Roma from De Rossi to Juric: the two main reasons for perplexity

The Roma of the era Friedkin has accustomed us to surprising choices and to a completely peculiar timing in communicating what has been decided: we can start from the announcement of Mourinho con Fonseca still in charge to get to the final twist, the dismissal of Daniel DeRossi after only yesterday it seemed that the line was one of confirmed trust in the coach despite a championship still without successes.

The most cumbersome impression ever is that of being in the presence of aspects that have remained unsaid and discontents kept under silenceoften a strong impression around the yellow and red things: that something was creaking could be sensed for weeks, the last Totti’s prophetic words They made many people perk up their antennas but not to the point of imagining such a rapid epilogue.

What is also surprising, then, is the choice made by the ownership and management of the Giallorossi: to focus on Ivan Juric to replace De Rossi, therefore move away from the many profiles hypothesized as possible candidates for the Giallorossi bench and turn to a real outsider. Outsider because he lacks experience at the helm of a big team but, even more, surprising for the profile radically distant from that of De Rossistrong of a contract renewed last June, for three seasons and with a generous salary attached.

An apparent strength, in light of the facts, the paradox of a dismissal decided a few weeks before the end of a transfer market – until proven otherwise – built in collaboration with the technicianwith guidelines that would likely have been different with a different coach at the helm. In short, we’re talking about building a house with someone who won’t live in that same house.

Juric for De Rossi: two reasons for perplexity

The first reason for perplexity in the face of De Rossi’s farewell concerns, upstream, the give up on a project that appeared to be far-reaching: as if four days had already ruined the foundations built in recent months, as if immediate answers were expected – from an instant team – and not a more gradual process. A paradox that is linked in itself to the choice to interrupt the relationship with De Rossi and that evidently betrays more cumbersome and deep-rooted problems than the mere verification of points and the latest results.

Then there is a further passage that is disconcerting, not so present in the abstract on a practical levellooking at the squad available to Roma and the next coach Juric. That is, we move from a coach who has always said he is dedicated to dominating matches, even in terms of possession and passing, to a coach who we could place on the opposite side and who offers a more vertical style of football, made up of high pressing and counterattacks, a costly style of football that presupposes physical and athletic qualities prominently featured by its interpreters.

The external node

One aspect that worries more than others it concerns the outside lanesalso thinking back to the type of elements that Juric used at Torino on the wings, in the 3-4-2-1 that he will probably apply to his Roma. Wide players, elements able to act across the entire spectrum: nothing that meets what Roma’s squad offers today, net of elements yet to be discovered such as Dahl or Abdulhamid. Neither Angelino nor Celik seem to represent the prototype of Juric’s winger, not even the adapted El Shaarawy appears to be a completely convincing choice due to an evident problem of balance and offensive propensity of the Pharaoh.

The unknowns in this sense they abound and it is evident that Juric’s midfield will have to be discovered game after game, unlike the defense and attack that are already more readable a priori and strong with more congenial elements (Mancini, Hummels, Ndicka or Hermoso in defense, Pellegrini and Dybala behind Dovbyk up front, with Soulé as a luxury alternative to the attacking midfielders and Baldanzi as a further solution). Beyond the evaluation of the choices themselves, today, what is surprising is the timing of such a turnaround and the radical distance between profiles of the two technicians: signs, in the eyes of the fans, of an unclear and wavering direction in the management of the club.