Roma-Empoli 1-2. Juve. Head vs Heart.

It would be childish to put Juve-Roma on the bad vs good level. I know many Juventus fans who are wonderful people. But Juve is certainly a rational choice, while Roma is a choice of love. Like Dybala's. After all, Romanticism comes from the word Rome. Rome is gialla come er sole, rossa come er core mio. It is a choice due to the colors, the city, the principles it represents such as democracy, freedom and peace. Juve is the choice of those who want to win.

Fair result even if it is humiliating for our colors. I want to make only 3 tactical observations that if we do not fix immediately, we will see many games like this. From defeats, it is necessary to learn.

2a Giornata	First Half	Second Half	Final Score
	0	1	1
	1	1	2

1. Soulé and Dybala cannot coexist from the start. They are both right-footed strikers. You can do a relay very well and those who remain on the bench at the beginning, coming on fresh in the second half, can be deadly for tired opponents. Soulé cannot play as a left winger and it is no coincidence that the first goal of Empoli was scored by their right winger, Gyasi. He cannot even play as a full-field right winger, because he lacks the defensive phase. At most you can deploy Dybala as an attacking midfielder and Soulé as a second striker with Shomurodov (scorer of our goal) as a first striker, while still maintaining a certain balance with the 4312 or the 3412. I say Eldor because he is right-footed, otherwise with Dovbyk, who is left-footed, the usual traffic jam is created on the right side. The 12 up front would still be a bizarre alchemy, my first choice remains the 433 with ElSha or Zale on the left and Dybala or Soulé on the right.
2. The midfield needs to be reviewed. We are slow in building. We never recover the ball. I draw a veil over the crazy moment of Paredes who first lost the ball like a cojone and then he committed the completely useless penalty foul since the empolistast was already covered by Mancini. In addition to Le Fée and Baldanzi who played well (especially the second), I would also give a chance to Bove and Pisilli, especially the first, very good at recovering the ball, which is one of our current shortcomings.
3. When there are these types of games in which we have to dominate the pitch, the defence has to be very high in the pressing phase, even in the opponent's half of the pitch, then now we will go to face Juve and it is unlikely that we will dominate with our defence in their half of the pitch, but in general this mentality is the winning one.

If DDR wanted to deploy Soulé on the left wing, it was to prove right the many Roma fans who pushed this hypothesis but, as we have seen, sometimes blindly following love and heart means taking a bad path. Heart and love, if not accompanied by rationality, by the head, by cold calculation, bring problems. This is why I often write “Head and heart”. Because both are needed.

But then love, passion, is the most beautiful aspect of this sick world. Dybala's choice is a choice of love. The love of the Roma fans for him is sincere and beautiful. This would hardly have been possible in Juve. Which is chosen as a team because it is a winner, for cold calculation, not for love of the colors or the city or the principles it represents. In fact, Dybala left Juve without second thoughts and fell in love with Rome, the city, the passion of the Roma fans, the friendship of his teammates. It was a choice of love and love is the thing that moves the world forward. L’Amor che move il sole e le altre stelle. As Dante said, taking up Aristotle.

And how much better the world would be if many politicians had a little heart, a little humanity. How much it would help if Netanyahu, Putin, Trump showed a little good feelings. A little heart. A little love.

On the pitch, heart translates into grit, into running when you have none left, into sliding in to recover the ball, but even sliding can be a serious mistake if it is not done with the right rationality, which translates into concentration on the pitch to enter at the right time.

Thiago Motta lines up an initial 4231, but then the movements are very free. They are careful not to press too aggressively, at least against Como, but with us they can be more courageous. They are very confident and play very free mentally and tactically especially in the offensive phase. Here it looks like a 235 in which the player close to Vlahovic is Savona, the right back. This image is interesting because you can also see Yildiz on the midfield line, because the Turk, n.10, often goes back to help possession. Yildiz ranges on the right side and on the left side. Good with both feet.

Here again the 235, here with the right back, Savona, at the height of the attacking line.

Under construction they are placed in 3 basses. Bremer-Gatti-Cabal.

Left back Cabal can also slide forward with Locatelli who moves to their left side to build, often with a simple pass to the other midfielder. Same goes on the right with Savona sliding forward.

They defend hybrids on the corners, with some man-marking players and some zonal players.

Vlhaovic is left-footed and is good in the air, with his back to goal, and on the through ball. They are very fast on their left side, both with the full-back Cabal and with Mbangula who can go towards the center to shoot with his right foot, even with a curl. Here Mbangula can launch Cabal on the run who is very fast.

Both, the heart and the head, are essential to move forward in life and to move the world forward. Without love, reason is cold cynicism. Without reason, love is irrationality. It is a blind man who swings his stick around. Both without a future. But love, the heart, for me, remains the most beautiful aspect of life and has supremacy when you choose Rome. Daje Roma!

Giordano Sepi