What Actually Happened in Udine Sunday Night
Why This needed to Happen
Roma was absolutely ripped apart on Labor Day weekend against Udine regardless of the qualities that they have shown to possess so far early in this campaign. Roma’s performance and results were unacceptable. This was the third worst loss. Jose Mourinho has suffered in his domestic career as a manager. You can’t dress this up into anything. It’s not. It was beyond belief in the worst possible way imaginable. Roma should hang their head in shame after that performance. As difficult as that was to take and as problematic as it seemed to be. This is something that needed to happen. Nobody wants to lose in that way, but It was absolutely necessary. There’s been a lot of admiration behind what Roma has done in the summer with the acquisitions they have made. Along with the pressure that goes with it. They are expected to qualify for the Champions League in some expected them to at least challenge for the league title. Roma has long-term ambitions but would like to pick up some trophies in the short term. Potentially being the Copa Italia and the Europa League. Maybe even both? That is the level Roma wants to operate at this season. Paolo Dybala is one of the best players in the league. His arrival has been essential for the stakes to raise in the eternal city. Why was humiliation like this needed, though, You might ask? There are three reasons that it was necessary for this to occur. Early adversity. Roma had a very strong start to last season before things started to collapse a bit. They faced huge humiliation in the UEFA conference League against Bobo glint. It was a 6–1 defeat in Norway. The initial reaction from that was a positive one, but Roma still ended up dropping points regularly over the next couple of weeks. The next game was a goalless draw against Napoli. It was the first points that Napoli’s side lost last season as they were perfect up until that moment. They followed that with a loss to AC Milan, an unaspiring victory against Cagliari as Pellegrini had to save them, and a loss to a newly promoted Venezia as Romans’ run of over 30 games without a loss ended. This was followed by uninspiring victory against Genoa and Torino before hitting back-to-back losses against Bologna and Inter Milan. Even though Roma went through big changes and had a different approach after the humiliation in Norway, the next eight fixtures were inconsistent and lacked the materials to get their season back on track. Roma has an opportunity to do this in a different way this season. They have a better team but doesn’t make the matches any less difficult. With the Europa League on Thursday and Empoli on the weekend, Rome will have their chance to get back on the right track. Roma ended up winning the conference League and finishing in the top six, but ultimately their stretch following humiliation derailed a certain portion of another season. This Roma has a chance now to go on a run. They’ve hit the wall of adversity, and now it’s going to be depended on how they respond to it. The fact that this occurred just a few weeks before a big game against Atalanta is important. The timing of this also is essential that it happened now. They still have a couple of games before that big clash and will be given a platform to prove themselves and to get things rolling again. Then finally, it opens things up from a tactical perspective. I’m not suggesting that formation changes in order. What I am saying is the performance was based on individual errors. Meaning Roma Will be able to evaluate what pieces don’t work together and what can be done to improve that situation. Also, potentially opens up the squad depth. Mady Camara from Olympiacos was recently brought in. I believe having someone like him in the squad as another option will be important. Also, potentially figuring out how to rotate the squad. And what works best. To be able to make rash decisions, You need things not to go well. There’s no reason for Jose Mourinho to panic about anything. He doesn’t need to make rash decisions, but a horrendous showing like that could open up his mind as the special one may have seen something from that game to avoid performances like that and to give Roma more rotation. It was a performance of agony, but it might have just been necessary.
Udinesse Could be a Suprise for Europe
Udine ripped Roma apart at home in a dominating victory that they will remember for a long time. The head-to-head history between Roma and Udine has changed. It’s not what it once was. Now, if you look at the last 25 games, Roma has been victorious roughly 20 times. However, on five occasions, they have dropped points. It has happened in recent history. Sunday night, four-goal humiliation, a rescued point via a Lorenzo Pellegrini late penalty kick, a Rodrigo de Paul strike a few years back. A humiliating to-go victory in 2020 may not sound like a lot of performances, but those all have occurred in the last couple of years. The history of success that Roma has had against them is becoming less and less relevant every time they play. When a team has such a level of success against another, it should be taken into account. But even though Roma has been victorious in 90% of the games played in the last decade. The recent history doesn’t necessarily shine brightly on them. They ripped them apart now. It could be due to their own doing in their lack of performance. However, Udine is certainly a team to keep your eye on this season. Italian football as a whole has seen all the top sides deal with extreme adversity too early in the season. Too many points dropped the favorites. Inter Milan already with two losses on the season. Milan doesn’t look sharp enough, Napoli is inconsistent. Juventus has its own problems. Roma is still a year away. There are so many things riding on the top couple of teams in the league, and they’re not performing as they’re expected to. In fact, it looks like nobody wants to win the league. This creates a diversion for unpredictability. Now, if something improbable were to happen, I believe Atlanta would be the team to win the league in a situation where none of the expected do it. However, even though the top sides in the league should qualify for the Champions League, at least the four favorites, both of the Milan teams. Roma and either Juventus or Napoli. It’s not a done deal, as it has been proven. It has been a rough start to the season for Italian football as a whole which isn’t good for the brand, but it provides an opportunity for certain teams to take advantage of this. I’m not saying this is going to happen, and I’m not saying it’s not. But Udine has a possibility of potentially making a push for the Champions League or the Europa League. They have everything in their capabilities to have a very productive season as they’re already having. They have started hot and look like they’re cooking something. They could have end up being this season’s Fiorentina. Fiorentina may not have made the champions league Europa League, but they still got back into Europe. Udine is looking to do that very thing as it has been ages since they have been in a European competition. Destiny Udogie is proven to be one of the best center backs in the league, and even though we will be saying goodbye to him next season when he joins Tottenham this season, he has been terrific, and he got everything going early on Sunday night. On top of that, they’re attacking options and what they can provide in the midfield, especially on the counter and other attacking situations, have been elite. They showed last night the way they dominated. Roma that they have the qualities to do something unpredictable. They are yet to be beaten this season. Even though the champions league does seem out of reach, Maybe it’s not. Europa League is a more likely destination, but if the big teams continue to falter, it could be there for the taking. This is a young coach with so much to give to a young team that is thriving on energy at the moment. Going against this team is a much more difficult proposition than expected. They could crash and burn out, but European football will be there for the taking them. There are many teams that are struggling, especially in the top half of Italy’s top flight. It’s unclear what will happen. Maybe they’ll get into gear, and that door will close, but if they’re not careful, they could grab a European spot, but that wasn’t going to be there before. This is a team to keep our eye on, given what they can provide to a very lackluster start to an Italian football season. Udine can do something special in this campaign. What that is is undetermined what they have a squad that could make some serious noise.
Individual Mistakes and Concentration
I still stand by What I’ve said here that this is something that needed to happen for this Roma team. However, it doesn’t undercut what we were subjected to on Sunday night. Embarrassment, humiliating, tragic, and agony would be words to describe Roma’s performance and results on Sunday. While this could be a good thing, in the long run, the question we need to ask ourselves is why did this happen. Roma started the match well with two chances. Paolo Dybala nearly scored even to start the game. If he finds the back of the net, we might be having a different conversation this morning. Udine scored on their first chance of the game. It wasn’t necessarily down to the brilliance of Destiny Udogie but the contrary, it was down to individual mistakes. That were made throughout. Rick karsdorp chested the ball in a dangerous position that allowed the first goal to occur. Rui Patricio was partly responsible for their second goal. He still remains the best goalkeeper in the league, but nonetheless, even the most perfectionist goalkeepers can make mistakes but is the timing of the mistake that was made. He is partly responsible but still a very difficult situation to get on top of. The third goal was a defensive collapse and then the final goal of the night was unable to adapt as they put themselves in a vulnerable position as they broke on the counterattack with Roma having no defensive structure and were caught out. I don’t think it’s right to necessarily say everything that happened was down to the individuals or say that they’re not good enough. But individual errors played a big role in what occurred. They need to take full responsibility for all of it. To win a game against a strong team like that, we cannot be making these types of errors. Full stop This performance was highly unacceptable. Yet we can be aware of why it happened. A lack of discipline, focus, and concentration is really what led to the outcome. Looking at this from a purely tactical perspective. Roma moves the ball well. When they had it, they had some issues in the passing lanes, but there were certainly times in the game when Roma had opportunities to break and score. It’s not that the players don’t have their qualities, but it’s the sense of lack of focus. Really folded them. Udine had an incredible game plan, dominated possession pushed Roma back into their own half, making a difficult for them to create anything. Pablo Dybala still looked sharp, and he looks with each game more and more in control of what he can do as an elite playmaker. Collectively as a team, as I said, there was a lack of focus, and that truly determined everything. There’s no need to panic, and the players that made individual errors shouldn’t be ripped apart as it was collective errors. Mourinho will get this team going again. Losing a match because of concentration is unacceptable, and I think they all know that now. But it is still one game they can bounce back from it. But the reason they lost the game last night was because of focus, concentration, and individual errors. That is not a recipe that will be repeated and can be repeated. The points have become extremely valuable now with everybody struggling. This is why performances like this must be avoided. Jose will make sure this does not happen again, but it was a totality of frustration when it comes to all of this because we should never lose a game for the reasons we did. Roma isn’t perfect. They’re going to lose some games this season. Probably not like the one we saw on Sunday, but they’ll lose games. They cannot lose games for this reason again this season.
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