Totti Tuesday: ‘Back to the Future, Wimbledon and salsa’

Just as I thought the defensive compartment was the most difficult part of the mercato, it seems there are questions raised about our entire attack too. First Borini, now whispers of Osvaldo leaving. Mix it with Bojan’s fucked up contract clause and Borriello’s situation (Monty seems to want him at Fiorentina) and we have a ball. Lamela-Totti-Bojan seems the way to go for now but whoever is on the bench at Zeman II is still a mystery. Actually, this whole Roma under Zeman is still a mystery. Of course, Euro 2012 doesn’t help either. After the tournament, things (and hopefully Saba too) should speed up. Toure de France? Wimbledon? Olympic Games? Who gives a damn? You don’t see this or this at their tournaments right?

After August 31, we’ll finally know more. Patience is a virtue. Until then… it would be wise to insert the location of the closest liquor store in your GPS.

Mercato

I can’t stand that Roma is being linked with player A and B and then next day, the agents of A and B come out of their caves and deny any links or contact with Roma. Seriously, it’s like they are Cassano and Roma is gay. Nonetheless, some names:

Merkel from Genoa seems pretty close. 20-year-old midfielder, German, a Milan primavera product. Not the highest priority right now but I remember him being a fairly good player during his Genoa loan spell, Milan badly wanted him back afterwards. He’s adapted to Serie A and still young. What we know for certain is: if he’s as stubborn as Angela, he’s gonna get bitchslapped by Osvaldo or Burdisso soon. He’s good I suppose. Still, Verratti wouldhave been nicer (Why? Yeah you guessed it, Italian).

Roma’s defense, also known as ‘what the $@&€ is this *#&ù´, has one certainty: a recovering-from-a-bad injury-Burdisso and…Daniele. More info about that later on. As you may have read in the comments section of a previous post from Bren, I don’t like the way things are changing around our defense. Castan, Uvini, Dodo, Juan, Burdisso.. what are we, Sao Roma? Or AS Flamengo? Will Stekelenburg have to learn salsa to understand his CB line? Is speaking Portugese obliged at Trigoria? Times like these, viking Kjaer is becoming a sight for sore eyes (and even he isn’t certain of a sport in Roma next season).

The point however is this: Italian quality defenders are pricy AND not widespread. Ogbonna, Astori, Bocchetti, Cassani, Camporese, Acerbi… Those spring to my mind. If we do have the money, pretty please, go for at least one of them. And don’t disgrace your country with playing four foreigners in defense.
Raul Albiol: the last time we bought a benched Real Madrid defender, he ended up like this. Clearly, Roma’s not for the faint of hearted.

Fun fact of the day

Gay communities worldwide (including one called ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’, very suspicious) announced that they have burned their favourite Cassano pic. Sad sad day….

Roma Daniele at the Euros

During the group fase, both Stek and Kjaer didn’t made me want to do backflips. Stek was hung out to dry with a defense of Heitinga, Mathijsen and Vlaar. And it’s not over yet for Maaaaarten: with Zeman it ain’t gonna be pretty too. Kjaer was… well being Kjaer 2011-2012. Bad positioning at times, not confident and when he had to take on serious opponents like Huntelaar Robben Van Persie Ronaldo or Gomez, you saw he had troubles.

Borini hasn’t played a single minute yet so that leaves us with Dynamo Daniele. Zeman may see a DM in Daniele but they way he played during Italy’s first two games, he must be glad that if things really get f*cked up in defense, Daniele is always there for the rescue! His third game against the Boys in Green was good too. Lots or running, good passes, going forward… I’m happy we’ll see some more of Daniele in the Quarters (mind you, Chiellini is injured for that game). Be it at midfield or defense, Daniele will do the job. Well, sort of... If Torres made Dani sweat, I'm curious to see how he fares against Benzema or Rooney.

And can please, somebody anybody, tell Daniele he’s playing with one short and one long sleeve? You’re not part of some overrated 90’s boys band, Daniele. Ridiculous stuff.
Now, bring on the English! Or France with le traitors Menez and Mexes. I want ‘la revanche’.

Notes

Notes? Where we’re going, we don’t need notes (Back to the Future quotes ftw!). Or in Zeman terms: “Defense? Where we’re going, we don’t need a defense.”

Until next week!

“In my football I try to eliminate pointless things, so for me a horizontal pass is futile, as it’s just loaning each other the ball.” – Zdenek Zeman, 2012