That was by far the worst, most uninspired performance I've seen from Roma this season, and for a long long time. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. No life. No creativity. No chemistry. No form. Nothing. Top to bottom it was piss poor. From the field to the sidelines. Especially the sidelines.
Torino were very unlucky - or maybe not unlucky, just as piss poor - not to take 3 points out of that. They missed sitter after sitter after sitter, including what has to go down as one of the worst misses in history. They were easily the better side, the more creative side and looked more like Roma than Roma.
On the Giallorossi side of the ball, it's baffling. Mancini seemed to care but looked like he would have been overmatched in Serie C1, maybe C2, today. Ludovic Giuly pulled a Houdini act for 65 minutes. Pizarro couldn't do jack - which is becoming a pattern. The back line was diced up by Torino on plenty of occasions, and probably would've conceded to the Torino women's team. Doni was the only person worth his weight, and the only reason why this team was able to walk away with a solitary point.
On the field paled in comparison to the sidelines, though. The lineup was more than questionable, and we knew exactly what was going to happen before the first whistle sounded: a repeat of Genoa. David Pizarro is not a trequartista. Ludovic Giuly is probably not a starter out on the wing. And where the fuck was Cicinho? Clearly one of your most dynamic and proactive players. If I were him I'd be asking out. Even when it's clear this team needs him, he rides the pine.
Then came the substitutions. Simone Perrotta for Brighi, which was alright until you realize Simone is coming off injury. He wasn't bad, honestly, but Simone struggles to finish on form. That he ain't right now. The came the real head scratcher: You're even, you couldn't score in a brothel, and you bring off a fucking winger for a right back who has been hurt for three weeks. What? To preserve the draw? To keep possession? To stop the leaks down the flanks? Fine, keep possession, but that's only half the battle. The other half is looking for the win. Then Cicinho gets a run all of 9 minutes from time, and displayed they could've used him for a full 90. As Traian so aptly said in the thread: what an insult.
Again, today, more of the same. The team is struggling so he brings in two players who have been injured for weeks. This was not a time to regain match fitness. It was a time to keep pace and to take a very necessary 3 points. When it's headed in the other direction, shake it up, fix the kinks, don't patch the leak. How many times shall it be said? This team needs tactical flexibility.
And then there's the game during the weak which saw much of this team play. Who knows what kind of effect that had on the game. This team misses King Alberto more than they ever could have known, ditto for Totti.
Box Score
Torino(4-3-2-1): Sereni; Comotto, Di Loreto, Dellafiore, Lanna; P. Zanetti, Corini, Barone (31' st Bottone); Rosina (16' st Vailatti); Di Michele, Bjelanovic (37' st Ventola).
A disp.: A. M. Fontana, Natali, Malonga, Recoba.
All. Novellino
Roma (4-2-3-1): Doni; Panucci (34' st Cicinho), Mexes, Juan, Tonetto; De Rossi, Brighi (1' st Perrotta); Mancini, Pizarro, Giuly (17' st Cassetti); Vucinic.
A disp.: Julio Sergio, Ferrari, Barusso, Esposito.
All. Spalletti
Arbitro: Rocchi di Firenze
Guardalinee: Copelli e Stagnoli
Quarto uomo: Orsato
Note: espulsi Novellino al 33' st per intemperanze e al 44' st Comotto per fallo da ultimo uomo. Ammoniti al 6' Bjelanovic, all'8' Della Fiore e al 22' De Rossi per gioco falloso, al 37' Lanna e Panucci per reciproche scorrettezze, al 26' st Mexes per proteste. Recupero primo tempo: un minuto. Recupero secondo tempo: tre minuti.
Player Ratings
Doni: Saved the day. That's all you can say. MOTM. 7.5
Panucci: Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. Cicinho. 6.5
Mexes & Juan: I don't know what happened. Individually they looked alright, Mexes looking good in the first half and Juan making some fantastic tackles, but they kept getting ripped apart by the Torino attacking line, especially David Di Michele. Luckily for them he has Roman finishing skills, and he was unable to get them on the scoreboard. It will to down as a clean sheet, but it was anything but. 6.5
Tonetto: Really didn't bring much to the table whatsoever. 6.5
Brighi: Had about two moments where he looked good, but fell under the curse that was Roma's complacency today. Houdinin #47. 6.5
DDR: I have no idea, I didn't really notice much of him on either end.
Giuly: The thing with Giuly is he works well, can find space and all that jazz, but when it comes time to make his final movement - be it a shot, beat a defender, a pass - he sucks. Sucks sucks sucks. And when he wasn't doing that he was disappearing. 6
Pizarro: The guy is dry humping personified. All kinds of build up, a whole lot of jack shit in the end. 6.5
Mancini: God, he seemed like he gave a shit, he just played like a bag of dicks. Had the touch of a brick wall today. Tried to beat 6 defenders at a time. Adrian Pit would've been better. 6
Vucinic: Meh. Should've had a PK. Far from sex on the pitch. 6.5
Perrotta: It was nice to have him back, but unfortunately it was more of the same with Simone and his inability to put the ball in the back of the net. 6.5
Cicinho: Don't know what to say. He's no Messiah, but he provides a lot of what this team needs.
Cassetti: He was in a precarious position, being the 2nd sub coming off injury when the team was clearly in need of some attacking life and he's brought on for a fucking winger. Sure, it helped keep Roma in the game, but it didn't fix the problem, just stopped the leak. N/A
Key Matchups
Alessandro Rosina v Self-Explanatory: Had a few moments, but largely sucked. Great work rate and causes a lot of hassles defensively, but creatively had little there. He's better than this, might see it Wednesday. Or maybe he really wants to play for Roma and was proving it to Spalletti by playing like Roma for the day.
Complacency v The Sneaky Sneaky: They walked into this game complacent, and nearly got their asses handed to them if not for Torino's inability to put the ball anywhere near an open goal.
Cicinho v Torino Offguard: This is getting ridiculous.
Vucinic v Put Your Goddamn Finishing Booties On: Ditto.
Roma v 2nd Half Roma: Double ditto. At half time, you just knew it was going to finish scoreless.
That was by far the most frustrating 90 minutes I think I've ever seen from Roma. Pray for Cagliari today, because an Inter victory means it's time to focus on Europe unless something drastic happens. I'm going to try and forget that it happened.
Guess who's up Wednesday in the Coppa Italia? Torino. Wonderful.
* - I'm not in a good mood. I'm sure this reflects that. I may be more logical later, but right now I'm going to go get into a bubble bath with some kleenex and a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream and cry my eyes out.