Bologna 0 - Roma 1
Loose thoughts, as I gather most of sane mind will acknowledge nothing can be taken from 48 hours of L'Aeroplanino:
- Vincenzo Montella did not win them this game, much as I'd love to give him credit, which brings me to my major point: stop appointing Roman icons, legends, fans, etc. please. There is no room for objectivity when I see Vincenzo Montella sitting on the sidelines, chewing every single skin cell off his fingers and telling Capello where he can stick his fuckin' art collection. All of a sudden it's as though I'm 12 again, basing things on emotion and the overly simplistic concept of 'I like it'. We're hours into the era and I'm already due an epic hissy and several liters of oxygen in May when it's Vincenzo or Carlo? - even though it's unlikely to be a contest - for three torturous weeks.
Anywho, it was the players with experience in the 4-2-3-1 - combined with Bologna's silver-platter tactics and gold-platter ball shielding in their final third - who won this game. Cut/dried. Anyone else notice the markedly improved effectiveness of Brighi and Totti over the summer's purchases? Bologna pushing late helped, particularly Matteo, but they 'get it' - the system. Basically he hit the default button and it worked, despite two poor choices from the off. Steven Wonder called Borriello's ineffectiveness - L'Aeroplanino could've saved himself by saying in the postgame he was resting Totti, which was perfectly acceptable given the current fixture logjam, but instead claimed it a technical choice (perhaps gaining him more points in the end for honesty with the opportunity begging) - and Doni as the better keeper...well that's just a red flag.
No judgments, of course, rather observations - it's been two damn days.
Time will tell what happens with the 4-2-3-1 - Ranieri's was effective last year, while Spalletti's bread and herb butter was their death knell during his end days.
- This should be point one, but whatever:
There is a motherfucking reason why Rodrigo Taddei plays for every. single. coach.
Learn it. Love it. Live him.
- I spent a whole two Google pages searching for the statistics on this, probably with poor search terms, and couldn't find it, but I'm 99% sure that coaching changes bring about an immediate spike in short-term performances before dropping off precipitously after n-games. Cautionary tale and homework for anyone with absolutely nothing to do these next days.
- Daniele really, really dropped the ball in not spreading his wings after the goal.
You're the goddamn captain, so act like one. That would have been biblically awesome.
- But really, Bologna dropped the ball in their half by dropping it into Mirko's lap. One major mental mistake from no first half goal, growing frustration, etc.
I know I've discussed this with someone, somewhere, but this team really seems to get almost placebic uplifts from goals scored shortly before the half (<5m). There's a dissertation to be written on this.
One has to wonder how they would've reacted with it 0-0 in the 70th or so. Well, not 'has to', but you should.
- Borriello...woefully unsuited for the 4-2-3-1 right now. Hope he likes counting to 25,000 on the bench for awhile.
Though it has to be said if Vincenzo's feeling frisky, Menez's pace - if he's willing to move off the ball (big 'if') - at treq terrorizing the space abandoned by Borriello could be effective in certain situations. Or maybe Perrotta, but I'd imagine it's going to require some burners, because Borriello's no Totti and he drops play to a crippled snail's pace.
- I have to say, despite having two of the more interesting interviews in recent times at the helm, I found Vincenzo's postgame infinitely more compelling (link). It's not even the bluntness, which is awesome, it's just...I think he just knows he's playing with house money, despite any public statements to the contrary*; combine that with his natural personality and it suddenly feels like a toga party with one guy who's having a lot of fun, but looks like he might be a serial killer.
Does that makes sense? It shouldn't, really.
* - He sort of has to say "I'm not here for x months in a shepherd's capacity." Players may start looking ahead, exaggerate any questions of his methods, etc.
- The combo Dungeons & David two-man deep midfield was awesome, but I'm pretty cautious on this - Bologna couldn't have pressed a decent grilled cheese in those two spots today. Sort of tailor-made for good times.
Not that they can't be great regardless of the opposition - they just haven't been this year. Or in unison since 07-08.
- I'm sorry, but Doni's not better than Julio Sergio. No how, no way, not never. Nuh uh. The man could fuck up toast.
And I'm arguably more tepid on JSB than most.
So there you go. Ninety good minutes, now completely forgotten. As much as Roma will get acclimated to Montella and his probable use of the 4-2-3-1, it's not exactly some revolutionary tactical cloak - other teams will know how to gameplan. The tests and rebuttals will now come flying like the infinite number of aeronautics references I'm bound to make between now and day 38.
And the next time someone scores, do the goddamn airplane, would ya?
***
I remember this song. They used to play it.