ZENDEN DOESN'T LIKE IT AT CHELSEA

Last updated : 28 March 2003 By Editor
The 26 year old Dutch winger has hit out at his manager’s
style branding him ‘too Italian’:

"In my games for Holland, PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona, I
have spent 20% of my time defending and 80% in attack.

"But, with Chelsea, I have to defend 60% of the time.

"Ranieri sets out with a defensive formation. He likes us to
play on the counter-attack and hit opponents on the break.

"He's also capable of changing his tactics during a game.
Last season, we sometimes used four different systems in the
same match.

"He has an Italian mentality while I have a Dutch one. He
plays games not to lose while I play them to win."

He also feels marginalised by the squad rotation policy:

"I want to play more matches. Five or six players are
guaranteed their places but the rest have to take turns.”

Zenden went on to take a swipe at the attitude of some of
his team-mates:

"When we went to the final against Arsenal last season, some
of the players took their cameras. They gave the impression
it was just a day's outing.”

And he, like most footballers, is starting to feel the
pinch:

"We also notice Chelsea have financial concerns. We used to
get four different kinds of fruit to eat at meal-times but
one day they started to give us just two."