Serie A, AS Roma-LAZIO, Sunday, 6-12-09

If we would have shown yesterdays attitude in every match we would be in a much better situation...
Yesterday we lost, but I saw a team one can be proud of and that is the reason why we should hold our heads high!
If the team will be able to take on the upcoming matches with the same engagement I am pretty sure we will leave this misery behind us before christmas...
Forza Lazio!!!

...not only we lost the derby, but also the entire midfield for then next match again Genoa.

Matuzalem injured, Baronio and Mauri yellow cards and are out of the clash.

"Invictus" by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

A power outage in my town resulted in no internet anywhere and thus, no chance of seeing the game. I can't say the result surprises me; although I had a nightmare where we lost 3-0, I think a goal either way or none at all was likely.

People are now rambling on about the stats. I'm going to say what I've said for the last 3-6 months because if it wasn't obvious thus far, it should be after the derby.

- Our defence was never the problem, it is and remains our midfield.

- Foggia is not the superhero many believe him to be.

- Matuzalem has become key to how we play but 8million for an injury prone midfielder was always going to be a risk.

- Rocchi is tumbling over that hill; his legs are gone, it's nothing to do with the Olympic injury.

- One season is Serie A does not warrant a 20million price tag. Zarate is quality but even if he is up to that price tag, that money could have been better spent elsewhere. His loss in confidence is spectacular but was to be expected. His signature was a positive long-term move propelled by 95% of fans desire for him to deliver in the short-term. Not many here have the right to complain about his selfishness now; firstly because it's not deliberate selfishness and secondly because you praised him when his "selfishness" was firing us to a Coppa and derby win.

- A Lotito-Ballardini-Tare combo equals exposed, due to their respective personalities more than anything. I don't believe people give Rossi enough credit for how he chose to expose and protect his players at precisely the right moments.

- A bad atmosphere from not selling Pandev and Ledesma and casting others aside would always lead us to where we are. Rioma had similar issues but a change of coach deflected attention from that and now they are chasing a CL place. If we did what we should have done, there is no reason why we couldn't find ourselves where they are right now.

Now, those are the issues I foresaw. There are others I missed such as;

- Cruz's complete ineffectiveness. A loss of pace and increased fatigue is excusable for a dynamic forward like Tommaso but having moved to Lazio of all places, I expected Julio to be bristling with energy, motivated and to be firing on all cylinders. This hasn't happened.

- Radu has turned his career around which is a huge plus for the team. I'm sorry but Ballardini deserves credit for this. It's not his ability that has altered but most definitely his mentality which is why I have to attribute that development to the coach.

- The indiscipline of our side is not something I foresaw. Perhaps it is due to frustration and a lack of youth but it is something Ballardini is very much guilty of not sorting out.

- The controversial one; Cribari and Stendardo playing in this side. I'm pinpointing this for one reason and one reason alone; how did Emilson and Guglielmo make amends with Lotito where Pandev and Ledesma failed to? Fair dues, Stendardo settled his court issues but Cribari? I don't understand this one, admittedly, but seemingly nobody else does either despite numerous claims that it's Lotito's fault. I've been struggling to see how recently.

All in all though, the vast majority of these cases can be fixed in January, if not them all. I expect we won't sort it out fully but I am hopeful that we can ride out the remainder of our games and come back in 2010 with fresh, renewed optimism.

Forza Lazio! Derbies are there to be won and lost, yesterday the latter occurred but our day will come. We are still the first and only team of Rome.

Grazie.

Roman_Eagle wrote:

there was a foul on a Lazio (player can't say who) before they score. can say we didn't deserve to lose. FORZA LAZIO

i totally agree... a fk in attack and a fk in defense that allowed riomma to score... i hate them so much!!!!

Mostly agreed with Caxi but son, defence was and still is a problem.

However the once that were stars last season are shadows now, what the fuck happened.

Amir wrote:

...not only we lost the derby, but also the entire midfield for then next match again Genoa.

Matuzalem injured, Baronio and Mauri yellow cards and are out of the clash.

We still have Brocchi, Foggia, Kolarov, Licht, maybe even Dabo fully recovered and Meghni might be fit. Who knows, maybe Matu's injury isn't too serious.

Jofo wrote:

Mostly agreed with Caxi but son, defence was and still is a problem.

However the once that were stars last season are shadows now, what the fuck happened.

You could say every area of the team is a problem but midfield, for me, is detrimental. Last season we were attacking and the defence suffered, this season we are defending and the attack suffers. The boys in the middle look incapable of doing the two things at once.

Jofo wrote:

Mostly agreed with Caxi but son, defence was and still is a problem.

With the "comeback" of Stendardo the defence was a problem, but no longer is (hopefully)!
I really think he adds much quality and structure to the game...for me he is the "winner" of the past weeks (since one can call somebody a winner these days)...
Anyway, this has nothing to do with the thread, but I had to say it it just suckz, that we lost...

After the first 15 minutes,I knew that we'll draw or lose.When I saw that Baronio is our captain,I was seriously thinking about our future.It's not enough just to fight,you have to do it with your head and like a team.Cause without team work you cannot achieve nothing.Until we have in the squad players like Baronio,Mauri,Cruz,Siviglia,Cribari,I think we can't be even a mid-table club.All my respect to this players,but they're not for Lazio.Why don't we give a chance to the youngsters?Where is Firmani?

I am almost speechless about the result. Hurts so much.
With regard to the performance, that least that can be said is that the team fought and worked hard. We played very defensively but still had in my opinion the upper hand for most parts of the game, if only Mauri could have scored.

Again i agree with almost all of what Caxi said. None more so than what you said about Radu.

Imagine we had sold him to Palermo which was very much on the cards!

I think its about time Meghni gets his long over-due chance, if know one else is performing then why the hell can he not get a chance?

conceicao14 wrote:

Did I forget to tell everyone that Totti is a son of a b*tch? Well he is. Remember that. Stupid attitude by Totti. ...... pointing his fingers down like we will get relegated.

Ballardini tactics are poor. He should have bought on Rocchi 60th - 70th minute. Lone striker? WHat was he thinking of.

What Totti did is fully understandible... Well he pointed down with the meaning that Lazio is going in that direction... Remember that he hates Lazio and loves rioma... Its good for the derby....

Painful loss, I'm having a hard time getting over this. Thinking about it over and over again. Guess I don't have the energy to write anything more about it.

To say mine regarding Caxi's post is a bit difficult since I think many (all?) of the reasons could be summed up with: the management. But if I were to leave that out, and only focuse on what's going on at the pitch, I would say that what we miss a competative side. Already in August I think it became pretty clear that our squad was not near the quality from last year.

Most of the explenations has already been said but from my point of view I would like to pick out five things. And once again, this is only looking at what's going on at the pitch (which is far from our biggest problem...).

5. The defence. Horrible from time to time. Started of posetive but later it became clear that the players haven't got the individual qualitys to fulfill Ballardini's tactical wishes. Also Delio Rossi had huge problems with the defence, maybe even bigger. My believe is that Rozehnal was our best center back together with Siviglia. As long as we play with Stendardo and Diakité I'm afraid our defence won't take any step in the right direction. Both played a great derby, especially Diakité, but when they are left alone in games where we're suppose to attack I think they will face big problems.

4. Ballardini. I never asked for him to get fired, mainly because I don't think it's his fault that he hasn't got the quality in an extra large squad with several players unhappy with the situation. I guess however that he has got enough chances now, so I can't say I would be dissappointed if he gets fired. However, in the derby I think he organized it pretty well in both defence and midfield. Having Mauri as a second, deepgoing striker when attacking was a pretty good move considering Rocchi is out of shape and that we lack other options. The problem however is that Mauri is one of few that attacks in that way - and he can't score when he gets the chance. This is a problem Ballardinis has to take the blame for. Another, and more important one, is that he seems incapable of taking independent decisions. To me it seems he's controlled by the management, that's one of the reasons why he's still here.

3. Pandev. I can't help to think what it would have ment to have his qualitys in the derby. We miss a secunda punta, badly. And Pandev was perfect for that role. Zárate always was on his best when playing along Pandev, so I don't think it's a coincidence that he hasn't been himself so far.

2. The lack of dept. Out De Silvestri - in Scaloni. Out Rozehnal - in no one. Out Pandev - in Cruz. Out Ledesma - in no one. And then we're taking on Europa League. Pretty obvious it wasn't going to work.

1. Ledesma. The midfield was mentioned as the biggest problem, which I partly agree with. I don't think it's a secret that i valued Ledesma very high from the start and always defended him when he was out of shape. Already when Rossi was forced to play without him you could see how much we suffered. Now Ballardini had to replace one of Serie A:s best midfielders with Roberto Baronio. Roberto did a great job, but he's simply not Ledesma. I think I said during the late summer that Lazio's midfield is 50 % less without Ledesma and I will stick with that. We miss him ridiculously much.

Sile wrote:

Amir wrote:

...not only we lost the derby, but also the entire midfield for then next match again Genoa.

Matuzalem injured, Baronio and Mauri yellow cards and are out of the clash.

We still have Brocchi, Foggia, Kolarov, Licht, maybe even Dabo fully recovered and Meghni might be fit. Who knows, maybe Matu's injury isn't too serious.

I just read that Matuzalem will be out for a month.

we start the game with five players in defence and they do very good,diakite was perfect(he stop the vucinic very easy-whithout fouls)realy great game of him,radu also-very cool-like a leader whith a lot of expirience,stendardo-he s second or third game in the seasson but like he was playing whithout al seasson as the starter(very smart game of him),even if we need to get some player in defence(cribari and sivighla had no place more,not someone of this three guys).kolarov had a good game(but if talking of who is selfish in our team than nr. 1 is kollarov-not zarate(who is atacker-which could be normal to be selfish),but kolarov?(maybe wish(which is my personal opinion to score goal nr 3000 is the reason)he is defending player-need to give ball faster.muslera-no comment(hope that we will have him for the long time).
and now our main problem: no creativite in the middle,our only player who take the ball(and knows what to do whith them)and try to do something was matuzalem.brochi is the fighter(but one fighter in middle is enough),baronio-mauri-lost.
with these middle we can not expect to much of atacker,this is one(not complete reasson)why they are selfish,they forced to do it alone.foggia is midlle-atacking player,matu is classic middle player-there s the diference(dont except from foggia to take the ball in 20 meter and to fight then to create the action-he could do that,matu can).but foggia can make assist when he play one or one(or two)when he had where to give the ball-like no one in our this team,but agains al defence he could do nothing(not him but in that position maybe only ronaldo or messi can play alone against the other team).
wings was solid,but for these tactic you need to have two atacking wings-we have onle one(whith all my respect to lichty)-kolarov.
the team played good game,but why i was angry:when we push them we create(unleast)something-and they looks lost,why ballardini after this again wanted defence from our players?why after losing 1-0 we stil play whith five man in defence?why in this kind of game(even in the last 15-20 min meghni was not in together wthith foggia and rocchi)?and again why and why ballardini we play same every game(is the diference playing agains inter-roma-juve and palermo-samp-bari,home or away)is the diference(big one).and once again the question: if balla wanted to play this tactik(5-4-1)why he left de silvestri to go.and until where why will base our game in baronio,or zarate solo or kolarov shots from every position?maybe balla will be good coach one day(but he need to learn a lot)and how will coast us?i dont know.
we had the chance-we missed,they had and scored,end of the story