El Shaarawy Speaks to Inconsistencies Following Coppa Italia Defeat

If you’re anything like me, the responsibilities and pressures of the real world—not too mention your employers IT policies—prevented you from seeing today’s Coppa Italia fixture between Roma and Torino. While there was a time Roma fans greeted this tournament with ravenous delight, once the Old Lady became the first team to claim ten titles in the competition, it lost a bit of its luster.

However, don’t led that dull your excitement and/or anguish; this is still Roma we’re talking about, so it will still thrill or kill. Unfortunately, today’s till was more homicide than holiday as the Giallorossi were once again found wanting in front of goal.

Speaking to those inconsistencies and lack of a killer edge (I must have had a rough day), Stephan El Shaarawy sounded rather august for his tender age:

We created so many opportunities, but you’ve got the put it in the back of the net. That is what counts and we’ve got to be more consistent.

There are regrets, because the Coppa Italia was an important objective for us. We cared about this tournament and had prepared well, but were a little distracted in some situations.

To the extent that a trophy is a trophy, sure the Coppa is an important objective and a benchmark for success, but hoisting that trophy won’t pay Roma’s tattoo bills; they need to reach loftier ambitions to keep those creditors at bay, but hmm, I wonder what could be distracting Roma?

With a critical...and I mean critical...trip to the J Stadium on Saturday, Roma’s impending six pointer may have been distracting the club in today’s narrow loss to Torino, or quite simply, it could have been the fact that they clanged the woodwork a few times, but the Pharaoh doesn’t have time for your cries of bad luck:

We gave it our all to turn the situation around and I think we showed the right attitude. We won’t have all these scoring opportunities against Juventus on Saturday, so we must be more clinical in front of goal.

We must try to be stronger than bad luck, put this behind us and focus on Juve. A result in Turin would give us more confidence, so we need to be aggressive and attacking.

We must try to be stronger than bad luck...can you see why I love this guy? He hit the nail on the head there. Sure, striking the woodwork as frequently as Roma has lately seems a bit odd, but constantly harping on that does them no good, so it’s refreshing to see such clarity and wisdom from one of club’s younger stalwarts.

In terms of the black ink, this loss doesn’t really matter—Roma will be plenty busy once the Champions League swings back into action—but it is symptomatic of a problem that has been plaguing them lately; a failure to convert chances into goals. Sure, Roma are in fourth place with a game in hand, but with only 28 goals scored, their attack is a house of cards, teetering on collapse.

They better get this thing sorted out before it comes tumbling down.