In Serie A, there is one side this season that can justifiably hang a “work in progress” sign over the gate of their training ground – AS Roma. With a new owner in American Thomas DiBenedetto, a new manager in Spanish boss Luis Enrique, and a series of new players, Roma can legitimately expect time to be needed for this group to gel.
Luis Enrique grew up as a coach with a typical Barcelona mentality and arrived in Italy with the clear intention of implementing the football his Barcelona B team had played at La Masia. The Spaniard though overlooked the fact that the situation in Italy is a little different to that in his homeland. When the former utility man landed in the summer, he revolutionised the club’s training methods and set about making changes to the team.
Summer friendlies were not a portent of hope for the Giallorossi, but the biggest blow came in qualifying for the Europa League where Roma were knocked out by minnows Slovan Bratislava. Enrique’s men lost 1-0 in Slovakia due in part to an error by Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, though it was widely assumed the Italians would quickly overcome the deficit back on home soil.
But in La Capitale, the Giallorossi drew 1-1, heading out of Europe in mid-August, a real disappointment for a side of Roma’s standing. That night was particularly bad for Enrique, who replaced club icon Francesco Totti with a player from Roma’s youth team in the second half. Just minutes later, Slovan Bratislava equalised – the shock was on.
At Roma, disputes with Totti are a rocky road for a manager to embark upon as the former Italy international is a “primadonna” in La Capitale and is always backed by the fans of Curva Sud, the core of Roma’s ultras. In recent years, managers Claudio Ranieri, Luciano Spalletti and Zdenek Zeman all clashed with Totti, but none were able to drop him from the starting eleven. In Roma, turning against Totti is akin to turning against the fans and the result for a coach is not hard to imagine.
Totti, nearly 35, is not at his best, but remains the unrivalled leader of the team. The club icon aside, Enrique appears to be doing a good job of trying to change a mentality of defensive football that is part of Italy’s football culture. The Spaniard is a confirmed fan of the 4-3-3 system, just as Josep Guardiola at Barcelona, but unfortunately does not have the same pieces to slot into his jigsaw as Guardiola at the Camp Nou.
Roma’s Serie A opener was as poor as the match against Slovan Bratislava, with the Giallorossi losing 2-1 at home to Cagliari. The fans though appreciated Enrique’s work and at the end of the 90 minutes applauded the coach and the players for their efforts.
Next up, a trip to the San Siro to face Inter was, tactically speaking, intriguing. Enrique played a 4-3-3 with two midfielders, Rodrigo Taddei and Simone Perrotta, as left back and right back respectively. Only Nicolas Burdisso and Simon Kjaer were the side’s true defenders, but when Roma had the ball, Daniele De Rossi drew back as a holding player, taking a role known as “centromediano metodista” in Italy in the past. In the meantime, Taddei and Perrotta advanced into the midfield and Roma had five players in the centre of the park compared to Inter’s three.
The final result may have been 0-0, but Roma played better football than the Nerazzurri and, importantly, showed they have a project.
Totti was reinstated up front by Enrique and the experienced Marco Borriello was replaced by young striker Fabio Borini.
Enrique’s task at Roma does not look an easy one, a fact only underlined by the club’s 1-1 home draw against lowly Siena in midweek, but the coach has the support of DiBenedetto. Nevertheless problems will undoubtedly arise again when Enrique opts to omit Totti because, in Roma, the one thing that cannot be done is to question the 34-year-old "primadonna".
