Daniele De Rossi acknowledged Roma have a lot of work to do on preventative marking and service for new players after a shock home defeat to Empoli. ‘We need a better choice of formation.’
The Giallorossi were held to an opening stalemate away to Cagliari, but expected more from their first home game of the season, especially as Paulo Dybala was back in the starting XI after deciding to turn down the €75m over three year contract with Al-Qadsiah.
Instead, Empoli could easily have been 2-0 up before the Emmanuel Gyasi goal and Lorenzo Colombo penalty.
Eldor Shomurodov rose to nod in and Roma hit the woodwork three times, including with Dybala in stoppages, but they suffered their first ever top flight home defeat to Empoli.
“I need to analyse the game carefully when I watch it again, but my first impression is that we lacked energy and intensity,” De Rossi told Sky Sport Italia.
“Especially in the first half, the ball was moving around too slowly. When we made the vertical passes, the way we had prepared it, we were also dangerous.
“When you play against teams that clam up well in defence, if you pass it around slowly and don’t do the preventative marking, you lose sight of the spaces and concede on the counter-attack. Then you lose confidence and even luck isn’t on your side.”
Roma prepare for De Rossi revolution
De Rossi hinted at a possible change of the starting XI after this disappointing defeat.
“You need to run hard in football and I need to be good at choosing those who will go hard.”
Artem Dovbyk is a different type of striker to Romelu Lukaku and it was put to the coach that there wasn’t enough service from the wings.
“It’s true, their wingbacks caused us problems. I asked them to change after 20 minutes, but they kept doing it. Artem needs service in the penalty area, with a high ball. He also needs some support, because if he’s alone, it becomes impossible for him to fight the right spaces.
“We need better service, we need a better choice of formation, there are many things that we can improve. In the second half, it wasn’t a tactical change, it was just that we were desperate and ramped everything up.”
Leandro Paredes was suspended for the opening match, but had a disastrous game tonight, especially the second goal where he gave away the ball and then brought down Sebastiano Esposito.
“I had asked the players not to keep getting the ball to feet, but the counter-attacks were caused by a lack of preventative marking. I don’t think it is so much a matter of individuals or roles,” concluded De Rossi.
“It is possible to balance all these players, but you need to be focused on the preventative marking and be more aggressive. We worked on it last season, but this time we fell back into old habits.”
De Rossi doesn’t know what he is doing in my opinion. Roma need a manager who is willing to drop Cristante and Pelligrini. They are ok for the bench and nothing more. Baldanzi in the middle with Le Fee is a much better option. De Rossi biggest problem is Dybala. I am a Roma fan and I would have been happy to see him go and bring in a winger with pace. He doesn’t fit the system at all. Soulé played on the left to try to accommodate Dybala and looked out of position. I can see DDR being sacked mid-season. Allegri is available. Sarri might have been the best option to get the best out of this particular group of players but he was at Lazio so that’s impossible.
What a disgrace. This Roma is worse than last year. May the Almighty have mercy on us.
Roma needs new owners.