Eusebio Di Francesco spoke in the post-match press conference after Roma-Bologna 3-2.
"I have to give credit to the lads tonight. They played under difficult circumstances in a strange atmosphere and we all had emotions going round inside. There was a kind of protest and we know that it’s our fault that it’s come to this. It wasn’t easy for our players. You can see that we’re still sick as a team, but we showed our pride and desire to get three vital points. In many other respects, we’ve definitely had better performances than this without getting any reward. We were up against an in-form side – their players are fit and they knew that their opponents were a little afraid. It’s all part of football. Only those that have played here in this city understand it."
About the three in attack the Giallorossi coach said: "At the start the plan was for Zaniolo to play as a trequartista, but he was finding it tricky to link up with Cengiz [Under] and [Justin] Kluivert, partly because they weren’t used to playing together, and because those two were leaving themselves too open. I asked them to play closer together and they linked up better and got into the box more. In the second half we went with a three in central midfield, because they were struggling to put pressure on their midfielders, our central midfielders were holding too flat a line and our centre-backs were struggling to close them down. When he shows that spark Zaniolo can do it all, though he does need to improve his decision-making with the ball and sometimes hold the ball for a while. That said, when he goes to get at the opposition you can see that he has what it takes to play at the highest level. If we start thinking that we’re Roma so we can afford simply to pass it around, we won’t get anywhere."
(Photo Getty Images)
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Source: legaseriea.it