ant london wrote:Anyway, couple of questions for our Roman friend:
What is Roberto's track record like with regards to youth development? Was he known for bringing through any youngsters?
Do you think he would embrace and try to get the best from the likes of Robinho and Adebayor or jettison them and start again with new players? The fact that he managed people like Figo and Adriano I would suspect that he has a flair for managing the more mercurial of talents.
Which of the current squad would you imagine are "Mancini-type players"?
As I said, at Inter he had no qualms about bringing through a couple youngsters like Balotelli and Andreolli (who is now at Roma) and bringing into the squad Santon who was then brought through by Mourinho last season. Especially Balotelli was an act of courage considering the many options Inter had up front, and yet he gave the young lad pitch time and also responsibility making him the corner and free kick taker when he was on the pitch. So I'd say if he sees a good prospect in the youth team, he will give him time on the pitch (Weiss anyone?). I don't remember any youngsters he brought through at Fiorentina or Lazio but neither did the managers after him at those clubs so maybe it was just that those clubs had no real talent in their youth teams when he was there.
He will be able to manage the big names, that's one of the few things I'm sure about. He has dealt for three years with players like Figo, Ibrahimovic, the Argentina captain Javier Zanetti, Brazil regulars like Maicon and Julio Cesar, not to mention players of the level of Cambiasso, Stankovic, Vieira, all players with strong personalities and egos. Adriano was, admittedly, his only flop as he couldn't stop the Brazilian from going partying and drinking, but maybe that's more related to Adriano's desire to go back to Brazil as Mourinho had no better results with him, if anything things got worse with Jose.
If I'm not mistaken he had a real love for Tevez when he was at Inter, more than once the Argentinian was rumoured to be a transfer target for them. He loved Ibrahimovic's creativity so I guess Robinho and Ireland could be amongst his type of players, but he of course appreciates talented hardworkers like Bellamy. He liked to play with attacking full backs, so Bridge could be ok, Richards likes to go forward but as we know he's no Maicon when attacking so Mancini might search a different option there, but he might also judge that he can make Micah improve and work with him, we will have to see on that. Barry and De Jong should be the kind of players he needs to complete his midfield.
I predict we may have this line up, or something similar:
Given
Richards Tourè Lescott Bridge
De Jong
Ireland/SWP Barry
Tevez/Ireland
Adebayor Robinho/Bellamyif he plays with a diamond 442, or this one if we go to a flat 442:
Given
Richards Tourè Lescott Bridge
SWP De Jong/Barry Ireland Bellamy
Adebayor Tevez/Robinhobut imho the first option is more probable from what I remember of his Inter.
Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:30 am