Will Today's Contestant Step On Down...
And today's injury is....[crinkles envelope open]...David Pizarro.
Something involving his thigh, which can surely be solved by transplanting Okakachukamuthafucka's leg onto his hip, resulting in the greatest limp in the history of man or beast.
This one I can eat, since he hasn't been truly fit since early 2008. He's been playing knocked on a weekly basis for about two and a half years, so he'll be in the lineup, at less than 100% as usual. This won't necessarily cripple the team, but it certainly won't help.
Story of their year.
* - Anything quintessentially Roma - in other words: ridiculous - gets the new 'Roma stamp'. It's like a gold star, but one which is placed while laughing through the tears. So...Roma.
Personnel Changes
Continuing our neverending search for answers, today's features personnel in the starting lineup. Finding a rhythm has been a large problem and so hasn't bodies dropping like the relish off Adriano's overstuffed beach dog. So, using Cesena's starting lineup, arguably Roma's first team when healthy, as a base, I thought it'd be interesting to see how many are changing per game.
Julio Sergio
Cassetti, Mexes, Juan, Riise
Perrotta, Pizarro, De Rossi
Menez
Totti, Vucinic.
(Fuck it: even post-Borriello, that, splicing in Taddei, is the first XI.)
Cagliari:
+ Burdisso
+ Castellini
+ Borriello
- Mexes
- Riise
- Vucinic
Bayern:
+ Rosi
+ Brighi
- Castellini
- Menez
Bologna:
+ Mexes
+ Menez
- Burdisso
- Brighi
Brescia:
+ Brighi
+ Vucinic
- Totti
- DDR
Inter:
+ DDR
+ Totti
+ Riise
+ Burdisso
+ Lobont
- Julio Sergio
- Mexes
- Rosi
- Vucinic
- Brighi
Cluj:
+ Cicinho
+ Mexes
+ Vucinic
+ Castellini
- Borriello
- Juan
- Riise
- Cassetti
Napoli:
+ Riise
+ Juan
+ Borriello
+ Cassetti
- Vucinic
- Castellini
- Mexes
- Perrotta
Genoa:
+ Taddei
+ Brighi
+ Perrotta
- Cicinho
- Menez
- DDR
Basel:
+ Mexes
- Juan
Parma:
+ Cicinho
+ Juan
+ Vucinic
- Burdisso
- Taddei
- Perrotta
Totals: 29 lineup changes, 10 games.
- Arguably the one game they needed replacements the most (Basel), the only change was at CB.
- Is three a game too many? Not terribly, but that's considering whether it's by tactical design, matchup, rotation, whimsy, etc. The grand majority were not.
- I'm not so naive to think that names on a team sheet decide football games, but from a quality perspective, the changes are largely shifted towards the negative.
- No true conclusion can be derived from this list outside of the obvious inability to find a rhythm, either in form or personnel, but I'm hoping if enough of the little things get put together it'll eventually form a solid enough dossier to formulate a decent theory.
('Solid' is a loose term, of course. We're still firing this thing into law absolute regardless of the findings, sort of like the US gov't.)
Today's Nugget O'Knowledge
Next on the list will be injuries and things of that nature, and in cheating ahead on the research I found this little nugget:
Remember when Juan was supposedly the new Chivu, a 'Mr. Glass'? (But, you know...much better.) Roma News tells me he hasn't had an injury since Spalletti left.
That can't possibly be true.