The King of Rome

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09/06/2019

Roma completed an amazing double as they won both the Serie A and now the TIM Cup after one of the most amazing games of the season against Juventus. I Giallorossi went 1-0 up inside 10 minutes before Juventus equalised as the half-time score was 1-1. The game then continued on as Roma scored to make it 2-1 before Juventus once again equalised to make it 2-2 and then took the lead to make it 3-2 but Roma vice-captain Lazaar was having none of it and made it 3-3 in the 89th minute before Konoplyanka and Kostic ended up both scoring in extra-time to make it 5-3 and gift Roma yet another trophy this season. It was an absolutely ridiculous game to end an amazing season as Juventus finished 3rd, and lost in a final, something which no one would have expected at the end of the season, and Roma finally won the league.

A priceless victory against our rivals; I was so happy when that final whistle came. What a moment. We enjoyed winning the Serie A just last week and we were all so eager to just play Juventus and try to win that game too and we really just gave our all (at least the players did) and we ended up getting the win. It's an absolutely amazing day for this club and overall an amazing season for this club as we hadn't won a single trophy in a very long time but finally that drought is over and now we can move on to better things and hopefully retain our title next year and do really well in the Champions League as well.

 
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18/06/2019
Season review and awards

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An amazing awards ceremony bringing this season to an end. I think the amount of awards we featured in really goes to show how well we did this season and how much we deserve to be considered a very serious title contender for next year as well. I'm incredibly excited about next season and the transfer window opening to bring in some amazing new players and/or experienced players as well and just overall get the season started and compete in the Champions League. I got knocked out quite early on with Inter and now that I'm with my boyhood club, I just want to do well and go even further than that. What a great season. Just incredible.
 
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03/07/2019
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Roma have completed their first 3 signings of the season in Javier Pastore, Lucas Hernandez and Gianluigi Donnarumma. The Argentinian midfielder comes in from PSG on a free transfer after Roma had agreed a contract with him earlier in February whilst Lucas Hernandez comes in from Tottenham for 15.75 million euros and the giant Italian goalkeeper Donnarumma signs from Napoli for 16.75 million euros. Roma fans have announced their excitement about all 3 signings as it was obvious they needed a younger goalkeeper and centre-back and are also incredibly excited about Pastore's arrival, who they believe is a world-class player who will bring a lot to the team.

Three absolutely fantastic signings; I'm excited to see all of them in training and in game during our pre-season but I'm sure all 3 of them will perform incredibly well with us. Javier is a player who's reputation has grown incredibly in his time at PSG and him joining us really boosts our reputation as well. He knows the Serie A as he played for Palermo before joining PSG which is even better for us so I'm very excited to see him in action. Lucas is a young centre-back who ended up being a reject at Tottenham but he can be sure he'll start games here and will perform. Finally, Gianluigi is just the next world's best goalkeeper. He's the next Buffon. Everyone knows that and so the fact that we got him for under 20 million euros is probably the steal of the century. Let's see what all three of them can do in the pre-season!

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20/08/2019

Roma started off their season in perfect fashion as they beat rivals Juventus 1-0 after extra-time in the Supercoppa TIM to win their first trophy of the year. El Shaarawy was the man to break the deadlock in the 98th minute and the fans will surely be very appreciative of his goal and will probably already start considering him a club icon after his 45 million euro move from Leverkusen in January of this year. Totti wins yet another trophy with Roma and can add on to an amazing cabinet which could get even bigger this season with Roma now competing in the Champions League.

A great victory and a great game to have in the middle of the pre-season. Stephan was amazing but Achraf was even better and all the new signings have already proved to be amazing. I can't wait to see what they all do in the league which starts in just about 5 days but it's going to be a great season, I can feel it.

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We suffered a few bad injuries that really will impact how the start of our season will go. Kevin and Filip are injured for a very long time and Filip was our player of the season last year for sure so that's already a huge blow. We have a lot of depth in the squad to replace him which is good but coming to Strootman, we don't really have anyone who can do a job at his position apart from Nainggolan but we all know how many bookings he gets. I'm scared we'll just have no one to replace him and leave a big gap in the defensive midfielder position. Thankfully, we brought it Pastore who could maybe play there but we'll see.

Player of the pre-season

Achraf Lazaar
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Was absolutely outstanding every single game he played in; we didn't even win all of those friendlies yet he was still ridiculously good in all the games and has definitely confirmed himself as our key player for next season. He didn't score but I'm not expecting that from a left-back so I don't really mind and it's amazing to see how well he can perform from the defence.

 
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24/08/2019

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Roma batter Genoa on opening game

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Roma have absolutely smashed Genoa for their opening game of the Serie A as they beat them 6-1 away from home with El Shaarawy scoring his first ever Roma hattrick. Kenedy also managed to get a goal and French centre-back Lucas scored on his debut as Ciprian Tatarusanu scored an unfortunate own goal. Totti will definitely be buzzing about this result as it definitely shows Roma's desire to defend their title this season as they face AC Milan next in the league. The Italian manager will also be flying to Monaco for the Champions League group stage draw which could prove to be very important as it'll heavily affect Roma's schedule and an easier group will probably be appreciated for Totti's men.

What a start to the season! We were facing Genoa once again for our first game, just like last year, and I was hoping a much better performance from them especially at home! They completely crumbled and we managed to take every opportunity we had. I congratulated Stephan for his performance and thanked him for showing the whole country how we want every Roma players to play. An incredible performance from him and the whole team and now I'm looking forward to the Champions League draw and let's just say I'm very excited. The game against AC Milan right after also gives us a chance to already assert ourselves as the team to beat in the league. Forza Roma!!!

 
Fantastic result! Hopefully a good draw and then beat AC Milan!
 
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29/08/2019

A great draw for us; we face a huge team in Barcelona and two teams that are on our level if not even less strong than us in Fenerbahce and Ajax. I'm excited to face Barcelona because it'll really test us and prove whether or not we deserve to go through to the next round and it's always great to play in Turkey. The atmosphere is amazing and it's always tough and who doesn't love a tough game of football? The Ajax game will be very good too as they have some ridiculous youth prospects and are somehow a fallen giant and will want to do well in the Champions League. I'm excited about this and hopefully we'll go through to the next round! What I do know is that there are some amazing encounters scheduled in this group stage and it'll be a great campaign to watch.

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Fantastic result! Hopefully a good draw and then beat AC Milan!

Thanks mate! A great result to kickstart the season for sure! Our Champions League games against Barcelona will be a real test for sure and yes, hopefully we'll do well against Milan :)
 
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31/08/2019

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AC Milan and Roma cancel each other out

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An exciting game between two strong teams ended as a bore draw as Roma and Milan drew 1-1 with goals from El Shaarawy and Lucas Ocampos. A big blow for Roma will be Pjanic's red card which means he'll miss the club's next game against Pescara in the Serie A, but with the likes of Pastore and Nainggolan who can also play centre midfielder, Totti will probably find a way around the problem. Roma probably deserved more from the game as they had 14 attempts all game but Milan did well to score just before half-time and hold on to a draw in the second-half. This sees Roma sit in 3rd in the league with a goal difference of 5 and Milan sit in 4th with a goal difference of 1.

I wasn't expecting a huge victory against a team like Milan and I'll have to be disappointed that we didn't even get the 3 points but a draw isn't the end of the world. We had more opportunities and played better than them which definitely gives us confidence ahead of our next game and means that we've had a strong start to the season and the players will want to keep that going against Pescara. Pjanic's red card is very annoying but we have depth in the squad and should be able to work a strategy around it.
 
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01/10/2019

September review

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A bit of an up and down month for sure. A couple of good wins against Pescara, Spezia and Cagliari but disappointing losses against Fenerbahce and Juventus. The loss in the Champions League was definitely our worst one this month and was very disappointing as a first loss of the season. Hopefully we can win our next games in our group, otherwise we might just get relegated to the Europa League or just get knocked out of European tournaments altogether.

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We did well to come out with a win. We scored all of our goals in the first half and really did well to secure a solid lead that we managed to keep throughout the game. I was really happy with Iturbe's performance as well; he's been asking for some playing time and I decided to let him play the whole game today and boy did he deliver. He didn't even have to score to get the man of the match award, he was immense.

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I was expecting a tough game today especially going away to Turkey and I guess we got what we asked for. We played quite well but didn't really take our chances and despite them getting a red card late on, they still managed to score a very late goal to clinch victory which isn't good for us at all. We still have 5 games in the group to turn this around but it was very disappointing for sure.

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We didn't play so well and once again we saw Spezia really play well against us. Last season they were our dark horse and drew and won against us but this season we got our encounters with them off to a winning start. We really didn't deserve a victory I think as their players did better than ours in a lot of areas of the field and we got a bit lucky with that today.

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Disappointing. We were doing well in the league, getting 3 points when we needed to but today we just crumbled under the pressure. Conceding those 3 goals early on was awful for us and despite managing to come back a little bit, we just couldn't score more than 3 goals and get a draw or a win. It was always going to be a very tough and tight game but Juventus probably deserved that one. We move down to 3rd in the league and need to do better in the next couple of games.

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A great victory where we fully deserved to get all 3 points. We move up to 2nd now and our title race with Juventus is on. It's been two seasons in a row where they have not won the title and I can tell that they're incredibly hungry to win it this year, they're looking so much better than they did last year. A 3-0 win is a more than deserved result and Kenedy once again proved his worth whilst Pastore showed why he could be the bargain of the season as he put in a world-class performance.

Player of the month

Javier Pastore
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What. a. signing. That's all I have to say right now. The Argentine came in on a free transfer and since joining, hasn't had a game where he scored lower than an 8.7 match rating. Isn't that incredible? At 30 years old, Javier is definitely in his prime and we probably got the deal of the century by grabbing him on a free transfer and I can't wait to see how he does for us in the long-term. He's truly a magical player who belongs in the Serie A and I'm so delighted he's decided to come back in Italy to play for us and no one else.

 
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01/11/2019
October review

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Kind of a mixed month again to be honest; we had some epic games like the win against Barcelona at the Camp Nou but awful games too like the two losses against Palermo and Ajax. Overall though, I can't be too disappointed with our results as we also got a great win against our rivals and did very well against Fiorentina as well. With our schedule being as heavy as it is, I hope we can still carry on with the good results until at least the winter break and come back even stronger then.

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We just have to be disappointed with that. A home game against a supposedly weaker side and we lose 1-0. The fact that we conceded so early on also doesn't help and they basically killed the game at that point. We've now got 2 losses from our first 2 games in our Champions League group and it's not looking good at all.

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Our first clean sheet of the season in the Serie A, all thanks to Gianluigi. He was absolutely unbelievable and I've never been so impressed by a 20-year old goalkeeper. Kenedy and Eugene did well and both managed to score a goal and we go back to the top of the league. Very pleasing but we're going to have to keep this up for sure.

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Another clean sheet! Very good result against a newly promoted side who we couldn't slip up against. Leandro was playing at the centre-midfielder position to rest Miralem for the Barcelona game and what a great performance. He's definitely a player that I'll bring on as a substitute or play a bit more often if he's gonna play like that! We had to wait until the 75th minute to break the deadlock but we managed to get the win and climb back above Juventus after they played their game before us.

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Our performance of the season for sure. Javi has been linked with Barcelona a lot in the past few months and he told me he felt a bit pressured to play today but I don't regret playing him over Gilberto. He got a very late goal to keep our Champions League dream alive and what a great win this is, honestly. We went 1-0 down after 6 minutes and at the time I just thought, oh not again. But what a great performance from the whole team away from home as well! We're now giving ourselves great chance to qualify.

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I guess when we play such a tough game in midweek I couldn't expect a great result on the weekend but this is just abysmal. The Roma team that I am building is a winning team and as current Serie A champions, we need to show that we're able to win games in the league even when we're competing in other competitions and this game just proved the opposite. It's only one game but Juventus so hot on our tail to get their first title in 2 years, we need to do better. Lucas didn't do very well today but I know this was just a one-time thing for the whole team.

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Great win! We needed to get some momentum after our loss to Palermo and that 93rd-minute winner from Edin was fantastic. He told me he wanted some playing time to show that he could still play here and I thought his request was fair and what a great decision that turned out to be. We're putting more and more pressure on Juventus to not slip up now and this was a very important game that we had to win and we did. Great performance from the whole team for sure (except maybe for Radja who got sent off AGAIN).

Player of the month

Achraf Lazaar
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I have to say, Achraf has been absolutely bossing it this season. The two games when he didn't play were just to rest him for the big games and boy did he play well in those 4 other games. He never got lower than a 7.7 match rating and even managed to grab a goal from the left-back spot in a really important game against Barcelona. Hopefully he keeps this up and we keep playing well. One thing I know for sure is that if I manage to rest him every once in a while, he'll play incredibly well the game after.
 
Tactic

Could you share your tactic? I'm really interested in this asymmetrical shape, and how your players are set up.

Cheers
 
Could you share your tactic? I'm really interested in this asymmetrical shape, and how your players are set up.

Cheers

PM'ed you about it :) someone else asked about my tactic earlier in the save so you could also go and check it out there if you want :)
 
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01/12/2019

November review

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This might be our first month of the season without a loss. We had some amazing performances and our two wins in the Champions League against Barcelona and Fenerbahce have exponentially boosted our chances to qualify for the next round. In the Serie A, we also played very well even though I would have preferred to get a win against Inter but a draw will do.

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A great victory against a tough opponent as I once again decided to rest Achraf for the Barcelona game and what a performance from Riccardo Chianello. He's a youth product from our academy who's just grown so much as a player it's scary. His market value went from less than 2 million euros last year to almost 15 million euros now which is just absolutely fantastic and he'll definitely be a great long-term replacement for Lazaar. Dzeko and Manquillo also played really well which definitely pleased me.

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At the end of our last game I was praising Riccardo, talking about how amazing he is as a player and he showed it today once again. Achraf didn't feel too well before the game so I told him to sit this one out and Riccardo got two assists and was incredibly solid at the back to give us a 2-0 win against Barcelona. One of the best teams in the world. That victory also sees us go top of our group! And somehow puts Barcelona bottom...

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A big blow for us as Achraf gets injured for 2 months; he's been one of our best players all season and to lose him now is very frustrating but with the performances that Riccardo has been putting in, let's just say I'm not as worried as I could be. A 1-1 draw was a fair result and really showed that there isn't much between us and Inter in terms of the quality in both teams but a positive is that we've managed to go top of the league even by just grabbing a point against Inter.

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We were only top for a couple of hours as we went back down to 2nd after Juventus played their game. This match was quite an easy game in the end and Kenedy scored to keep his good season going. Stephan was also incredible and I can't ignore how well he's performing as a striker in this team. We dominated the game and deserved no less than a win and we got just that.

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And there we go! What was I saying?! Riccardo is absolutely incredible! Just 7 minutes in and we managed to grab the lead before they got their red card just under 30 minutes after, which made everything much easier for us. With that win, we've now almost guaranteed a place in the next round of the Champions League which is what the board said they wanted me to do at the beginning of the season so I'm happy. For our last game against Ajax, we'll play our strongest side and will make sure that we don't get complacent but we should be able to make it.


Player of the month

Riccardo Chianello
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I knew this kid was going to be great; from the moment I saw him playing with the under-18s and the under-21s, I knew he was going to come into the first team and do a great job. At 21 years old, he's already wanted by some huge clubs and performing like a world-class left back. I'm thinking about offering him a new contract soon because what a player and what a month this has been for him. No less than an 8.2 match rating in each game he played, isn't that incredible?

 
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01/01/2020
December review and European awards

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Absolutely incredible stuff from the lads this month! I mean, 4-0 against Ajax?? 5-0 against NAPOLI?? Just amazing. I'm so proud of the players and after 17 games in the league, we find ourselves sitting in 1st place, 6 points clear of AC Milan who are currently second. The transfer window is also approaching and I know that Salah is going to be leaving us as he asked to leave and he's coincidently going to AC Milan for about 28 million euros but I've already managed to snap up one winger to replace him for a much better price and for a player who is arguably even better. Going back to our games this month though, incredible stuff; not a single draw or defeat and we won all those games either quite convincingly or very convincingly so I can only just say congratulations to all the players for such an amazing year 2019!

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None of those awards were really surprising as everyone was expecting Messi to win the Ballon d'Or again, his 9th one! The Team of the Year also looks incredible and all those players are definitely worthy of being in the team. However, I had never heard of that Portuguese left-back who won the European Golden Boy award so as I asked that we scout him, I found out he only has 6 months left on his contract! Without any sign of a doubt, I called up his agent to see if we could try and ****** him up now for next season and we talked for a good 30 minutes before he told me he'd talk to his client and get back to me about his decision. Exciting news indeed.

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A solid win against Udinese who are never an easy side to play against. Eugene scored a very late goal and it's actually the first time in quite a long time that I notice him on the pitch; Juan Iturbe has been playing a bit more often lately and has really impressed me but I was happy about Eugene's performance. We almost let the game get ahead of us as they came back to draw 2-2 but we got the 3 points, thankfully.

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Well then, Riccardo played incredibly well once again. I'm not even surprised anymore, he's a fantastic young player and I can't wait to see how he develops in the future. Radja didn't get sent off for once and actually managed to score which was great to see. Kenedy's still just scoring goals one after the other without putting too much attention on himself which is fantastic.

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So I said I was going to play a strong team, which I did; to think that the first time we faced them we lost 1-0 is now unthinkable. A 4-0 win against a team like Ajax is an absolutely amazing result and Juan was just so, so good. I don't regret starting to play him now, AT ALL. What a great performance, especially considering we scored all 4 goals in the first 35 minutes. I went to Monaco again but this time for the First Knockout round and well, Valencia it is. They've been doing quite well in La Liga lately, sitting in 5th even though I feel like they should be higher up the table. The first leg is away from home which is definitely something we'll have to use to our advantage and hopefully, we'll do well against them.

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I just have no words for this win; 5-0??? Against Napoli?? If you had told me at the beginning of the season that this was going to happen, I would've never believed you. I was talking about Kenedy just scoring goals without attracting any attention but today he DEFINITELY had all the Napoli defenders on edge and made them incredibly scared of him. Stephan scored once again too and Juan scored AGAIN as well! We're performing incredibly well and I'm really proud of this team.

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Riccardo is just out of this world isn't he? An easy 3-1 win against a much, much weaker side than us and we did very well to get the result that we got after going a goal down and a man down before half-time. I don't know what I have to tell Radja for him to just stop getting sent off, it's just getting stupid now.

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I mean, Juan is just becoming insane now isn't he? He's making me regret buying that new winger to replace Salah! With performances like that, I'm not sure I'll be able to play him at all... Stephan unfortunately got injured but it came just at the right time as Edin said he wanted more playing time. When I joined Roma, I told the board I always kept all my promises as a player and I would do that as a manager too for sure so I can't make promises to players then not do anything, it almost cost me my job once already...

Player of the month

Juan Iturbe
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I think his goalscoring record this month just speaks for itself. He's been begging me for more playing time, I gave him more playing time and he scored 6 goals in 4 games and only didn't do too well in the game against Perugia, other than that, flawless. I hope he can keep this going because with our new winger coming in, he's going to have a lot of competition and he'll really need to either keep this form or maybe even step it up more to keep this place.

 
Some superb form as of late, great to see how you're turning Roma into a powerhouse.
 
Just caught up on the story, a fantastic read and keep up the good work. :)
 
Loving the work mate. Going to try your tactic out when i get home. Think Cafu is the next legend to try his hand at management.
 
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