In&Out Palermo – Roma: turnover means victory!

Before the match, Spalletti asked his players to win to prepare better for the Europa League match against Lyon, above all after a terrible week characterized by the defeats against the French team, Napoli and Lazio in TIM Cup. So, Palermo came at a difficult time both for our team and for it, in fact it is almost certainly going to play in Serie B next year. Spalletti decided to change the formation to win again, so he lined-up Rudiger, Mario Ruis, Paredes, El Shaarawy and Grenier instead of Manolas, De Rossi, Strootman, Dzeko and Emerson Palmieri.
The real surprise of the match was Grenier, the only player bought during the last football market. At the beginning, he made some mistakes but then he played with more determination and quality. He assisted El Shaarawy who scored and gave Roma the lead after that the referee disallow Nestorovski’s goal. Paredes did not seem to be a player with a strong personality, but Grenier did. In fact, he tried to set team’s play and to build complicated plays, like the assist for “the Pharaoh”, so he has some characteristics that our midfielders do not have. Welcome Clement. We hope to see you again in action!

Just like Grenier, also Stephan El Shaarawy made a great performance for nearly an hour. His place in the field and his personality have been the subjects of discussion during this year. Well, the numbers of out “Pharaoh” respond to these criticisms, because he scored 7 goals and did 7 assist in 20 matches (when he has been lined-up as regular player), that is one goal every 179 minutes. All he needs is to feel important and to play, and if he does not, he cannot reach his highest level. I will always believe in this player and I hope he will play more games in this season.

About the negative points, I have to say that the right side did not work. Rudiger was not focused on the match that is unusual for him, since he always plays with determination and competitiveness. I think it was not a physical problem, given that he did not play last Thursday because of the red card against Villareal. In three days, he will play at Olimpico and we hope to see the usual Rudiger.
Despite the goal, Bruno Peres did not made a great performance. In fact, he did not play well neither in defense nor in attack. The impression is that he is the weakest link in the chain and the goal is just a single episode since Palermo threw the towel after Dzeko’s goal. Because of Florenzi’s injury, Peres is the only right-back we have and he has the time to show his real qualities, maybe playing with more determination and dedication to the cause.

Now, the team must focus on the Europa League match and try to overturn the deficit. It was a good idea not to line-up some regular players, even if Perotti injured and Radja had to play necessarily, but winning the match will be a challenge. In addition, it would be very helpful to have the stadium full of fans. Today this is not possible, but it would be great if Giallorossi fans were there to write a beautiful and significant portion of AS Roma’s European history and to give meaning to this championship after a terrible week. Let’s go win! FORZA ROMA!

(Alessandro Tagliaboschi translated by Chiara Trinci)