Rome, how much wealth. Zaniolo is the other Joya by Mourinho: “A power”
A small land of abundance, from the trocar up: Lorenzo Pellegrini, Paolo Dybala, Nicolò Zaniolo, Tammy Abraham, Andrea Belotti, Eldor Shomurodov and Stephan El Shaarawy, who is absent for now and we will see him again after the international break. There is everything in these guys: talent, experience, technique, physical strength, interchangeability. Listening Mourinho, and the numbers also suggest it, there is no malice in front of goal: Rome achieves less than it should and could. The illness of the touch taken, taking a point from a definition of the Special, for now has the upper hand and the goals are counted with the dropper. Of the top eight in the standings, Roma, with eight goals, are the least successful, at least in the league (five come from the strikers, Dybala three, and Abraham two). The exploit with Helsinki has opened a front and now Mou expects everyone to wake up, not just Dybala, to whom Rome has hung with soul and body.
Rome-Helsinki, the report cards. Zaniolo is a train and Matic raises the dam
THE BLUE DISAPPOINTMENT
Belotti, like Pellegrini, has only unlocked in the Cup, Abraham, 27 goals last season, is still at the Turin goal and at the second with Empoli and, as mentioned, Paulo has signed a brace at Monza, a goal at Castellani and the goal the other night in the Europa League. We add Shomurodov’s influential stamp in Bulgaria and we’re done. The one from whom the jump is expected is Zaniolo, who has only been able to play two games in the league, the first, only to stop due to shoulder problems. The jerks, the physical strength, the inventiveness in the last sixteen meters, are characteristics that make the difference. Unique. Mou, a player like him, in the squad, doesn’t have it. The others have different characteristics. Zaniolo has to start making a difference in the number of goals, against Helsinki, in the return after the 25-day break, he only came close. After the troubled summer, in which Mourinho feared losing him, Nico found himself in the shot and now that the future opens up for him, not only in Rome, but also in the national team which excluded him for the Nations League commitments of the 23 against England and 26 in Hungary, the last matches before the World Cup that Italy will not play. Nicolò’s appearances in the national team have always been in fits and starts for various reasons and now he is also recovering from an injury and this, as transpired by Trigoria, is not a shared choice but only of Mancini. He would have gone, but for Mou, perhaps, it is better this way. For now there is only Rome: its agent is in constant contact with Pinto, they are working for a renewal with big figures. A complicated contract, but for many, the lightening is close, almost obvious. After all, he too has declared that he wants to continue winning with Roma. Tomorrow at the Olimpico there is Atalanta (Zalewski returns), one of the two teams he managed to score in the league last year (the other was Empoli). In Bergamo, last December 18th, one of his best performances, which made us think of his definitive release. From this point of view, the performance was better in the Conference, where he took home six goals in all, including the gem in the final against Feyenoord. Mou needs that player there, capable of tears of strength, but he too must increase the level of competitive nastiness, in order not to save a department that appears complete and now only needs to know how to raise the level, in the famous internal competitiveness of which speaks Mou.
Zaniolo takes the coach’s praise after he had sometimes beaten him last year. “He is the only one with physical potential. Yes, I was a little afraid of losing it. Not so much because the manager never told me there were possibilities. He’s a good guy, they told me he was a mess as a professional. Either they were lies or he changed. Never seen arriving late, never problems ». Question: Who told him? For now, everything seems to have been overcome: Nicolò expects to discuss the renewal of the contract after having touched on the sale in the summer. He has entered into symbiosis with his team mates, has bonded with Dybala and always has great esteem for Pellegrini (yesterday dialectical effusions via social media: Nico happy with the game and his two assists, Lorenzo replies “how strong you are” and Zaniolo closes with «captain …»), with whom he confided during his retreat in Portugal. Nicolò hasn’t scored in the league since the away match in Empoli, since last January 23rd. That too, a game before a break. At the Olimpico, always in the league, we haven’t seen a goal from him since the distant 2 November 2019, Rome-Naples.
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