Stam surprise at Italian start

The Lazio defender Jaap Stam says that he is surprised by the quality of Italian football's less heralded sides. The former Manchester United defender described Serie A as a tougher place to play than the Premiership.

"In England, there is an abysmal difference between the strong squads and the weak squads," Stam said. "In Italy, it is not like this. Even a squad of a lesser level can give you many problems. To win is not as simple."

Lazio, still without a victory five games into the campaign, have managed only draws against the Serie A minnows: Piacenza, Perugia, Torino.

The Dutch international, who has been out of action with a foot injury for the past two weeks, was set to play in a friendly against Ellera yesterday. The Lazio coach, Alberto Zaccheroni, was due to use the match as an opportunity to assess the fitness of players recovering from injuries.

Stam, the defender Paolo Negro, who has a knee problem, and the goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi, who has had a leg injury, are hoping to be ready for Saturday's game against Atalanta. Sinisa Mihajlovic, who also has a knee injury, will not come into contention for a place.

The Ajax striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been banned for five matches for intentionally elbowing the Groningen defender Melchior Schoenmakers. The incident was not seen by match officials in the match Ajax won 4-1, but Groningen nevertheless reported it to the Dutch Football Association. The 20-year-old Swedish international was found guilty on video evidence.

The Groningen defender Magnus Johansson is adamant that Ibrahimovic deserved his punishment. "Zlatan thumped into his neck with his elbow so that he [Schoenmakers] fell to the ground and had to be carried off on a stretcher," he said.

"Meichior couldn't train for three days. The [video] pictures are absolute proof, and that's surely why the punishment was so harsh."

Ibrahimovic said: "I still say that the referee is being ridiculous. It wasn't dangerous but I did go in with my arm in an aerial challenge."

The Ajax press officer, Erik van Leeuvwen, said that his club may decide to appeal. "We can either accept the ban or put in a protest," he said. "We could possibly get the ban reduced to three or four matches."