The "MOJO" is with Rudi Garcia
“The manager should be a very good actor”- Rudi Garcia
There is an air of calmness and exuberance around the Capital. Things are looking, for the first time in many years, bright, un-complicated and optimistic.
And the man behind the upheaval, Rudi Garcia, is likely to not get carried away with the terrific and unanimously imposing start his club have had to the season. The double-winning French coach from Lille has brought along with him ample desire, motivation and much needed tactical and technical virtues to make A.S.Roma both recognised and respected among its foes. Here, we analyse why Rudi Garcia is the perfect man to shoot the Giallorossi skywards and how they have adapted under him.
The Double at Lille
Garcia literally ended Lille’s 56 year trophy drought by winning both, the Ligue 1 and the Coup de France in the 2010-2011 season. That season in the league Lille scored a massive 68 goals, lost just 4 times and thereby finishing a convincing 8 points in front of Marseille to lift the trophy. Lille’s
Moussa Sow finished top scorer with 25 goals and the dynamic Eden Hazard with 9 assists to his credit was voted Player of the year. Garcia won the best manager and as much as 4 players from his team were voted in the team of the year. The season could not get better for Garcia and his team. They were in the business of devastation, ripping teams apart as they strode to success. Moreover, during his five-year stint at the French club, he landed a top 4 finish 3 times along-with a modest budget and the departures of many of his top quality men (most notably Yohan Cabaye to Newcastle and Eden Hazard to Chelsea). For example, when Hazard left for Chelsea, Lille signed a player who goes by the moniker Martin as his replacement (unknown commodity) and still finished 4th the next season.
All these chronicles depict the main picture that Rudi Garcia did not achieve things by fluke or blatant luck. Rather, he built a solid team season after season that could compete on all fronts, both continentally and domestically.
The trouble at Roma
As this French manager was enjoying the success and stability, in parallel things at Roma were gloomy and obscure. Luis Enrique and Zdenek Zeman, the two foreign coaches appointed and sacked in two consecutive seasons could contribute nothing but tactical fragility, baseless cherubic attack-minded approach and no sort of whatsoever motivation and revival. In the 3 years between 2010 and 2013, the Romans shipped in a staggering 162 goals and had 5 different managers at the dug-out (right from Ranieri to the recently sacked Andreazzoli). So when Roma further lost its footing ensuing a 1-0 defeat to Lazio in the Coppa Italia finals this year, there was every reason to believe that anarchy was dominant and the team had foundered.
Indubitably, the squad was rich in talent and skill. It had versatile players, players with a vast repertoire, players who could perform profoundly, but the one man who could arrange and sync these pieces of an exciting puzzle together was missing. In stepped Rudi Garcia.
The Summer Overhaul
The first battle Garcia won as the coach of Roma was making or should I say asking Chelsea-bound Daniele de Rossi to stay, by instilling in him the credibility of his project. Then came a big blow as Erik Lamela, Daniel Osvaldo and Marquinhos departed to Spurs, Southampton and PSG respectively. All three had had terrific seasons on a personal level the previous year and many fans and journalists envisaged that the future was going to be built around them. But as things didn’t turn out as expected, Garcia soon purchased Gervinho, Llajic and Benatia from Arsenal, Fiorentina and Udinese respectively as their direct replacements. None of them were big money, much-hyped-about signings and would cost just around 27 million pounds put together. Next on the manager’s list was letting “butter-fingers” Stekelenburg leave and signing the more no-nonsense-type Morgan de Sanctis. Even the washed-away-from-memories Maicon was added to the team with the belief that he would rediscover his form (which he has done in some style).