Luis Enrique’s one-season tenure at Roma was an ambitious, audacious project that never quite really took off, and ultimately became the perfect example of how emotionally draining to coach an Italian club can be.
The future Barcelona and Spain serial winner endured a torrid campaign in the Italian capital, ending a disappointing 7th with the Giallorossi in Serie A and resigning at the end of the season because he felt “very tired.”
Still, he did manage to show some glimpses of the good things that were to come in his coaching career, especially on February 12, 2012, when Roma annihilated the remains of Inter’s Triplete-winning squad by a 4-0 score.
Arguably the best game in the fleeting Luis Enrique age at Roma, it saw the unexpected contributions from two young players like Fabio Borini and Bojan Krkic, who both seemed destined to have a sounding impact on the world footballdom and both failed to live up to the hype surrounding them. Yes, just like their coach’s project at Roma.
But let’s go in order.
In the summer of 2011, a wave of footballing excitement electrified the yellow-and-red side of the Italian capital. The age of the Sensis had just come to an end at Roma as Rosella Sensi, the daughter of long-time president Franco, sold the club to Thomas Di Benedetto, the first of more U.S. owners to come.
Di Benedetto’s first move was symptomatic of his brash ambitions: To coach the Giallorossi for the coming season, he chose the then 41-year-old Asturian gaffer who had no experience yet on a first-team’s bench.
A former Barcelona player, Luis Enrique had been making his bones as a manager at the Blaugrana’s B squad featuring in the Spanish Segunda División. Di Benedetto’s intent was as risky as it was appealing: In the Giallorossi’s management vision, Luis Enrique would be following the footsteps of Pep Guardiola – another former Blaugrana legend who also started his coaching career at Barcelona B before being suddenly catapulted to the first team and achieving the results we all know…
Luis Enrique’s appointment was followed by a major roster upheaval that brough to Rome a horde of new players and revolutionized the Giallorossi’s lineup. The crown jewel of a dazzling transfer market campaign, championed by Luis Enrique’s himself, was the 21-year-old Bojan. He came from Barcelona on loan after having been incautiously labelled “the new Messi”, if only (and maybe only) because he had a slight physical resemblance to the Argentine star…
He didn’t come alone. Netherlands’ starting goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg also joined, together with 19-year-old Argentine starlet Erik Lamela. Miralem Pjanic joined from Lyon and that, in hindsight, would turn out to be Roma’s best signing from that summer.
The mercurial Dani Osvaldo was brought back to Serie A to spearhead the attack, along with this promising Italian young lad grown in Chelsea’s youth academy, whose name was Fabio Borini.
Finally, Gabriel Heinze from Marseille and Fernando Gago from Real Madrid were brought in to add some solid experience to a roster which, of course, continued to feature club legends Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi.
There was enough for the passionate Giallorossi fan base to start dreaming and indeed, ahead of the 2011/12 season, Roma were billed as a possible contender for the Scudetto along with Max Allegri’s Milan, the title holders, and a brand-new Juventus squad coached by Antonio Conte.
But things quickly took a bad turn for the Asturian coach. The season start was absolutely dreadful as Roma crashed out in the Champions League preliminary rounds, losing 1-2 on aggregate to a modest Slovan Bratislava side.
In the first leg, which Roma lost 0-1, Luis Enrique benched the fan favorite Totti for Stefano Okaka. But that, as he quickly found out, is not something that you can do at Roma without alienating most of the supporters.
With the fan base already growing restless, the Giallorossi’s Serie A campaign quickly turned into an exhausting roller coaster as Roma alternated a few good games to more disconcerting defeats. When they prepared to face Inter at the Stadio Olimpico on February 12, they had hit their all-season low in the previous weekend as they saw Cagliari come from behind to wrap a 4-2 upset.
Inter, on the other hand, were coming from a from a spectacular 4-4 draw against Palermo, powered by a Diego Milito glut.
Both sides had already virtually abandoned any Scudetto ambitions at that point as the Nerazzurri also had their share of problems. Most of their players looked old, tired, and perhaps satisfied with having won the treble less than two years before.
Gian Piero Gasperini was Inter’s gaffer ahead of the season, but Gasp lasted only four games in charge, during which he picked up two losses and one draw. He was replaced by Claudio Ranieri, who was sitting on Roma’s bench right in the previous campaign!
But even though Inter were enduring a lackluster season, they could not expect they would be swept aside so easily by a Roma lineup that for one day, one day only, decided to show what they could be capable of, if all stars aligned.
Roma capped a week that was already going to be remembered for an extraordinary snowfall that whitened the Italian capital, with a sounding 4-0 win powered by a Borini brace and a fantastic Bojan goal.
But it was Brazilian defender Juan to open the scoring after 13 minutes, heading the ball home from a corner kick taken by Francesco Totti. Borini rounded up Roma’s tally across the two halves of the game as it was 3-0 after just 49 minutes of play.
Borini’s first was a brilliant finish from a Pjanic filtering pass. He dribbled past Walter Samuel and made the former Roma stalwart fall flat on his bottom before slotting the ball past Julio Cesar with a clinical right foot conclusion.
Then, he picked a 35-meter pass from Juan and dashed past center back Lucio to beat Julio Cesar again. In that Serie A season, Borini scored nine goals out of 24 games. If only he continued that trend… (but, unfortunately, he didn’t as that would turn out to be his career best in the Italian league)
With Inter showing no signs of life, there was also time for one of those one-hit wonder stories that abund in Serie A as 18-year-old Giammario Piscitella embellished his top-flight debut with a fine cross that propitiated the final goal of the day.
Bojan Krcic picked the youngster’s cross and showed that, inconsiderate comparisons to Messi aside, he did have some skills as he forced his way through three Inter defenders before firing the ball into the bottom right corner of poor Julio Cesar’s goal. As for Piscitella, he went on to collect just seven more caps in the top-flight and spent most of his career in the lower leagues. Thus passes the glory of the world.
When the football bloodbath of the day was over, Roma’s spirit was refreshed and the Giallorossi could restart harboring some hopes of at least grabbing a Champions League spot for the following season.
But it was a short illusion. Roma ultimately ended a disappointing 7th in the table as they collected 14 league losses, including both Derby della Capitale against Lazio. They even ended below Inter who, in the meantime, had sacked Ranieri and promoted youth academy coach Andrea Stramaccioni. Juventus won the first of their nine Scudettos in a row and did so without conceding a single defeat.
We will never know whether Roma’s plan was to keep Luis Enrique in charge despite a season well below the expectations, to put it mildly. But, at the end of the campionato, it was the Spanish coach himself to take a step back and resign. The motivation he gave was that he was burned-out and needed some time to recharge.
The Romans’ visceral love for their club and the overwhelming pressure the fan base and the local press put on the Asturian had taken a toll on his mental balance. Indeed, Luis Enrique went on to take a gap year before revamping his career at Celta Vigo and then landing the Barcelona job.
He came to face Roma again during the 2015/16 Champions League group stage. At the Stadio Olimpico it ended 1-1, a game known for Alessandro Florenzi’s fantastic long-range screamer. In the second leg at the Camp Nou, Luis Enrique swept his past aside as Barcelona thumped the Giallorossi 6-1.
No hard feelings but business is business. Sometimes, you just need to kill you past to fully get into the future.
MATCH SCORECARD
February 12, 2012 – Serie A 2011/12 Round 21
ROMA – INTER 4-0
SCORERS: 13′ Juan, 41′ Borini, 49′ Borini, 89′ Bojan
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ROMA (4-3-3): Stekelenburg; Taddei, Heinze, Juan, Josè Angel; Gago (70′ Fabio Simplicio), De Rossi, Pjanic; Totti, Lamela (73′ Bojan), Borini (80′ Piscitella) (Lobont, Kjaer, Rosi, Greco) Coach: Luis Enrique |
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INTER (4-4-2): Julio Cesar; Maicon (67′ Faraoni), Lucio, Samuel (46′ Cordoba), Nagatomo; J. Zanetti, Palombo, Cambiasso, Obi; Pazzini (46′ Poli), Milito (Castellazzi, Ranocchia, Chivu, Castaignos) Coach: Ranieri |
REFEREE: Mr. De Marco from Chiavari
NOTES: Yellow Cards: De Rossi, Taddei, Juan (R), Maicon, Faraoni (I)