Now that the dust has settled in Rome and the shock of seeing AS Roma getting thumped 5-2 by Liverpool, the local press have looked a bit deeper into what went wrong.
Shock horror, a lot of it comes down to Eusebio di Francesco’s tactics, which, despite working for the first 20 minutes, were exploited by Jürgen Klopp, allowing his front three to wreak havoc in the Italian defence.
After the game, the manager appeared to place a lot of the blame on his players, claiming they lacked character, as well as criticising them for simple missed passes.
That, according to Il Messaggero, hasn’t gone down well with his squad, who are ‘disillusioned’ with their manager after his post match comments.
Looking forward, Roma have to deal with a game against Chievo at the weekend before preparing the return leg against Liverpool, and one thing is certain: they won’t be playing three at the back.
Il Messaggero are very clear about this decision, suggesting there’s a good chance Klopp will have to come up with a way of countering a 4-3-3 including Patrik Schick instead of a 3-4-2-1 without him.
On top of the Czech Republic international, Maxime Gonalons and Lorenzo Pellegrini will also likely feature from the off.
It’s very kind of Il Messaggero to give Klopp a heads up, to be honest.
