Patrik Schick is ‘surprised and sorry’ to see Monchi leave Roma and claims the club were robbed by officials in the Champions League.
Roma were controversially denied a VAR review when Schick went down late on against Porto, and the 3-1 defeat culminated in the exits of Coach Eusebio Di Francesco and their sporting director.
“It’s never nice when a Coach leaves and other people lose their jobs,” the striker told isport.cz.
Patrik Schick is ‘surprised and sorry’ to see Monchi leave Roma and claims the club were robbed by officials in the Champions League.
Roma were controversially denied a VAR review when Schick went down late on against Porto, and the 3-1 defeat culminated in the exits of Coach Eusebio Di Francesco and their sporting director.
“It’s never nice when a Coach leaves and other people lose their jobs,” the striker told isport.cz.
“It could be a doctor, Coach, staff member, physio… These people have gone, and now Monchi too.
“His departure hit everyone. I didn’t expect him to leave. He was a very honest sporting director, he supported us and always defended us.
“It surprised us a lot, I’m sorry he left us. Everyone liked him, no-one had any problems with him.
“He followed us in training every day. Anyone who had a problem could go to him.
“After the first leg, it seemed like we could really go through. I’m still sorry. Since then many things have changed at the club.
“After the penalty given to Porto, I was convinced that the referee would go to the VAR, given he did on that occasion.
“We didn’t understand why he didn’t even look. He received some information and that was it.
“We were very disappointed and didn’t understand it because he didn’t even look at such an important moment in the last few minutes.
“Last season we went out to Liverpool in the semi-finals. In the return leg we only missed a goal to reach extra-time and we weren’t given two penalties. It was similar this season.”
Claudio Ranieri has since returned to the Olimpico as a caretaker, and the Czech was asked about the 67-year-old’s impact.
“Ranieri’s trying to infuse us with positivity, to wipe the slate clean a bit, and he’s succeeding in doing that,” he explained.
“He’s an honest Coach, even though I’ve only known him for a few days. His first task was to clean things up and put the pieces back together.
“He spoke to me before the match against Empoli. Obviously I was happy with what he said about me. I scored a goal and we won.
“Coaches leave teams all over the world. Now we’ll see what changes. We have to go on like this until the end of the season. After that, we’ll see which direction the club want to go in.”