Kroos was a coach on the field. He regulated the tempo, moved his companions - with and without the ball; organized the team. Tchouameni and Camavinga do not have the spatial-temporal intelligence to create rhythm and proper ball circulation.

But more than others, Tchouameni suffers. He should have taken the place of a playmaker, such were the hopes of the fans, and he does not live up to them at all. It turned out that he doesn't even have the mentality of a defensive midfielder. Often he behaves irresponsibly. He gets caught in simple walls of opponents, exposes the zone, and remains in the role of a catch-up. He takes unjustified risks, and also loses concentration.

Maybe he just lacks specific instructions. You have to interpret the tasks and positions yourself, and Tchouameni can't cope. It used to be easier, Kroos would tell you. And as much as this is his problem, it is also Ancelotti's problem, who doesn't give him positional instructions.

Tchouameni is one of the biggest disappointments of the year. He had everything to make him the best defensive midfielder in the world, but now he is a defensive midfielder who is always one step behind what is happening on the field.

Crystal clear is that everything directed outward in this world can be understood as politics. But it's quite unbearable when politics fills the entire existence of your favorite team. And it's even more disgusting when politics is understood so flatly, primitively, I'd even like to add - in the American way. That's like taking a stick to an anthill to amuse the little denizens of the anthill and sprinkling in cookies of solace to smother the too-violent excitement of the ants inflamed by you.

JM's appointment was purely political. So was his replacement by De Rossi. It has been a case of pure politics since Ranieri's retirement. And as for the appointment of Yuric, it is wholly impossible to say what variety of politics that was. It could be termed a 404 error.

If the word politics confuses, call it "producing".

Ranieri needs to remove all painful effects of the occurrence of the 404 error. Meanwhile, these painkillers and antipyretic procedures not only do not cancel the general madness of the Friedkins' rule but, in fact, raise its degree. Yet another manipulation of public attention is taking place, and at this very moment, the obvious fact-a truism-that it is the very subject of managing a football club and that it is the game itself that can fully occupy the attention of the fans, not manipulations with the staff-this very thought is self-evidently too offensively naive for Comrade Friedkin.

Ranieri looks like some kind of obstacle between the offended masses and the Roma owners. Here comes a man, 73 years old, perfectly gray and respected by everyone. He will do his usual simple things, which he has done all his life and which once - and only once - brought him a successful, and abnormally successful result. You can't throw a stone at such a man. The Friedkins have found the only living creature in the world that is certain to save their asses, at least until the end of the season.

This, apparently, was the sole prerequisite when selecting a coach. The faultless Ranieri fulfills none of the other requirements of the moment. It is he - even more than Juric - who is going to fail to understand why De Rossi has gathered four "tens" in one team and what to do with them. Why high-class and top-class defenders - Hermoso and Hummels - were signed not at the summer market deadline, but after the deadline. Who should they displace from the squad and why. De Rossi had answers to these questions, but they were so complex and so unexpressed in practice that perhaps he himself no longer remembers them. Friedkin allowed De Rossi to conduct this excessive, almost Chelsea-style summer casting and then threw him out at the first difficulties with implementing the plan.

What it was can be gauged by the final half hour of the first official game of the season against Cagliari, when all four tens were on the field-Pellegrini, Dybala, Baldanzi and SulE. Thus, it might be considered the most impressive segment of Roma's game this season.

That is, it was about radical attacking football in the spirit of today's Bayern and Barcelona with a high line of defense, but without providing this model of play with high pressure, which already makes De Rossi an incompetent coach. It is not for nothing that neither De Rossi nor his successor Juric have ever returned to these dreams. Moreover, he won't make a single step to make this potential of Ranieri's squad real. He, as always, will do the work of a garage mechanic of the times of manual gearboxes-he will tighten up the defense, set simple algorithms for transition stages. But it is difficult to imagine what Roma will do in a positional attack. I believe that Roma, as under the coach of JM, will turn into a team that is definitely NOT RECOMMENDED for fans of the art of playing football. It is not clear at all why you should follow it even if you are not a Roma fan. Because the green melancholy on the football field this time will not be seasoned with any Mourinho circus outside it.

Generally speaking, I categorically disagree with this statement that there is nothing more hopeless in the world than to be a fan of Manchester United. You think so in vain.

Considering that no one has an iron status of No. 1 against the background of Neuer's departure and Ter Stegen's injury - you can fight for a place even from the bench of Man City (well, let me fantasize). Moreover, in the spring, Ortega was one of the main heroes of the championship race in the Premier League at the finish. A fly in the ointment is the FA Cup final against Manchester United, where Ortega made a mistake at the exit.

The German seemed to have seriously taken up the assault on Ederson's position, but, unfortunately, is now losing the competition to him. He is used as a cup goalkeeper + has already played two matches in the Champions League, against Slovan and Sparta.

And so, if the Brazilian had left in the summer to earn money, Stefan would have easily taken a place in the goal of Man City. I would like to see him on the field more often.

Most of all, he suffers personally. In the format that is now being realized, Bellingham needs to play closer to the flank and work selflessly without the ball. His proprietary connections with the penalty area have disappeared, there is no freedom, no strength for decisive actions, no influence on matches. He cleans up after Mbappe. Last season, until the end of October, he scored 13 goals; in the current one, zero.

All this could be justified by Mbappe with a hail of goal-scoring actions, but this is not there. Something happened with him after the World Cup. He used to receive the ball and create something out of nothing. Now he is just a forward - runs, plays in the penalty area - and nothing but a threat for the goal. His skills allow him to be the best in every part of the field, but right now, he is just a good striker who unbalances the team.

The second half is not even a tactical defeat for Shahin, but a tactical drain. Absurd substitutions.

IEM Rio playoffs start this Friday 😍

LFG!