SPALLETTI: "THE PLAYERS REALLY SACRIFICED FOR THE TEAM TODAY"
With a number of players out injured, others required to play despite carrying knocks, and a few more asked to drop into unfamiliar positions, Luciano Spalletti was delighted with the team ethic shown by his side. Mohamed Salah scored all three goals - his first hat-trick for the Giallorossi - to deliver the three points, ensuring Spalletti's side sit second in Serie A TIM as the league campaign enters another international window.
It was a convincing win tonight. Was that Roma at their best?
“Well, not in the first half. We were better after the break, which is strange because I was expecting us to drop off a little seeing as we played on Thursday evening. I was anticipating us being a tad off the pace and maybe not hitting the heights, but in actual fact we only struggled a little at the start then did well when we shifted up a gear. We finished the game fantastically. You have to hand it to the lads for their performance tonight.”
Are you surprised at how well you’re dealing with the injury problems?
“The club has put together a competitive squad. We’ve had lots of injuries but at the same time the players that have been involved less have stepped up to the plate. You need to be able to adapt in these situations and we’ve done that. For example, [Radja] Nainggolan dropped in at right-back at the end and showed real quality. Obviously, we’d like to achieve more of a balance. When you create eight good chances, you need to be sticking one away.”
Can you challenge Juventus this year?
“I don’t know if we’re the main challengers, but we’ve gained ground on everyone since the last international break and that shows that the other teams are having issues too. We’ve adapted to what is a bit of an emergency situation and played players like [Antonio] Rudiger, who we knew we’d have to bring off at some point tonight. When you play with lots of players out of position something usually goes wrong, but here at Roma we have lots of top professionals who have shown real self-sacrifice.”
Is it a shame that there’s an international break now?
“No, it’s good that we’re going to get a rest. It’ll give us the chance to get a few players back. I nearly had to bring [Leandro] Paredes off tonight just after I put him on – he felt another twinge in his knee and hurt his ankle trying to protect it.”
There were a couple of defensive mishaps tonight – is that the only negative?
“I suppose so, but [Federico] Fazio wasn’t at 100% either so that’s why there were a few problems. I’d asked Bruno Peres to help out with that in mind. All told, we didn’t give much away apart from the first quarter of an hour, when we were half asleep.”
How are you going to deal with Mohamed Salah being away in January?
“I have [Stephan] El Shaarawy and he’s always performed well, plus [Juan] Iturbe who’s a great player but just needs a bit more confidence in his game. I’ve not given him that much playing time thus far so he’s obviously not going to be ready to perform to the same standard as those that are playing every week.”
(Photo LaPresse)
