Roma boss Zdenek Zeman has defended his positioning of Daniele De Rossi. “He’s not been a regista for eight years…”
Roma boss Zdenek Zeman has defended his positioning of Daniele De Rossi. “He’s not been a regista for eight years…”
The tactician has raised a few eyebrows this season by preferring to use Panagiotis Tachtsidis in a central playmaker role, thus seeing the Italian international fielded as a mezzala.
“I have to make a decision,” Zeman stated on Tuesday. “I’m amazed at all of you here because you all know that De Rossi has never been a playmaker, that role was filled by David Pizarro.
“De Rossi was used as a regista last season? He was also used as a central defender…
“Daniele has been playing to the side of the central midfielder for eight years and I don’t see why there should be a problem this term.”
Zeman returned to the Stadio Olimpico in the summer, but Roma have struggled for consistency given that they have collected just 14 from the 27 points on offer.
“We threw six points away against Bologna and Udinese,” he said of the games where his side lost 3-2 after being 2-0 up.
“The performances have been good, even if not consistent for 90 minutes.
“Against Udinese on Sunday, we should have been 4-0 up inside the first half an hour. We’ve played well over the last two games, we have been penalised for distractions.
“We have shown that we can play against any team – we always have this term apart from the loss in Turin against Juventus.”
The Czech also defended Mattia Destro from criticism, the Italian international striker who has yet to score since his summer move from Siena via Genoa.
“He remains an important player for me,” Zeman stated. “The problem is that we have to play with 11 men.
“You lot [the media] already think that three strikers are too many…
“Pablo Osvaldo, as well as Francesco Totti and Erik Lamela, are offering me guarantees right now. But Roma need Destro and he’ll do well for Roma.”