There are so many issues with this squad right now:
- Lack of solid goalkeeping. As I expected, De Sanctis declined noticeably this season. Skorupski is simply not ready. His mistake last night confirmed it.
- Lack of a solid defense. Exposed the above problem. No leaders back there, despite the experience on show. Only Manolas can hold his head high, but he still has a lot to learn. Cole is a pure flop, Holebas is very average, Maicon is crocked and will probably never regain the motivation he once had. Torosidis is also painfully average. Yanga-Mbiwa is not CL-quality and I really find it hard to consider Astori even Serie A-quality on evidence. As usual, Roma's defense is an absolute mess.
- Midfield has been absolutely abysmal - Once our strongest area. Strootman's absence, De Rossi's indifference, and Pjanic's poor form have done this area in. Nainggolan has run himself into the ground and Keita has tried to provide stability and leadership, but has failed in both areas. That said, he has been our most consistent performer in midfield. Then there's the younger players. Paredes isn't ready for prime-time, but has shown great potential. Ucan....why did we sign him again? Rudi has completely ostracized him. Fenerbahce will be getting him back in 2 years, from the looks of it.
- The forwards just can't finish - It's really that simple. Gervinho's a known quantity so his poor form doesn't surprise me. Totti has had fitness issues and simply isn't getting on the ball anywhere near as much as we need him to, that's down to teams not allowing him space because Rudi keeps deploying the same exact way every game. Iturbe looks limited without a definitive reference point like he had at Verona with Toni up front. I can't really judge him further than that. Ljajic has been good, but he's not a natural finisher and he shouldn't be expected to be. The fact that he's our top scorer says it all. Florenzi has been probably everyone's favorite Roma player this season and he has emerged surprisingly as Totti's natural successor ahead of DDR as the captain, especially due to his latest performances and his passion. He's done everything asked of him to the best of his ability. One of the very few outfielders who can hold his head high over these past few months.
The Coach - Rudi comes in for blame for failing to deal with the obvious morale issues and more importantly, with the fact that this squad has been found out by everyone they've played against this year. Sports and many other Ligue 1 aficianodos have pointed to his time at Lille as the blueprint for what we're seeing now and everyone of them were right on the money. What's worse is that he may have lost Totti's support, which means the rest of the locker room might just follow sooner or later. His days are likely numbered in Rome unless he can keep us in the CL...even then, that might not be enough to save him. Worse than his tactics though.....the single worst thing Rudi did to this team was filling their heads with the nonsense that we "will" win the scudetto this season. That was absolute poison. I firmly believe we had a great chance for challenging Juve all the way for the scudetto, but to outright win it? That was never a certainty and Rudi never should've treated it as such. This created unimaginable pressure on the players, who just weren't going to be able to live up to it. That hurt us more than any amount of goals scored ever could.
Transfers - Finally, Sabatini will likely fall on his sword and leave at the end of the season, but I honestly don't think he can be blamed for what's happened here. I didn't agree with him selling Destro, but I understood why he did it. That was 100% Rudi's fault. On paper, signing Doumbia should've solved that problem, but Walt couldn't have predicted Doumbia's poor fitness, form, and utter lack of interest when he's played. Ibarbo is probably going to be flop though, but Walt's entitled to his duds as well, as is every DS. Most importantly, I don't blame Walt for failing to sign Salah. Yes, he tore us apart yesterday for the 2nd game running, but I want to see what his long term return will be. Will he be this world-beater next season when Fiorentina have shelled out the huge sum of money for him? I really don't know. He's in a purple vein of form right now so it's hard to draw meaningful conclusions.
Like I said....this squad has many, many problems right now. Togetherness, chemistry and teamwork got us where we were last season. All of it is gone now this season and that's more damaging than any injuries or tactical setback.
That 7 - 1
I think it slowly sapped us of morale, belief, and confidence. More than anything, it gave the rest of Europe a blueprint on how to stop Roma effectively. That was the worst damage.
