Chapter 412: The Anxious Turin Boss
The highlight of this weekend's Serie A game was nothing to be edited into the highlights for the first 20 minutes of the opening 20 minutes, and apart from a very outrageous goal, the rest of the process was tedious to the extreme.
If the Torino side playing away from home were forgiven for using a defensive-minded tactic, then Roma, who were widely favored by the outside world before the game, were somewhat disappointing. They adhered to their usual attacking tactics, but there were a lot of mistakes today, either poor passing accuracy or problems with the coordination between the players, and the instant pass success rate in the opening stage was only 70%. Fortunately, the defensive performance without Fazio was still very good, and the visitors' counter-attacks after several break-offs were defused by them one by one.
Not only did the boring game leave the audience yawning, but even the commentators felt that there was nothing to comment on, and the Italian broadcasters even began to turn the conversation to Astori's death, and today's guest of honor is the latter's former team-mate at Roma and veteran goalkeeper De Sanctis, who retired last summer. He recalled the 2014-15 season when the Fiorentina captain had an off-field anecdote during a short loan spell at the Red Wolves, which attracted a large number of fans to divert their attention, and for a time the 22 players of the two teams on the pitch fought desperately and fiercely there.
De Sanctis's revelations came to an abrupt halt after more than ten minutes, because Astori was really low-key enough, and he had only been in the Roma team for another ten months, and there was not much to share. Fortunately, the situation on the field also changed at this time, and everyone could finally stop listening to the awkward conversation between the two people who were supposed to comment on the game.
In the 21st minute, the home side finally completed a multi-player coherent combination when Nainggolan had an undisturbed long-range opportunity from outside the box, but his luck was a little bad this time, and the ball almost grazed the crossbar and flew off the line. The Belgian international's long-range shooting skills are among the best in the entire Serie A, known for his power and angle, and Cassie was in a somewhat average state today, although he made a save, he failed to touch the ball, if it wasn't a few centimeters higher, the gate had already been breached.
With this shot, the form of the Roma players has obviously improved greatly, and they created two more chances to attack the goal in succession, but the Turkish winger Yundale, who started with Pelotti, missed twice in five minutes, wasting a good ball that was not easy to pass from the team. However, the improvement of the situation on the offensive side also made the home team gradually invest more troops in the front, so that their back line was also weakened accordingly, and the counter-attacking tactics of the Torino team finally achieved something, especially Li Mudi kept signaling the players to occasionally use high pressing, and the effect can be said to be very obvious.
In the 29th minute, the visitors made a successful steal in front, Benassi sent a through ball, because Mobile won the ball on the right side of the penalty area and suddenly fired a low left-footed shot under the marking of the opposing defender, but the angle was not too tricky, and the ball was saved by Roma goalkeeper Alisson on the ground. Seven minutes later, Torino launched a neat and quick attack after a break in midfield, when Baseli crossed from the right and Belotti volleyed in an unguarded away from the back post, but the ball went over the crossbar and missed a golden opportunity to take the lead.
A minute before half-time, the Red Bulls made a rare positional attack, but in the face of the opponent's tight defense, several passes failed to create too good chances, and finally Vukocevic came directly from a position about 30 meters from the goal outside the penalty area with a powerful long-range shot. Not to mention, the quality is still not counted, but it was still saved by Alisson, who was highly focused, and the danger was resolved. The goalkeeper, who joined the Red Wolves for €8 million in the summer of 2016, is currently valued at 45 million in authoritative media such as Transfermarkt, and is arguably one of the most promising players in the Samba Army's No. 1 goalkeeper position ahead of Ederson, who has performed well at Manchester City this season.
At half-time, neither side could score anything and returned to the dressing room with a 0-0 scoreline. Statistically, Roma has the upper hand with 60% possession and a large lead in the number of attacks, but the wind is not smooth, and the shooting data is 1 in 5 against 2 in 4, which is not as threatening as the away team. However, on the whole, the level shown by the two sides is half a catty, and no one can be sure of winning, so we can only look forward to what adjustments will be made in the second half.
Naturally, the first to change the move was only the Torino team, and Belotti was not fit enough to continue to fight on the field, and the volley he missed in the first half was largely due to the fact that the supporting foot softened at a crucial moment. Red Babe, who played the full 92 minutes on Thursday night, although his physical fitness recovered to 83% after two days of full rest, but with his desperate style of play, it dropped to 56% after halftime, even if the 15-minute break gave him a little breath, but his body still revealed fatigue. Li Mudi had to replace last season's top scorer in Serie A with Jesse, who could not contain the opponent's penalty area, but his speed and dribbling skills could be more effective in counter-attacking tactics, forming two arrows with Immobile, but the Torino manager's plan did not come to fruition.
After the rematch, the Roma team suddenly broke out with strong combat effectiveness, whether it was an individual one-on-one breakthrough or a team's success rate, there was a significant improvement, several waves of continuous offensive completely suppressed the red bull in the own half, and the situation instantly became extremely critical.
Of course, it wasn't like they were stumbling at half-time. Struggle, but the Torino players were slow to get into the groove at the beginning of the second half, and it was a hard beating when they were caught by the opponent. However, with the consumption of passive defense for a long time, the physical fitness of the away team began to have problems, and the reaction speed and enthusiasm for fighting decreased significantly.
In the 59th minute, Kolarov crossed a free kick from the left, and Diego Llorente at the back post won in the scramble with Werdale and pushed the ball out of the box, but in the battle for the second landing point, the Torino player obviously had a problem with concentration, and Florenzi won the ball on the periphery and got a direct chance to shoot from the distance. Fortunately, there were many people in the penalty area, and the shot hit Flanagant's calf and flew out of the post, but it also frightened the heartbeat rate of Cassie and others suddenly accelerated.
Three minutes later, the home side were back in action, with Schick, who had been a lackluster performer, failing to break through in a one-on-one rivalry with Canneman, but also creating a corner. Stroman's corner from the left was cleared to the other side, and Florenzi won the ball on the right and sent in a cross, and the Greek centre-back Manolas, who was ambushed at the back post, was surrounded by no defenders to close the guard, and he easily jumped high to head home. The ball slammed into the far corner with great power, leaving Cassie unable to recover from the slightly hesitant attack, and at 1-0, Roma finally broke the deadlock on the pitch and put themselves in an extremely advantageous position.
After the goal, Manolas shook off many of his team-mates who wanted to celebrate with him, ran to the sideline and knelt on the turf, pointing his fingers to the sky while saying a word to his late former team-mate Astori. Seeing this, the other Roma players also came behind the Greeks and joined in this special memorial event, and the crowd in the stadium immediately burst into applause to express their respect and remembrance for the deceased.
With the score behind, Li Mudi had to come to the sidelines to arrange new tactical arrangements. Hesse did not show the competitive form he should have after coming on, he had a fierce physical contact with Nainggolan in the 52nd minute, and hit his right leg hard, although it was a hard injury, and there was no major problem after a while, but it seemed to have a shadow on his psychology and he became afraid to fight against the opposing player anymore. After returning to the Bernabeu last summer, he regained his glass physique, and at the end of September he recuperated for two and a half months due to a serious knee injury, and it was not until he was loaned back to Turin that he regained some form after a long training session.
A series of injuries and a long-term inability to play at Real Madrid have caused him to decline both in terms of potential and current ability. At the end of last year, Li Mudi checked through scouting tools that Hesse's double value has become 140 and 152, which is lower than when he played for the Red Bulls last season. And just after his 25th birthday, he has passed the high-speed growth period of a striker player, if it were not for Ronaldo's particularly diligent professional player model, the growth of football skills would basically be in a state of stagnation, at most it can increase by three or four points, basically not up to the level of being selected for the Spanish national team. If you join a mid-table team in La Liga, you can still be the core and main force, but in a strong team, it is the fate of rotating players.
Li Muddy wanted to save the former Real Madrid standard-bearer, so he loaned Jesse to Zizou last season and found an opportunity to get back on track after a season of hard work. But the inertia of history is indeed too strong, in just half a year, it wiped out all the efforts of the Torino coach, and Hesse, who was riddled with injuries again, finally became him in the original history, losing the speed and aura that amazed the world when he first debuted, and the shortcomings of his physique far worse than that of normal athletes have never been solved, and the extremely vulnerable Buff is too fatal for a player who has just entered the peak of his career, both physically and psychologically, will destroy him.
With Jesse on the pitch now, onlookers can easily see that he is trying to avoid physical confrontations, facing the opposition players when dribbling the ball, almost always trying to break through and passing the ball to his teammates as soon as he finds that he needs to take some risks. In the counterattack, he also took advantage of the speed of the opponent's defender to take a big stride, and was easily cracked by others. In this way, after losing this counter-attacking point, the Roma players could focus most of their defensive attention on Immobile, resulting in the few counter-attacks of the Torino team failing to produce quality, increasing the pressure on their own backline.
In the 70th minute, after seeing that Hesse chose to retreat in a 50-50% scramble opportunity, Li Mudi had no choice but to replace Hesse, who had only played 20 minutes, with the team's academy winger Parrijini. The latter's mood was obviously very low, but he also knew what his problems were, and did not lose his temper with the manager, and the Torino coach also gently hugged his beloved apprentice and comforted him. At this time, Li Mudi's psychology is full of emotion, he very much hopes to do everything possible to help this former hopeful star who has known him for many years, but at present, the team's various affairs have made him feel anxious, and the schedule is so urgent, I really don't know how to squeeze out extra time, I can only watch Hesse continue the sluggish state, and his heart is really uncomfortable.
However, his emotion did not last long, because the situation on the field changed dramatically, which directly increased the difficulty of the away team's equaliser by several levels.
After taking the lead, Roma did not slow down their attacking efforts, but continued to put pressure on the visitors' defence in the hope of scoring a second goal as soon as possible to seal the win, allowing the boss to make changes to his squad in preparation for the Champions League clash three days later. In the 67th minute, Schick sent a through ball, Kolarov burst into the left side of the penalty area and fired a shot from a tight angle that was blocked by Kassi.
Two minutes later, Kolarov's through ball found Nainggolan, who won the ball on the right side of the box and crossed down the middle, with Florenzi's follow-up shot just over the bar.
In the 73rd minute, Florenzi's cross from the right was blocked, Nainggolan headed the ball from the edge of the penalty area, but after the ball, Benassi was knocked to the ground, the referee blew the game and came to the foul site, showed the Torino midfielder the second yellow card he got today, and sent it off with two yellows and one red, and the red bulls could only respond with ten men in the remaining game time.
The helpless Li Mudi had no choice but to take over the organization of Baseli's position, otherwise the team's offense would be paralyzed, and he could only rely on the unreliable long pass in the backfield to let the two forwards sprint. He then replaced England right-back Vranagan with a better attacking spell in the hope of adding to the team's attacking style, but the substitution resulted in the visitors conceding a second goal.
In the 92nd minute, the Torino team, gritting their teeth and trying to score a goal in the final moments, failed to attack, and was hit by the home team with a fatal counterattack. Nainggolan dribbled to the top of the box and caught the attention of all defenders before sending a diagonal cross to the left. Because Silvestri assisted and failed to return in time, Pellegrini, who had just come on as a substitute, easily won the ball and burst into the penalty area, facing Casillas who was waiting for him, and the ball flew straight into the bottom left corner of the goal like a cannonball.
2-0, the Roma team completely sealed the victory in injury time, and at the same time won two consecutive victories, it also ended the opponent's nine-round unbeaten run, and the points difference between the two sides also returned to five points, and the suspense of Champions League qualification suddenly improved significantly.