Garcia’s time is up at Roma, Spalletti returns six years on

Paddy Agnew reveals just how tough a task awaits new Roma coach Luciano Spalletti, who is back for a second spell in charge following the sacking of Rudi Garcia.

The King is dead, Long Live the King. This week saw a not exactly unexpected development when AS Roma sacked their French coach, Rudi Garcia, replacing him with Italian Luciano Spalletti, a man who coached the club for four seasons between 2005 and 2009.

On Tuesday morning we had a classic, surreal handover moment when Garcia took charge of the Roma training session in Trigoria, as if nothing untoward was about to happen and notwithstanding intense media speculation that his time at Roma was finished.

Even as Garcia trained the players, his colleague Spalletti was climbing onto a plane in Florence, with a final destination of Miami, where he had a scheduled meeting with Roma’s US owner, James Pallotta.

Sometime in the middle of the Italian night, 56-year-old Spalletti agreed terms with Roma, reportedly signing an 18-month contract worth an annual €2.8 million.

Thus ends, somewhat ingloriously, a Roma experience which had begun in the most spectacular of manners.

When Garcia was appointed coach in the summer of 2013, he was greeted with a mix of scepticism and indifference by Roma fans.

Who is this guy? OK, he had won the French League and Cup double with unfancied Lille in the 2010-2011 season but will he survive in Serie A? A first French title in 57 years for Lille is one thing but coaching in the notoriously difficult “piazza” of Roma might prove much more difficult, or not?

The fans’ doubts, however, were soon dispelled by a fantastic start at Roma which saw his side win its first ten Serie A games, in the process playing exciting attacking football.

In only his fourth Serie A game in charge, Roma beat Lazio 2-0 (goals from Federico Balzaretti and Adem Ljajic) to end a poor derby run which had seen them lose four and draw one of five derbies in the previous two seasons.

After the game, the newly arrived Garcia totally won over Roma fans when telling Italian TV: “We have just put the Church back in the centre of the village”.

That splendid first season, however, crashed out on the rock of reigning champions Juventus who in January 2014 in Turin recorded a bruising 3-0 defeat which saw Roma end the game with nine players and, more importantly, with reduced seasonal aspirations. At the end of that first season, Roma finished a distant second, 17 points behind Juventus.

In some senses, even if last season saw an identical final table standing for Roma, second again still 17 points behind Juventus, it proved to have been a much more disappointing season.

Arguably, the turning point came in October 2014 when Roma went down ignominiously, beaten 7-1 at home by Bayern Munich in a Champions League group game.

Many observers argued that Garcia had got his tactical approach all wrong, believing that his side could and should attempt to play his attacking game against the German cracks. It is at least arguable that Garcia’s Roma never fully recovered from that shock.

On the contrary, they found themselves reliving the same trauma 12 months later when losing 6-1 to Barcelona in the group phase last November. Four days later, they were beaten 2-0 at home to Atalanta and Roma were officially in crisis.

All this too in a season which had begun well with Roma beating Juventus 2-1 on the second day, winning the Rome derby 2-0 and even leading Serie A for two days.

So what will former Zenit St. Petersburg coach Spalletti bring to the cause? He brings not only international experience but also a familiarity with the Roma environment.

Even if he did well in Serie A, finishing three times second to Inter Milan, Spalletti too had his dramatic “European moments”, most especially when losing 7-1 to Manchester United in a Champions League, quarter final tie in 2007.

On the tactical front, we can expect him to be a deal more cautious than Garcia, perhaps even moving someone like Daniele De Rossi back from midfield to the centre of defence.

He may also opt to play Bosnian Miralem Pjanic “in the box” behind two strikers (Bosnian Edin Dzeko and Egyptian Mohamed Salah?) whilst someone like Alessandro Florenzi, who has been used by Garcia as an unlikely right-back will almost certainly return to the right side of midfield, a position more suited to his talents.

Spalletti returns to Roma with two plus factors on his side. For a start, despite recent draws, the side is still fifth in Serie A, just seven points behind leaders Napoli. Secondly, despite that 6-1 drubbing by Barcelona, Roma are still in the Champions League, due to meet Real Madrid in mid-February.

Spalletti’s biggest problem may not necessarily be the current demoralised Roma dressing room.

Rather, like Garcia before him, he may be handicapped by the absurd strike of the Roma “curva sud” whose passionate fans resent the manner in which police have divided the terraces with a permanent barrier.

Winning back the support of both the curva fans and the Roma dressing room will be no easy task. However, if there is a coach around who might just be able to pull this off, it is Luciano Spalletti.