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Cape Town - Juventus director Pavel Nedved believes Francesco Totti 'does not know what it's like to play at a great club' following their 3-2 win over Roma.
The Bianconeri inflicted a first loss of the season on rivals Roma on Sunday and maintained the only perfect record in the league, opening up a three-point gap on the Giallorossi.
The hosts were awarded two contentious penalties on the day and there were later suggestions that Arturo Vidal was in an offside position and standing in the view of goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski for Leonardo Bonucci's winner, claims that were later confirmed by video replays.
Roma captain Totti was left visibly upset after the final whistle and made some damning comments about the match officials in his post-match interview, going as far as to say that his side would definitely finish second due to the favouritism shown towards Juve.
However, Nedved has responded to his long-time friend's comments by saying that the Old Lady, if anything, are more often than not the victim of poor officiating and suggested that Totti be stripped of the captaincy for conceding the Serie A title just six games into the season.
"Although Francesco is a friend, a truly great champion, and the end of the game I hailed him, I was angry with him when I heard what he said in front of the cameras," he told Italia 1.
"Totti has never got to play in a team as big as Juventus and, for this reason, he does not understand what it means to work for such an important club.
"If you play or work for Juventus, everyone is against you. We only have our fans behind us, while we find public opinion against us.
"And I'd even go as far as to say that this also affects the attitude of the referees, who are almost afraid to give anything in our favour.
"Roma have built a wonderful team and Totti, again, I congratulate him - but for what he does on the field - not for what he says off it.
"If you were in my team and you said after just the sixth round 'We'll finish second' and you are the captain, I don't know if you'd get to keep that armband.
"They're speaking of a distorted league, but we also need to look at the impression we have given of our league abroad: Sunday was a beautiful game, a real battle in which everything happened.
"Italian football is growing in Europe, as evidenced by what we are doing in the cups - this is what is important, not the controversy."
