Stopped since the beginning of March, in doubt with Ternana: Oddo evaluates whether to risk it immediately or wait longer
A month without Radja Nainggolan. A month yes, provided the Ninja manages to put minutes in the match which – first of many – can really be worth a season, the one against Ternana next Saturday. Nainggolan was hurt against Frosinone on 1 March: Oddo replaced him with a problem in his right calf, then the first degree injury was discovered. Radja is not a kid (34 years old). But when he has the ball on him he still paints. Especially in the Serie B atelier. And that’s why Spal would like him from the 1st minute against Ternana. But caution could say something else: there are eight games to go until the end of the championship, the standings are a burning ember and risking the Belgian early would mean saying goodbye for the rest of the season. With a consequent increase in the sinking percentages of the team. Moral: it is rebus-Nainggolan.
Radja has played 5 games to date (debut on 4 February, Spal-Bari), thought about football for 341′, scored a goal and provided an assist right on his debut. There was still Daniele De Rossi, his friend in Rome who became a coach and then a magnet in that February which rekindled the hopes of a Spal gripped by thoughts and second thoughts, technical and managerial changes, absences, transfers (Esposito) and injuries, a presidency that there was and that perhaps Ferrara would like even more massive, that of Joe Tacopina. But by dint of losing and drawing (the matches won are 6 out of 30), the club that belonged to the Colombarini is seeing witches and monsters, fighting against what is the worst sentence that a team bottom in the standings can know: resignation. But Oddo is not one to give up. And even less Pepito Rossi. And even less a “fighter” like Nainggolan: who evaluates if with Ternana it is the right time to return.
Last week Radja began to increase his loads, which have gradually increased in recent days according to the most classic of personalized programs: the match on April 1st against Ternana will have to be one of redemption, and this is why Radja is so tempted total from being able to lend a hand to a club that will keep it until June and then we’ll see (based on salvation and will). «I came to Spal for Daniele De Rossi and after two days they sent him away – the Ninja told Corsera -. If it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t even have thought about it. I thought about it and in the end I stayed, despite everything. I have to help them save themselves.” The period is decisive in this long thrill before and after Pasquale: Ternana on Saturday, then away to Benevento on the 10th, then Brescia at the “Mazza” on the 15th. Spal wonders: it’s better to insert it immediately against Ternana or “zero risk ” and “zero minutes” in view of the sprint? That’s the whole puzzle. Beating Ternana – for Spal – would be the classic “self-motivational explosion”: but not at the cost of losing men. To date, coach Oddo is suspended in the limbo of the most classic of ballots, 50% plays and 50% better not to risk it; because if there is a chance to save, well, with Radja and Pepito in decider-mode those chances will double in the long run. And Oddo wants to have the perfect arsenal for the final duels. Radja has a clear mission: to enter, never to leave again. And provoke: shocks of salvation. Ah, Spal is the only B team to have never had a penalty in favor. Quite a curious thing after thirty races. Certainly Radja (and Pepito too) knows how to beat penalties… All you need is – precisely – the saving spark.
March 29 – 10:40 am
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