Before officially inaugurating his second life as a Roma fan, Daniele De Rossi had four training sessions availableand to try to transform the defective and disheartened team that he suddenly found himself in his hands. The opportunity of a lifetime, sure, but also a practically impossible mission. Winning against Verona was the most important thing and it happened, but it is right to focus on the “how” to understand how much the DDR effect had an impact in such a short time.
Game, behaviors and words. The breakthrough attempt is contained in three concepts. The most obvious change is in the form and in a tactical idea that remains to be developed. De Rossi redesigned the defense with four men – which as the coach explained makes a man gain in front – but above all he raised the line much closer to midfield than was the case with Mourinho, when the first objective was not to take them and if we went ahead the rest of the game systematically became the defense of a fort. By any means.
The new Roma has more desire to discover so there is in the opposing half of the pitch, to launch into those spaces with verticalisations to interrupt controlled ball possession, see the initial incursion of the regenerated Karsdorp and the actions of the two goals. The team thought more about playing than fighting. More concentrated and orderly, less nervous, at least until she had the feeling of controlling the game.
Then the limits gradually appeared, which cannot be erased in four training sessions. Technical and mental deficiencies, Dybala addiction, injuries. Not even De Rossi is Harry Potter and the problems are still there, making us understand the reason for a ranking that still needs to be climbed. “In the second half we continued to do the same things but if you start turning the ball over more slowly all the teams will kill you” De Rossi summarized after the match. Roma lost courage and confidence in what they were doing and it cannot be a coincidence that it happened after the “usual” forced substitution of Dybala. Not that the Argentine had done anything in the first half, but when his teammates see him leave they feel lost and whoever comes in in his place is as if he had to carry a cross on his shoulders.
This time it was Zalewski’s turn, in the role where he played in the youth team, with mediocre results. Belotti fared worse than him and in the meantime Spinazzola also stopped, speaking of players with a particular “clinical history”. The emergency continues, even if the returns of Smalling, Ndicka, Kumbulla, Aouar, Azmoun and, have you ever seen, Renato Sanches materialize on the horizon.
On an evening as strange as it is historic, with the fans in the stadium divided between football mourning for Mourinho’s farewell and the emotion for the return home of a flag, the destiny of football has decided to give this new opportunity a chance Roma, canceling a penalty and a goal from Verona.
Something, however, has already changed clearly and it was visible at the end of the race. The way De Rossi speaks and the concepts he tries to convey inside and outside Trigoria are opposite to those used by Mourinho. We went from hearing that all the opponents for the Champions League “they have more players than us” a “We are strong and this team, even without Dybala, must win against Verona and stay higher than ninth place.”
Professional sport cannot ignore the care of mental aspects. De Rossi, who has started studying a lot in recent years, started right there. Deserving the first help that the destiny of football provided him.
2024-01-21 21:40:00
#Game #behavior #words #changed #Mourinho #Rossi
