A.S Roma are somewhat an enigma this season. They have started with a 100% record after 7
games. They finished last season strongly and where originally tipped to start
the season strongly especially after the introduction of former Lille manager
Rudi Garcia as the new man in charge. However the start of this season saw an
exodus of key players. Stekelenburg joined Fulham, PSG swooped for Marquinhos,
Barcelona chose to buy back Bojan, previous top scorer Osvaldo left for the
south of England with Southampton and Spurs bought the outrageously talented Lamela.
Many people believed that this exodus of talent would set Roma backwards, all
but two of their key assets where shown the door.
However the total value of the sales brought in just over €100
million for the Italians, this was a real testament to the reactive nature of
Roma in player recruitment and this money was invested very shrewdly by Garcia
in the replacements he brought in.
Italian cap Morgan De Sanctis replaced the Fulham bound
Stekelenburg, Maicon was brought in after an unsuccessful spell at City on a
free, Adem Ljajic came in from Fiorentina in a real coup for Roma, replacing Lamela. Another coup was landing PSV star man Kevin
Strootman, reportedly beating Manchester United to his signature. Defensively
the excellent Marquinhos was replaced by Mehdi Benatia from Udinese and Tin
Jedvaj was brought in from Croatian
cracks Dinamo Zagreb. The other two big signings where Destro from Genoa and
Gervinho from Arsenal.
Roma still made a profit on player sales of around €30million,
and some might say looked stronger after selling all their key players and
replacing them than before. Judging by the strong start to the season this
already looks to be true.
Looking at this undoubted plethora of talent it would be
very disrespectful to claim that Roma are a two man team, but when speaking
about Roma it is undeniable that two players stand out above the rest. Danielle
De Rossi & Francesco Totti. De Rossi is the highest paid player in Italy
and seems to have put his troubles that affected him last season behind him and
moved back in to the Roma starting eleven after falling out of favour when his
form dipped. The pair are few of the last one team players which has recently
become a rarity in football. Totti as he proved at the weekend in the win over
Inter seems to be mercurial. Roma could exist for another 100 years and not
have a player like him again. He is Roma’s greatest ever player and even now at
37 remains a key player for the side.
Despite being Italian football’s second top scorer, Totti
has never been comfortable as the main focal point in the Roma attack. His
strength is as a second striker, coming back to link the play, playing in
between the lines. People talk about the superb ability of Lionel Messi and the
creation of the new type of striker, the false nine but what many people do not
realise is that at Roma especially under Luciano Spalleti, Totti was one of the
first strikers to be a false nine long before the role even had that name.
Italian football has always favoured the trequarista
and the poacher combination. At
international level Totti was always partnered with a poacher type player, be
that either Inazghi or Toni. This is reflected in the fact he only managed 9
international goals for the Azzurri. At Roma however Totti has become both the trequarista and the poacher.
His movement at the weekend against Inter was key to
disrupting the Inter defence. They were unsure if they should follow him
(exposing their back line) or stay put (allowing him space to run the game).
Even when they got tight Totti’s superior skill and ball control meant that
they could not even get close and he often brought team mates into play (as
shown below.)
Also shown are two of Totti’s chalkboards from the Inter
game. Totti’s variance of position is displayed in the positions he got into
both to pass the ball and to receive the ball. What is amazing about him is
that for all the bringing into play he does for others, he does not diminish
himself as a goal threat, finishing the game with a brace in a 3-0 rout. Even at 37 he manages to both be Roma’s key
playmaker and also their key finisher.
In Britain Totti has never received the praise he has
elsewhere on the continent. This might be down to the fact that at his last
three international tournaments he never fully lived up to the hype. In 2002 in
Korea he was dismissed as Italy crashed out, and in 2004 he was banned for a
spitting incident. As Italy won in 2006 Totti was only half fit, playing with
metal plates in his ankle. He finished with only one goal (from the spot) but
still managed to finish with the most assists of the tournament and played in
every game making him a World Cup winner.
Totti’s decision to end his international career prematurely
means he has missed further chances to showcase his enormous talents on the
world stage. This matters not to the Roma faithful who correctly hold him in
massive regards. Totti has confirmed he will retire in 2016 at the age of 39 so
time is running out for fans to see the Italian in action. He and De Rossi
represent the dying embers of the breed of footballers who served one club, he
is an endangered species in world football, but is still proving at the age of
37, that he is a dangerous species for opposition defences.
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