Week 24: Roma - Milan February 28 20:45

[reza]

Another important match that will give an indication if the players and Pioli himself can respond. The match will come after the return match vs Red Star.

Bennacer, Mandzukic and Maldini are day to day, could be ready.

[mazen111]

Reza your monopolization of games threads should end

[reza]

Open a poll thread and ask

[Inass_to]

Wish Pioli would have the balls to rest Romagnoli.

[nefremo]

Has to be 3 points here. Otherwise we seriously risk of falling in crisis....mentally more then anything.

[Sleeping Giant]

Reza your monopolization of games threads should end

Damn it that was too much of English

[mazen111]

When we say marking a striker not watching a striker

[ac.michael]

lol Romagnoli looks like such a clown compared to Maldini

[nefremo]

When we initially signed Romagnoli, he had a lot of potential. His positioning was great, he was good in the air and decent/good with the ball.

The faults were there to be seen and the hope was that he was going to bridge that gap somehow. Some of those deficiencies are very difficult to be improved because they are 99% physical attributes. Explosiveness, change of direction at speed, аcceleration from a standing position, overall speed, strength and just overall athleticism.

Here we are, years later, and it's those same things keeping him back. His biggest weakness (in football terms) is 1v1 defending...which would be massively improved if he improves those physical attributes I listed. I don't know if his body is just not capable of achieving that level of athleticism or if he just doesn't put in the extra work to be the best he can be. Everyone's body has a limit (naturally). Some people have to put in 100s of hours of work more then others to achieve the same results. And even then, the max your body can achieve won't be the same as someone else no matter how much work you put in.
BUT, you gotta do your part to maximize your body's potential. Imo, Romagnoli has not done that.

Of course, he can still be a good CB, and he is. No matter how much criticism he gets, he's not bad. But he struggles in certain situations and it's the same situations over and over again. I think in a "low block" when defending deep, Romagnoli will be more then fine, and he has been before. He can use his positional awareness to be at the right place really well. He is good in the air. He can mark up in the box. BUT. In a high defensive line, forget about it. I cringe every time we lose the ball and the other team comes at us before we can fall in our defensive shape. He can't cover the space fast enough, he is not good in 1v1 with space behind him, and he gets exposed.

All that goes back to the same question.......what kind of football do we want to play? Decide that, and get the players for THAT football. We wanna press high? Then sorry, but Romagnoli is probably the 1st one that should be replaced in the lineup. Doesn't mean he's a bad player per say....just that he doesn't fit that style. If we wanna defend deep, then keep him, he'll be fine. But from what I've seen...Pioli wants high pressure. He always urges the players to press. To chase the ball. To win it and transition quick. Even if we don't press high , he wants pressure in the midfield, which automatically draws the defenders higher.

[Demonbanana]

On our current performance vs Crvena Zvezda, Roma WILL beat us 4-0.