Roma’s Look For The New Season: Goalkeepers

The season is over, and the preparations for the new season have already been underway, players will leave and players will join, some will return after their loan spells ended and some will seek to make their loans permanent, we start from the very basic position at Roma, the Goalkeeper:

Maarten Stekelenburg: The Dutch keeper had a difficult first year in Italy, though despite rumours of him wanting out of the club, his stay in Roma is sure, he will continue to be the first choice goalkeeper for the upcoming season to come.

Bogdan Lobont: He has been at Roma for three seasons, always being used as second choice, or sometimes third choice, he’s been solid whenever coming on and he’s been content with his small role on the team, yet he might not survive to the end of his contract, recent interest from Romania, his homeland, seems attractive to him and first team football could be enough to lure him away from the capital.

Gianluca Curci: Curci never lived up to his potential, he was thought to be Roma’s future a couple of years ago, but relegation with both Siena and Sampdoria corrupted his image, his return to Roma in the summer wasn’t what he thought could be, a shambolic pre-season limited him to only 3 league appearances. He could be on his way out of Roma especially if Lobont decided to stay.

Mirko Pigliacelli: He’s been playing for the primavera and training with the first team for two seasons, and regularly getting called up to first team games, yet he never featured in any official match, and as of next season he’ll be playing for Parma after he signed a 5 year contract.

Julio Sergio: The Brazilian played last season on loan with Lecce, yet his injuries and Benassi’s good form relegated him to a second choice goalkeeper at a relegated club, Lecce won’t be making his move permanent, he’s expected to return to Roma to serve as a back-up goalkeeper if Curci and Lobont left.

Alexandru Pena: He’s been on loan away in with Dinamo Bucuresti, he didn’t feature with the first team but regularly for the B team in the Romanian second division, he’s expected to make his move their permanent or at least join another Romanian club.

Valerio Frasca: On loan at Pro Patria, a club in the Lega Pro 2, Italian fourth division, he’s been getting regular games despite not being the starting keeper, he’s expected to extend his stay there.

Roma are expected to offload some of their goalkeepers however none is expected to be signed unless all three of Lobont, Curci and Julio Sergio decided to leave, would Antonioli be a replacement? Probable players for 2012-2013 season: Stekelenburg, Lobont, Julio Sergio

It’s a “Team” Project

Last night Roma surprisingly managed to overcome a series of bad results with an away win at the San Paolo, note I said bad results and not a bad period, that is why I can’t say Roma are back because they never left. The San Paolo Stadium has been one of the toughest stadiums for the visiting sides, teams such as Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Villarreal in the champions league and Milan, Udinese, Lazio and Juventus all failed to beat Napoli at The Partenopei’s hope turf, Roma did. Roma drew with Juventus just six days before that and almost stole a win had it not been a missed penalty from Totti.This makes the first supporting idea to my point: Roma have the ability to compete with anyone.

Secondly, the table posted below shows the team rankings for the top 12 teams in Serie A during first half, for example only counting the results of the 15 match-days played at their half-time, one could easily notice that Roma are second only to Udinese in that table, also during the first 15 minutes Roma are the best around Europe. this makes another point: Roma’s squad has the right talent and quality needed to compete with the rest of Serie A.

Moreover, Roma have picked up 15 points in their 8 league games with Francesco Totti on the pitch, only 6 points in the other 7 matches. making it a 1.875 points per game in his presence and 0.86 in his absence. He might not have scored any goal so far during this season, but he provided assists, he might not have been the best player on the pitch during any of those games, or maybe he was in the Atalanta game, but his presence on the pitch brings much needed experience to a fairly young team, he spurs the rest on and keeps all in full-commitment towards the Roma cause or what is labelled as “The Project”.  The previous table shows that lack on desire costed roma dearly and some points were lost on the way. His presence is a must, he might not be speedy but he knows how to protect a ball and play balls through. Third point made: Totti is a must on the field.

This Video shows more and more of Osvaldo’s love of Roma’s history, he didn’t only imitate Batistuta’s machine gun celebration, Totti’s “Vi Ho Purgato Anchora” but he also silenced the away fans in the exact same way Batistuta did back when Mourinho was one of Barcelona’s staff members. Pablo had 7 goal scoring chances last night: he converted one, assisted another and missed the rest. He’s not the best clinical finisher around, but his technicalities strech far more, he’s not fast but he goes back and supports defenders, does the touch and run passes from the midfield line and eases pressure of the Roma midfield. Fourth thing: Tactically he’s one of the best around.

Lamela is a high-rate worker, he has the speed and the talent a legend-in-the-making needs, its up to him to show if he can fulfill his potential, last night showed that he deserves a starting place at Roma ahead of Bojan, who as well proved he’s the super-sub for this club, he always performed well when pressure wasn’t on his shoulders, if he was to make the starting eleven, he needs to throw the “Mr. Nice Guy” attitude and learn a bit from Osvaldo. Borini is also there after the Christmas break, that is why, fifth: Roma don’t need Nilmar or any other forward unless its Messi.

Leandro Greco, Daniele De Rossi, Aleandro Rosi and Federico Viviani are four players that have the talent, the confidence and the awareness a player of Roma’s quality needs, I see no reason why the first two aren’t handed extensions before the new year, while the third needs to be educated a little more defensively and the fourth needs to feel the trust he has been shown during the past two weeks and the very first 2 months of the season, they are Romans after all, they feel the cause more than anyone else: Have faith in the Romans.

Marco Cassetti, Gabriel Heinze, Juan Dos Santos, Rodrigo Taddei, Simone Perrotta, David Pizarro and Fabio Simplicio represent the wine of the club, they’re not at their best years but they all know how to grind out the win, how to position themselves and how to educate the younger players and how to act professionally. They lead the way to the others, all are essential for Roma’s Project they must remain beyond January. Seventh thought: The Old ones have character and experience, let us see the young ones playing but rely on the older ones

In addition, there’s quality players such as Stekelenburg, Jose Angel, Kjaer, Pjanic and Gago that add the best of quality for playing attacking football. All those ideas and thoughts add to one final conclusion, Roma are not short of players, the talents are there the experience is there, and all the raw material for building this project is available, the fruits of Walter Sabatini and Franco Baldini are reaping now; therefore, if we are to make a Winter signing the purchased player should have the desire before the talent, the grit before the experience and the right mentality for the Attacking football in an Italian league.

Forza Roma!