarri. They will be sturdier defensively and pluckier going forward. That first half just might be tough to watch.

[Lupi]

Really poor game there was a desert gap between midfielders and forwards. We cant expect pjanic to do it all, no plan going forward terrible terrible terrible

[McLewis]

Not many positives to take from that game honestly.

Manolas-Mbiwa looked like they hadn't played together before. Lack of communication, especially on Zaza's 2nd was shocking. The Red Sea parted for him there. Iturbe has so much pace and dribbling ability, but he lacks a final ball clearly and appears to be shot shy when in good positions. He's going to need to sort that out if he's going to justify his price-tag, which is looking much more lofty when he plays like that. It was disheartening to see so many people go after Strootman yesterday. It's his first game back. He's of course not going to be up to snuff and it showed. That said, I don't think he should've started, but should've been subbed in when we were sitting pretty. He needs to be worked into this squad gradually again as I think yesterday was too much for him too soon. And then there's DDR and his implosion. He's been awful for a while now and while he remains one of my favorite players at the club, some time off from playing will do his head some good. The tricky thing is that we have no real depth behind him though so Rudi very likely will have to keep playing him and hope he gets his head right. He's far better than this.

Going forward, I don't think we saw anything that we didn't already know about this side. We really have trouble breaking down organized sides. That's not really news. What was perhaps the most frustrating however is that when Sassuolo weren't getting blocks in and we had our chances, we were spurning them all. In the end, relying on the ref for your goals is not the way you want to win championships. We need to be honest with ourselves here because that's exactly what we did yesterday. Sassuolo have every right to be angry as they were the better side clearly.

I really don't care how many players City have out. If we play like that on Wednesday, they will progress out of this group at our expense. Hopefully, having our big guns back will help, but this does cause a lot of worry from a depth perspective.

[Lupi]

well when the team struggles to make the transition from midfielders to forward and be as confused as us in game against sassuolo every interception can turn to be a deadly counter attack without the opponent having to do anything special. I take nothing from sassulo and Di francesco but we really shouldnt be struggling against teams like them if we are serious about scudetto

[Lupi]

On to Genoa, i still cant believe Garcia used yanga-manolas and keita in the game, ddr is having a tough time duo to personal problems, whats with astori? nonetheless we should go for serie A now to get that scudetto starting by genoa and maybe some reinforcement

[flameas]

I doubt we get any decent signings in january, because we lost the european money..

[McLewis]

Meh, I have a feeling we'd still be after the likes of Johnson even if we had gotten on to the next round.

As for Genoa.......this might just be Sampdoria all over again.

[Lupi]

a narrow 1-0 win i think

[gb]

A narrow victory. I'm a little concerned that Destro did not play. I really hope we have no intention of selling him as I think he could be that deadly striker for us. Our front trio should look like this for the remainder of the season:

Destro/Totti

Totti/Ljajic

Gervinho/Flo/Iturbe

[McLewis]

You lads were spot on with your predictions

Nervy win though, but I'm glad we finally took advantage of Juve's slip ups. We have a real shot at 1st place now if that keeps happening and we keep our heads. That said, still not happy with the finishing. Nainggolan, as good as he's been this season, shouldn't be the guy we look to for goals.

[Lupi]

About destro i didn't like what i saw from him against sassuolo, Of coarse he wasn't responsible but he seemed a bit of to me

As for the team its understandable to not play the best after midweek game that was a disappointment for them, spirit goes down a notch that's why i think Garcia used florenzi, he is young but has a strong character and mentality, a joy to watch ok i went too much oh well,Forza Roma

[flameas]

Hopefully the penalty miss wont haunt Ljalic too much. Gervinho also needs to step up, if he keeps wasting chances like that I say he needs to be benched.

[Lupi]

another team sat deep and we failed to open them up,its easy to blame the funny handball or pjanic suspension but the truth is we really need to find away for games like this.

[flameas]

Serie A will resume in five days, the 6th. A tough away match agaist Udinese. and the Derby agaist Lazio. also interesting to see what happens with Destro, Strootman and Cole

[McLewis]

Strootman stays imo. He's a summer transfer if anything, but even then I'd like to see us keep him.

If we do offload Destro, I don't see us giving him to another Serie A rival like Milan.

Cole is probably done and if a lucrative offer from MLS comes, I think he's gone. Would also explain why we're looking for another LB.

[Lupi]

udinese wont be easy especially if we try to save Totti and destro stay out for fitness issue, that leaves us toothless upfront and the defence is shaky to stand the pressure so we can cut them on break on the sides thats the usage of flore-ljajic-iturbe means to me.

[flameas]

Awful match, but three points. The lack of goals and anything meaningful in attacking play is very worrying. Ljalic seems to be out now as well for maybe couple of months. Maicon looked terrbile in defense and stupid emanuleson was VERY lucky not to conceive the penalty there.

If we want the Scudetto we need to break bank. The luck will run out at some point.

A new fullback, GK and striker are needed.

[McLewis]

Finishing continues to be a problem as we had many chances to score more than that 1 goal.

I liked this win though. Udinese are in excellent form this season so coming into the Friuli and beating them is quite a good result for us, especially when it could've easily been a draw if that pen had been awarded.

Sometimes we need to win ugly to beat good teams. Had this been a bottom-half team, I'd probably be far more critical though.

Let's hope Ljajic isn't lost to us for the rest of the season.

[Lupi]

derby della capitale against surprisingly on form peasants, after Roma's boyhood fan candreva got injured they have Anderson doing well for them, pioli was sacked by bologna and now doing alright with them.
my brain tells draw but i'm hoping for a win

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