Miralem Pjanic believes Roma will “benefit greatly” from their pre-season tour of Australia and Indonesia as it offers the team the perfect opportunity to build up their fitness levels while trying out different tactical solutions against top-notch opposition.
The 25-year-old Bosnian midfielder, speaking to journalists after slotting home the opening penalty in the Giallorossi’s shootout victory over Real Madrid, also admitted that he is enjoying the cooler climes offered by the Australian winter before revealing that he hopes Bosnia team-mate Edin Dzeko will join him at Roma.
This was a good test for you. It may only have been a friendly but it’s always important to win against a team like Real Madrid, right?
“Yes it’s always nice to win, whatever the occasion and however you do it – even on penalties like today. But besides the result, today the performance was important too. We played well and in an organized fashion. We can say it’s a good start to our pre-season preparations.”
The tempo was still quite low but you get the impression the players out there – a pretty much unchanged side from last season – are comfortable playing together. Is that so?
“It’s normal for the tempo to still be low. We’re only on our fourth day of training, plus we had a long journey and we’re still shaking off the effects of jet lag. I do think we played well together though. We’re working hard to reproduce on the pitch what the coach wants us to do in training. Some things do come to us naturally from last season but we need to improve. Of course we’re working on fitness in pre-season because you need that to be able to perform at the same level for the whole 90 minutes.”
It’s winter here in Melbourne. Does it help you having a cooler climate to work in?
“It’s hard to train in the heat and it’s certainly a very different climate here to Rome – it’s sweltering back there. We’ve got the ideal conditions really: a prestigious tournament, two great games against international-class opposition and good weather. I think we’ll benefit greatly from this tour.”
There are lots of rumors about Edin Dzeko at the moment and it’s been said that you gave him some advice. As you know him well, do you know if he wants to come to Roma?
“No one needs to convince him. He already knows all about Roma and some of the players here too. We often speak together. What can I say other than I hope it happens [Dzeko joining Roma]. He has a very high opinion of Roma. We’ll see how things go over the coming days.”
Real Madrid today and Manchester City on Tuesday. You can almost hear the Champions League music…
“It’s always a pleasure to play against teams like Real and City. There’s a great atmosphere when you’re up against world-class players used to challenging for trophies every year.
The tactics were different to your first game. Do you think this team is capable of switching from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1?
We worked on a number of tactical aspects today as the coach asked us to try out certain things. We played 4-3-3 here but we know – and we saw last season – that we can change to 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-1-2. It’s up to Garcia and I’m sure he’ll get us to work on other formations too. The main thing is that we get to a point where all of our movements become second nature. That’s what we’re here for, to make sure we prepare properly for next season.”
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