Will Roma Get Her Groove Back? A Roma-Plzen Preview

Theoretically, a ritiro is supposed to provide an adrenaline rush to a sluggish team. Lock the players, the coaches, the training staff, hell, even the janitors into the training ground, and hope that all that time up close and personal will build squad cohesion and right a sinking ship. Considering the way Roma’s ship looks to be sinking right now, it certainly makes sense to lock the doors to Trigoria and throw away the key.

I don’t want to go into detail about Roma’s putrid 2-2 draw to Cagliari this Sunday because I’m trying to slowly but surely push my memories of those ninety minutes out of my hippocampus. Suffice it to say that drawing to a nine-man Cagliari because of 95th minute goal certainly shows that something is wrong with this current Roma, if not a lot of things. The Roma hierarchy seems to believe Eusebio Di Francesco isn’t the sole reason for Roma’s woes, and Monchi’s decision to tie his fate to that of the Abruzzese manager (at least behind closed doors) puts Jim Pallotta in a bit of a bind. So here we are, a second ritiro before the New Year.

Fortunately, this Wednesday sees the Giallorossi play a match of little significance against a minnow of a side. The Champions League group stages are essentially done and dusted, with both Real Madrid and Roma guaranteed to make it into the knockout stages. Meanwhile, although FC Viktoria Plzen is theoretically still in contention with CSKA Moscow for a Europa League place, that really shouldn’t be Roma’s concern. This is a side that Roma beat 5-0 in October; to show that they haven’t lost all of their mojo, a similar score on Wednesday is necessary.

A lot is hanging on the next few matches for Roma; if things go from bad to worse, Eusebio Di Francesco may be out of a job and Champions League for 2019-2020 may become a pipe dream. The only way for Roma to rebuild from its rock-bottom present (at least for the Di Fra era) is by winning games like this one, and winning them by a lot.

That doesn’t sound too hard, does it, guys?