Not much of a surprise to see Messi win the award again if I'm honest... He's been incredible throughout his whole career and he deserves to have won the 11 times he got them. Adbou said he wants to leave for Manchester United and he's just given me a reason to not want to sell him after he got the African Young Footballer of the Year award. Other than that, we've got 2 players in the team of the year which is great but unfortunately, one of them wants to leave so that's not great news. Anyway, the awards were nice to watch and I'm pretty sure that next year, even more of our players will be in the team of the year!
Against the bottom team in the league, let's just say I was expecting an easy victory and it ended up being a bit tougher than we thought. Considering how much we've struggled in the past against Spezia, I'm actually happy with a 2-1 victory and now I just hope we can keep that form going until the end of the season because we'll need it in the latter stages of the league and Champions League and TIM Cup. Roberto did well to score 2 and thank God he did otherwise we might not have gotten the win today! Credits to him though he's been scoring in almost every game he's played in this season and he has never failed to impress me and save us a couple of points so I hope he keeps going despite not getting as much game time as last season.
Every day, I'm prouder and prouder of this team. This game is just a perfect example of well we've been doing lately. That's just so great for our goal difference but our reputation as well because Bologna are not a bad side at all. What makes me sad is Kenedy. He keeps scoring and performing well but the fact that he might leave makes me think "who is going to score all those goals if he leaves?" and I'm a bit stressed about it, which is why I talked to the board about it and they allowed me to make a bit of an odd transfer that many people might just be worried about.
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I just trusted my scouts on this because he's a very young player who has never played outside of Europe but according to them, he could just be the next Adriano or Ronaldo so even though those are huge claims, I'll trust them and hope for the best. Fifteen million is a big amount so I really do hope that we'll benefit from that money spent on the field. He was on the bench against Bologna because I didn't feel it was right to start him already but you can be sure that he'll play more as the season goes on.
I'm again delighted by our defending. To think that last season and the season before the only thing we actually had to improve on was our defending, it clearly worked this season! I don't know if it's the 4-4-2 or if it's Joan Duran's arrival but we've been doing excellently well at the back. Bruno got the man of the match and deservedly so because what a performance from him too. He actually is the best left-back in the world and to think we got him on a free transfer is just out of this world, honestly. I reckon he can probably become even better than that later on so that's really exciting and again, Kenedy scored twice which in a way is great for us but in another isn't because if he does leave, we won't be able to rely on him to score.
View attachment 155542 View attachment 155541 Not much to say about this game but a great win again and ANOTHER clean sheet as well! Bruno gets his second man of the match award in two games which is amazing and I'm just really happy we got such a good result against Fiorentina, who are a really strong side for sure and could have beaten us today if we weren't careful and we were. Kenedy scored again, he just doesn't seem to really stop but no one is coming in for him yet, probably because of our 70 million asking price for him, which is good. Hopefully he won't get annoyed and will just forget about moving. We're through now to the semi-final and we'll play against Juventus and they'll want revenge for their 3-0 defeat to us earlier in the season so we'll need to do well for sure.
I brought it up time and time again when Eugene played well and today I'll just have to say it again: age does not make a difference. Look at Messi now, he's just won his 11th Ballon D'Or and he's 34 and Eugene just scored 3 goals to give us an amazing victory against Genoa. We were very dominant and despite conceding a couple of shots in the last few minutes, none of them were actually good chances for Genoa and we're just continuing our unbeaten run at the top of the league. Will that run ever end? Hopefully not! I'm confident that even if we do lose at some point though, we'll keep doing well after that. Next game is at the San Siro against Inter, a tough game considering Inter are 3rd in the league right now. I know how good they are and how good their youngsters are too so I just hope that we'll be able to get the better of them in that game.
Absolutely atrocious... This is the sort of game that just ruins seasons if I'm honest and even though I know that with the kind of lead we have this isn't that big of a deal, it's just not a good result is it? Miralem wasn't smart in this game he knew he had a yellow in the 71st and in the 73rd just makes a stupid tackle and he's off. That's football right there. It didn't really make a difference in the end because they deserved the victory so congratulations to them, they should get all the credit for that result. Anyway, we just need to be able to move on now and do our best in our next few games because obviously, losing 2-0 wasn't acceptable. For me, one of the most important aspects of football is to keep clean sheets. It just feels amazing when we go out there on the field and score goals and don't concede any, it means we've done a really good job everywhere. We had 3 in a row before this game and I hope we can get another one against Sassuolo to just properly move on from this game.
Well, thank God for that! Eugene turning up the style once again and Juan scored twice which was also nice to see because he hadn't scored in ages. We got another clean sheet which is exactly what I like to see and wanted to see after our loss to Inter so now we can nicely get back into our rhythm and win games again. We honestly never looked like we were going to lose this game or not be able to score so I was never worried and if anything I'm proud of the players for doing so well in terms of coming back from a heavy-ish loss. The league table is looking great for us right and even though I don't like looking at it because of that one loss, it's still just amazing to see the amount of goals we've scored and conceded in 23 games so far. We're more than halfway through the season and we're getting closer and closer to a 5th straight league title which will be amazing to get, basically doing the same that Chelsea has been doing in England so far.
View attachment 155386 View attachment 155385 So we got the win, which is the good part, but we got another red card, which is the bad part. We really need to stop just making those bad tackles and getting sent off every 3 games because this is just ridiculous. Honestly, we're losing our best players every couple of games because they don't know how to tackle! What's that about? Anyway, thank God for Riccardo who played incredibly well out there and Eugene once again showing that age doesn't make a difference on the field! We got another clean sheet as well which was a highlight and definitely a good thing to take away from this game considering one of our defenders got sent off!
I think it's safe to say that we kind of got away with that today. Juventus were very good but we worked hard for our goal so I'm not too bothered by the fact that we didn't win. An away goal is always better than nothing. Stephan came off injured which was the only negative in this game and he's out for 2 weeks so he'll be out for the Chelsea game too I think, which isn't great news as we go to Stamford Bridge on the 15th of February. Every single day I become prouder of this team and we just keep playing better and better. I don't know how or why but we just do. I hope it continues as we prepare to face Pisa Calcio and then Chelsea right after because I want to win the league and I want to go as far as possible in the Champions League.
View attachment 155378 View attachment 155377 Just how does this keep happening?! I don't understand! We're back to a couple of seasons ago where Radja would just get sent off every 2 or 3 games, this is ridiculous. At least we won and scored 4 goals and didn't concede a single one yet, which is good, but I'm just disappointed by our discipline on the field. Anyway, in a couple of days now we're flying to London to play against Chelsea for our Champions League First Knockout round first leg game. It will be tough that's for sure but I'm hopeful because last year, we went to Manchester to play against Manchester City in the Europa League and got a good result against them in England. We got destroyed at home later but obviously, we'll be looking to not repeat that this year. As I said in the past, I want Roma to be one of those teams who is always in the last 4 of the Champions League. Whether we make the final and win it or just make the final or make the top 4, when Roma become that team who are always in the top 4 then I'll feel happy and satisfied with what I've accomplished here in Rome.
View attachment 155375 View attachment 155374 Yes! A fantastic game! Exactly what I wanted from this game. Miralem was absolutely outstanding and showed us why he is a club legend with the winning goal. Oh and for once, there was a red card but not for us! I'm really happy we managed to get such a good victory against Chelsea and it makes us confident ahead of our next game against them when they come at the Olimpico. I have to say though, Stamford Bridge is an intimidating stadium to go to. When Chelsea are not doing well, their fans are absolutely ruthless! I guess it's just English fans... Actually no I don't mean that because I remember the Italian fans at the Olimpico when we didn't do well when I played and there's about 10 000 more people so it can definitely be very intimidating. Anyway, a great result for us as we now have a couple of league games before our TIM Cup semi-final second leg against Juventus and then some time after that, our return leg against Chelsea. This is going to be an exciting month.
The transfer window's been closed for a while now and Kenedy hasn't complained or told me anything about a transfer yet so I'll take it that he wants to stay. To be honest, why wouldn't you want to stay at a club where you score goals whenever you want and the club stays at the top of the league almost all year? Anyway, he scored twice again and Biro finally scored! He came on as a substitute a couple of times but never made much of an impact apart from making a couple of assists and finally he's scored! He is a player that I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing progress over the years because he looked great out there today. If Kenedy ends up leaving, I'm confident that we'll have an even better player in Biro to replace him. Anyway, another great victory for us, another clean sheet, and we're just running away with the league once again it looks like.
No red card! I didn't even think that would be possible! In all seriousness though, great game from us again and despite one of our former players getting the man of the match award, we did really well. Our defence once again showed why and how we are the best defence in the league by not only not conceding but one of our defenders actually scoring! It was nice to see Lucas play well especially considering his awful injury last year and clearly he's fully recovered from it which is great to see. I love what I'm doing with this team but now that we just win every game and it's going to be our 4th league title in a row, I feel like I'm slowly going to get bored... I've always been loyal to Roma but I just feel that slowly the time is coming for me to just put them behind them and go out in the world or in Europe at least to find a new challenge. I'm sure that before I retire I'll come back but right now, I'm slowly making my decision that I want to leave in the summer. We'll see if some results and just the emotions make me want to stay towards the end of the season but I just feel like I've done almost everything I could here to make us a huge team, which we are now.
What a day for me as a manager. Not only did we manage to get my 230th win as a manager on my 300th game, we also made it to the TIM Cup final! This is the first time since 2018 that we make it to the final and well, when we made it to the final that year, we won it, so it makes me very confident! Biro was outstanding too and really justified the amount we paid for him so that was great to see and overall, when you beat Juventus 4-1, there's always just smiles and laughs around the place. We fully deserve to go through to the final and we just completely outperformed them today. I know that after our last game in the league I said I was considering leaving the club and I still stand by that. I think the best way to say goodbye to the fans at the end of the season if I end up leaving is by winning as many trophies as we can so I'm happy we made it to another final.
Finally! I was wondering when Stephan was going to score in the league again! I know he was injured for a bit in January and February but Jesus it's been long and it's great to see him scoring again. I also can't believe we got another clean sheet, our 6th game without conceding now! The record stands at 8 right now I think, with AC Milan setting that record in 1994. Anyway, Luca was amazing today which was good to see because he was feeling a bit low after his red card a couple of weeks ago and now he's finally back at the top, performing really well. We've now guaranteed ourselves European football next season with that win as well, as we're 18 points clear of Juventus in second. It's honestly just getting ridiculous now in terms of the gaps we've had in the past 3 seasons with the runners-up. I'm definitely not complaining but where on Earth is the competition?!
What a win! I knew it wasn't going to be easy to host them at the Olimpico but we did it! We got lucky when their main striker got a red card and we just completely dominated after that despite going a goal down at first. I really have to credit Stephan because he was under so much criticism until the Pescara game a couple of weeks ago and even after that he wasn't really performing as well as people wanted him to but today he shut those people up for good. Two goals to put us 3-1 up in the game, 5-2 up in the tie and we're through to the quarter-finals. The draw for the next round is in a couple of days so now my only focus is on that, we've pretty much run away with the league anyway.
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A very, interesting draw to say the least... I think in terms of the other clubs we could have gotten, this is probably our easiest tie but we'll still need to be careful and stay focused. They're 6th in one of the best leagues in the world so they're definitely not a bad team but I just don't really know how to feel about all this. I think we only have one game against Cittadella and then one against Napoli with an international break in between and after that is the game against Valencia so I'm looking forward to that, especially considering we're playing the first leg at home.
Disappointing game for us but I'm satisfied that we got a clean sheet again. Other than that, it really wasn't a great display from us and we'll need to do better against Napoli when we play them in a couple of days. Eugene was good, but not good enough obviously. I don't really have anything else to say about this game I mean I'm happy that we at least got a point and didn't concede but it's not enough, definitely not.
Great win for us today and it really shows what our intentions are in the summer during the World Cup. I still can't wait for the tournament, especially after this game. It's also nice to see Roma youngsters come into the side and do so well for us. We looked really good and Holland were dangerous on a couple of occasions but we dealt with it really well. Weirdly enough, I've been using an old football formation, an attacking 3-2-2-3 narrow with defensive midfielders and somehow, it's working perfectly well! No specific instructions, nothing. I'm really proud of the system we're using with Italy and really happy with how things are going and again, can't wait for the World Cup so see how we'll do against the best teams in the world.
Absolutely smashed them. That gives me a lot of confidence ahead of our TIM Cup final against them because we were absolutely incredible out there tonight. It feels great to see Achraf back at his best now as he scored one and made 3 assists and overall just an amazing performance. Statistically, we don't look like we deserved to win by that margin but the result really is an accurate representation of how dominant we were on the field. We're now 8 games without conceding a goal which means we've equalled Milan's record! Just one more game without conceding and we'll actually have managed to beat a record that stood for 28 years, incredible.