Zeman: Possession football is pointless

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.”


#saveusZEMAN

#SaveUsZeman
#Zemanlandia

High tempo pass and move.

SaveusRagnick

This goes against Ducth football principles. This man is still living in the dark ages.

Barca have ruined football.

#saveuszeman

Zerman

this guy is a joke

Swanhends wrote:

Ganso wrote:Zerman

At first I was like what's so funny, but then

Barcelona play good football. Why all the hate here?

Rebaño Sagrado wrote:

Swanhends wrote:

Ganso wrote:Zerman

At first I was like what's so funny, but then

i'm new here, why is this funny?

#saveusZEMAN
#savefootball

Clockwork Orange wrote:

Rebaño Sagrado wrote:

Swanhends wrote:

Ganso wrote:Zerman

At first I was like what's so funny, but then

i'm new here, why is this funny?

It requires intimate knowledge of the complex charachter that is Brian

What he said doesn't imply it's useless.

Totti goes where Totti wants, and possession football is only pointless if you do nothing with it.

Zeman he'll be gone within the year.

God himself has spoken

Clockwork Orange wrote:

Rebaño Sagrado wrote:

Swanhends wrote:

Ganso wrote:Zerman

At first I was like what's so funny, but then

i'm new here, why is this funny?

I cant remember if it was jibers (thread creator) or Albiceleste, but someone called Neymar, Nerman in a thread they made...Not sure if it was a typo or intentional but we all took up the name change and started calling him Nerman to make fun of him/them

Zeman-Zerman is a play on that

We seriously need to put GL memes in a sticky thread on top of this page. Newbies will be lost without!!!

lol i just now realized he typed zerman and not zeman

I'm posting on my Iphone,I will post that Nigerian nerman Facebook post tomorrow,i bookmarked it . #Saveusnerman

Messiah "Aggerswagger" wrote:We seriously need to put GL memes in a sticky thread on top of this page. Newbies will be lost without!!!

Im actually going to work on this tomorrow

Can he really start attacking posession based teams when his team tied vs. a scrubs?

I saw a Roma side still effected by the meaningless system implemented by Enrique, tons of passes and no end product, also letting organized Serie A teams tighten up even more, thus, making it even harder for yourself to score. (Without Messi)

No need to bash Zeman here, to make his style work one needs to be more direct.

Also, Godmez at Catania

Clockwork Orange wrote:Barcelona play good football. Why all the hate here?

Not Barcelona mate, more the teams that try to copy them.

With no direct players in the final third, possession football becomes pointless and boring.

Believe me Possession Football can be the most exciting type known to man if you take risks with your passing in the final third and allow your attackers to take similar risks.

It's when teams just to pass it between the back 4 and the midfield and don't even bother to score but more keep possession to stop others from score is when people have the problem.

Barca are not like this though, there's different types of possession football.

Exactly, its much easier to win games in a counter-attacking stystem, hence why every small team uses that tactic when playing against a much better team. But only the really good teams can win by playing possession based football