Zdenek Zeman criticised Roma’s performance for “pointless horizontal passes” and blamed the referee for Catania’s goals.
Zdenek Zeman criticised Roma’s performance for “pointless horizontal passes” and blamed the referee for Catania’s goals.
“Altogether it wasn’t a great performance, especially in the first half when we were too slow, not aggressive and never went forward on the counter-attack. We were content with possession, which was a great shame,” he said of the 2-2 draw.
“We started well in the second half, though it was a struggle until the end, as we were unable to secure the result.
“Francesco Totti played too wide, where it’s difficult to create something, and he didn’t go where I asked him to. We’ve got to work on the movements in attack and have been doing so all summer.
“Passing the ball horizontally is pointless and it allows our opponents to get settled in. If we don’t speed it up and shake off our markers in midfield, then we’ll go nowhere.
“We had five debutants tonight and seeing the packed Stadio Olimpico does affect young players, but in the past six weeks we have worked on something very different to what was seen tonight.
“It went better in the second half and we created more opportunities. We conceded two goals, both of them affected by offside positions.
“If I am to match my team’s attacking approach to that of our opponents, then I always prefer mine.”
Zeman had been warned that it was a Roma club policy not to criticise referees, but he is not sticking to it.
“It’s a habit – I criticise my players when they get it wrong and I do the same with the referees. That seems normal enough to me. I don’t think we should not be allowed to say what happened on the field with regards to the referees.”