Walter Sabatini Poll

Not at all!

He's a good finder of talent, but he's absolutely awful at building an actual team. Two summers in a row he's failed at giving the coach a team fitting of his tactical setup. This past summer in my opinion is especially inexcusable. In both winter markets he's failed to make some deals to try and patch the holes in the team. This market is especially troubling because all our competitors have strengthened themselves.

Huge disappointment.

 

Let's not exaggerate. For want to defend Zeman some people here are acting like he's a deity. Personally I don't think Zeman is completely to blame for this season but I would not make the mistake of pretending the man can do no wrong.

Also who suggested Marquinhos really has little relevance. The fact is when Sabatini became aware he studied and purchased the player. This is a good thing. The bad thing is that two seasons in a row with two coaches who play high defensive lines he has not targeted defenders adapt for it.0

 

This is just not true, Walter Sabatini wanted to sign Ricky Alvarez alongside Erik Lamela. I don't know how this has become some widespread among the English speaking Roma contingent. However if you follow any journalist in Roma or any of the radio stations they will tell you a different story. Sabatini wanted to sign Alvarez but was unable to because the sale of AS Roma impeded the process.

 

Zeman has displayed the ability to get the best out of a lot of players, and has discovered some great players. However this is guy that wanted Goicoechea and Tachtsidis, two very average players. He's picked some winner but he's picked a lot of duds. Just the same as any sporting director.

This might not be common knowledge here but Zeman is a coach that has been widely studied in Italy. At Coverciano where they have the coaching school they study Zeman and his 4-3-3. There are books written on him and his football. Some people who in all likely hood discovered Zeman through his revival via Pescara and have bought into the myth of Zemanlandia might not fully appreciate that this is story that's already been told.

This is why I've always been adamant that when they signed Zeman they had to have known what they were getting. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Mistakes have been made, but they have been made by both parties. And this comes from someone who considers himself Zemaniano.

For example I believe the club probably tried to push Zeman into using De Rossi as a regista. Telling him the "player wants to play there and we think he will adapt to it. So he's your player there, and you can have this other guy from Serie B who costs nothing." Seems plausible. When you are building something with limited resources at a certain point you make a decision and roll with it. Zeman could have been more adamant, instead he back tracked. In his second press conference he went and said De Rossi because of his qualities could also play regista. However in the first he said he saw him as an intermedio same as on the national team.

While our attack has scored a lot of goals this season it's also the most un-Zeman attack I can recall witnessing. Our attacking trident is static. It doesn't make runs. Part of this is Zeman's insistence on playing Totti. I'm not trying to attack Totti, he's given a lot this year. However Totti does not play the same in this team as he did the first time Zeman was here. The attacking movements they practice are all the same. You watch Pescara last year and look at how they attack, and then watch Roma and look at how we attack. Something is not working. Maybe Zeman is trying to adapt and he's entitled to do so. However I can't help but wonder why he let both Bojan and Borini go, players whom in this 4-3-3 would have thrived. They say Zeman doesn't ever oppose the management ... fine. However these are players he needed. I don't want to pat myself on the back but I'm damn sure I complained about it excessively in the summer.

Zeman is not perfect, or his career would have been much different. There is a lot to admire about him. In a very false and corrupt league he was the only one with the courage to say certain things. He's a man whom if he believes it he will say it. However those men, the kind of men who are set in their ways are also stubborn and slightly arrogant. And there are signs of that in this second era of Zeman. He was not able to build a relationship with De Rossi. This is obvious they dislike each other. De Rossi in his press conference said he had hoped his good friend Montella would be coach. Zeman wants soldiers, he thrives on players who are going to follow him without question. De Rossi was not prepared to do that, from the start. Zeman failed to change that. That's on him.

I really like Zeman, somewhere in me there is a younger version that sill believes in that promise. That football doesn't need to be a chess battle. That the most ugly Ranieri-ism where you score one goal and then try to bore them into submission is not the only way and should not be. However Zedenek Zeman is complex character, a tragic hero fit for a Greek tale. It's not so black and white as to say he didn't get the right players. Yes that is a part of it, it's an element. But there is so much more to it.

 

I think there definitely needs to be some changes in the upper management this summer. Not saying Sabatini needs to be fired, but perhaps demoted or moved to a new position.

It just seems nuts when you look at what Prade has done with less money.

 

In the season where we sent Bojan and Borini away so we could have both Osvaldo and Destro I think we can rule out a fear of excessiveness.