Serie A 2013-14 Season Thread

So Totti as a false 9 right? Or is he right at the top as the base of the attack?

Yep, pardon, most of the times it's a 433 only on paper, sort of a 4312 in reality with Totti playing in the hole, more like a true 10 than a false 9.

It becomes more of a 433 at times with Totti positioning himself on the flank, or with him out and Borriello in.

There's no way Roma will last at the top of the table.

They are already talking about getting some new signings in January, such as Rami from Valencia.

abundance wrote:Yep, pardon, most of the times it's a 433 only on paper, sort of a 4312 in reality with Totti playing in the hole, more like a true 10 than a false 9.

It becomes more of a 433 at times with Totti positioning himself on the flank, or with him out and Borriello in.

That is spot on. Totti seems to have gone back to his original role, plays in the hole and focuses in creating rather than scoring. And he is doing it brilliantly, he has 6 assists in 6 games!

Inter will have to focus on stopping him, but that is easier said than done. It might make more sense to focus on cutting off his supply, and that means closing space to the 3 quality midfielders Roma has... De Rossi, Pjanic and Strootman - that's where this game will be decided, the midfield. Unfortunately, Roma's midfield is far better than ours.

@Bobo, yeah, I don't see Roma lasting the distance... Juve will pull away from them. Not because of their inconsistency of old, coz I think they have already proven that this is a new Roma, but because of lack of depth. I guess the true test will be when/if the Roma midfield 3 start getting injured. But if they get a couple of top signings in Jan, then who knows...

What a strike by Totti! As sweet as they come. Inter trails 0-1

Inter getting their pants taken down, 3-0 HT

Indeed! No better way to describe it

Murray wrote:Inter getting their pants taken down, 3-0 HT

Strootman is going to develop into a beast of a midfielder!

Tactically astute, blessed with physical qualities(height, power, good pace etc), and can pull off Xabi Alonso like forward passes.

Too bad we didn't sign him in the summer.

 

Stop trolling!! I think it's more of a weakness of the league when Strootman is your best player.

He is an average, cynical player that emulates van Bommel!

Muntari scored after 19 seconds  

Roma under Rudi Garcia: Played: 7, won: 7, scored: 20, conceded: 1. #Roma

He also seems to have the magic potion for Gervinho

Milan were pretty good in the first and last minute, shame for them Juventus were better in the minutes between that.

Anyway, Mexes yesterday..he used to be such a talent in 01/02 Championship Manager.



  

Romford Pele wrote:Roma under Rudi Garcia: Played: 7, won: 7, scored: 20, conceded: 1. #Roma

He also seems to have the magic potion for Gervinho

They were saying in the European Football Show that Garcia had worked with Gervinho at Lille, and he simply knows how to get the best out of him (kind of similar to Gilardino with Prandelli).

Murray wrote:Inter getting their pants taken down, 3-0 HT

Inter were just put in our place. Our squad is not good enough to challenge the big boys, and we have been punching above our weight so far. Roma were just far more clinical, and had more class. We just had no answer to their midfield, and the brilliance of Totti. That said, it wasn't a particularly bad performance by Inter, we play as well as we have done so far this season... we just came across a better team, who were in form.

Its not a setback, really. Our season will be defined by how we do against the smaller teams, rather than what we do against the big ones. If we keep beating the teams we are expected to beat, I will be happy with the progress we have made under Mazzarri. We have a run of "easier" games coming up, against teams which cannot exploit our weaknesses as well as Roma could, so hoping that we keep our head above the water and gather some points....

Massimo Moratti to sell 70% of Internazionale for £300m

• 'Everything has been signed,' says Inter president
• Indonesian buyer is part owner of DC United

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/15/massimo-moratti-sale-internazionale

Another European league being taken over by foreign owners?  

Inter got bought by some Indonesian dude..without Ghadaffi, Morrati doesnt like to pay for it it seems. Could be good news for the serie A!

What's it got to do with Ghadaffi?

First Roma and now Inter. Hopefully Berlusconi can be persuaded to do the same. It would be great for the league. I think Roma has started a positive trend which can help revitalize Italian football if others follow suit.

yay, it's done.
about time, it's been like nine months in the making.


so long Moratti, and thanks for all the fish

Murray wrote:What's it got to do with Ghadaffi?

His company got 70% of it's revenue from Libya, mainly oil products. After Ghadaffi was gone, so was most of the deal. So, yeah I could see this coming.

Fey wrote:

Murray wrote:What's it got to do with Ghadaffi?

His company got 70% of it's revenue from Libya, mainly oil products. After Ghadaffi was gone, so was most of the deal. So, yeah I could see this coming.

uh? no I don't think that's accurate.

For what I know Libya was mostly in business with Eni, for natural gas.

Moratti's family company is Saras, which is all about oil refinement.

It's just that european and mediterranean oil refineries business is shrinking since more than a decade, and it won't go up again.
Europe-based operations are at a competitive disadvantage with global competition (americas, middle east, far east) on all fronts - labour cost, logistics, geopolitical issues regulating crude prices... they are also falling way back on tech and infrastructure improvements as those would require huge investments that are not justified anymore. Aggressive far east competition since the turning of the century has just delivered the final blow.
So for whoever is in this business the outlook it's either shutting down or get bought by the russians.

On a personal wealth point of view, the Moratti's family members got a last boost when they managed to make their company public in 2006 with an IPO at a wildly inflated price (shares went down 13% the day after and are currently 84% down).

Still it was clear since years that the family couldn't allow their boy Massimo to keep his football toy any longer.

Fey wrote:Inter got bought by some Indonesian dude..without Ghadaffi, Morrati doesnt like to pay for it  it seems. Could be good news for the serie A!

 
And you like Juventus, the club where Ghadafi actually had a formal stake in and his son was a board member... hmmm.... the eyes see only what the mind allows them to see

abundance wrote:
Still it was clear since years that the family couldn't allow their boy Massimo to keep his football toy any longer.

I am fond of Moratti, like most interisti, but I think this was a long time coming... I wish this had happened in the summer, but it is also quite likely that Inter's summer moves had Thohir's approval. Now Inter will have 300m in their bank (I think this deal is about additional shares / preferential shares, so Inter get this money, not Moratti - a parting gift from Inter's favorite son).

Speculation is high on who Inter will target in the winter... Nainggolan seems the most likely target, with this Indonesian roots, he could be a "gift" to Inter fans as well as Indonesian fans. But I suspect that Thohir plans to invest the bulk of this money on infrastructure projects (new stadium?) and revenue generation, rather than the transfer market - which is the right thing to do.

Agnelli predictably took a dig at Indonesians - it was fun reading the reactions at Juve's Indonesian fan club's forum.  

bluenine wrote:I am fond of Moratti, like most interisti, but I think this was a long time coming... I wish this had happened in the summer, but it is also quite likely that Inter's summer moves had Thohir's approval.

Mmmh I don't know, I'm among the interisti that have never been that fond of Moratti, but I think it would've been sad if he left just after last season disaster.
I'm happy that he had the chance to turn in the club in a more stable state.

Regarding Thohir's approval, it feels like he's still very far from getting into the technical side of the club management. I don't think his eventual input went much further than having a say on the budget.

bluenine wrote:Now Inter will have 300m in their bank (I think this deal is about additional shares / preferential shares, so Inter get this money, not Moratti - a parting gift from Inter's favorite son).

Erm, I believe all that money is just to cover debts. Which is still a good thing, but don't expect us to have much cash at hand for some years.

bluenine wrote:Agnelli predictably took a dig at Indonesians - it was fun reading the reactions at Juve's Indonesian fan club's forum.  

LOL, heard that. Usual (lack of) class from the pimply kid....


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abundance wrote:uh? no I don't think that's accurate.

For the sake of it, it seems I was wrong as well.
Saras did indeed had important interests in Lybia as they sourced 30~40% of their crude from there. Losing that during the revolution had indeed been a problem as it was cheaper than substitute sources. Anyway that has been just one of their many problems in the last years.

abundance wrote:

bluenine wrote:I am fond of Moratti, like most interisti, but I think this was a long time coming... I wish this had happened in the summer, but it is also quite likely that Inter's summer moves had Thohir's approval.

Mmmh I don't know, I'm among the interisti that have never been that fond of Moratti, but I think it would've been sad if he left just after last season disaster.
I'm happy that he had the chance to turn in the club in a more stable state.

I am not fond of Moratti for his sound decision making or his competent management... those have been extremely frustrating aspects of his era in the last 2 decades. If it was anyone else, I would probably be calling for his head...

But inspite of that, there are certain aspects to Massimo which make be very fond of him, apart from the family name. His love for the club is foremost, he has spent over a billion underwriting Inter, even at times when he could ill afford it. It is quite unbelievable in this modern capitalistic world for such a thing to happen. It would have been far easier for him to cut his losses, sell of his interest in Inter and abandon the club in as bad a state as he took over. Just for standing by the club at great personal expense, specially in the last few years, is admirable. Even now, the deal he has struck is one which favours Inter, rather than getting some of his money back.

For that, and for the treble, Moratti will always be an Inter legend for me.

http://forzaitalianfootball.com/2013/10/ranking-francesco-totti-in-italian-football-doesnt-make-sense/#.Ul9tAPVDNig.twitter

Found this an enjoyable read though not sure how much weight it holds.

One of my all time favourites

Great free kick by Pjanic, 1-0 Roma

Is no one else watching it?

Cannavaro gifted the game to Roma.

   

WHAT A GAME MES AMIS!

What a fucking game! What a comeback, FFS! 

Woof!!!!!!!!!!!!!