Zdenek Zeman insists he was right to drop Daniele De Rossi, urges Francesco Totti to continue playing and claims “calculated refereeing errors” robbed his Roma.
The Pescara Coach takes on his former club on Monday evening, click here for a match preview.
Zdenek Zeman insists he was right to drop Daniele De Rossi, urges Francesco Totti to continue playing and claims “calculated refereeing errors” robbed his Roma.
The Pescara Coach takes on his former club on Monday evening, click here for a match preview.
“I returned to Pescara because I think we can still do something important here, even if everyone was convinced relegation had already been decided,” he told the Corriere dello Sport. You can read the rest of that interview here.
“We had the chance to turn things around, but didn’t take it. Now we are building a more structured team for next season. I am nearly 70 years old, that’s what my birth certificate says, but I don’t feel it. I like to be on the pitch, to work and to see results.
“I have never changed my idea of football. I might’ve changed some of the exercises, but the concept of football is always the same.”
Zeman had taken Pescara to promotion in 2011-12 by shattering Serie B records with Marco Verratti, Lorenzo Insigne and Ciro Immobile in the squad.
He left that summer for the Roma job, which did not last long amid controversy and tension, particularly around his decision to bench De Rossi in favour of Panagiotis Tachtsidis.
“People went on about my rapport with De Rossi, but his performances with me were not positive. He had an average of 4.5 out of 10 per game, and I wasn’t the one giving that score. My style of football was not suited to his particular qualities.
“The football I want is different. As a young player, De Rossi did adapt to it, but when he became more experienced, he struggled to settle back into that.
“Everyone considers that a disappointing season, but I thought it was very good. Critics said we played the best football in Italy, especially in wins over Milan and Fiorentina.
“I had got us to the Coppa Italia Final, which unfortunately I never got to take part in myself. I don’t regret anything about that campaign, because I thought it went well.”
Zeman has always had a very strong bond with Roma captain Totti, who is considering retirement at the age of 40 after tension with Luciano Spalletti.
“I believe Totti has done so much and if he feels that he’s better than the teammates around him, it’s right that he continues to play. When he realises that the others are superior, that is when he must stop.
“I don’t think he’s of much use when played for the final five minutes, even if last season his late goals off the bench effectively took Roma into the Champions League.”
Zeman also made a remarkable claim about his first spell on the Roma bench from 1997 to 1999.
“You pretend not to know, but I was sacked even if I had another year left on my contract because with me the system would never have allowed us to win.
“In my second campaign, we missed 23 points due to refereeing errors. Those were calculated errors, not like those mistakes that Real Madrid benefited from this week, for example.
“When the Sensi family decided to invest – and in my view, too much – they realised that with me Roma could not win. They made a change and I accepted that decision.
“This is all well known, you just have to go back and look…”