De Rossi: "We could've done more"

Here’s what Daniele De Rossi had to say after today’s performance...

How do you feel coming away from this stadium? How much is this point worth?

“It’s worth one point in the table and it’s not worth much in terms of morale because it didn’t come with a convincing performance. I’ll say it again, we didn’t do badly against Bologna. We had a few chances and some moments went the wrong way, but today, even if we earned a point more than we did against Bologna, we played a below-par match against a strong team.

“To win we would’ve had to put on an excellent performance and obviously we weren’t able to do that against a team like this. They’d prepared for this, and in a difficult moment they managed to bring out that pride of champions and of players who are very tough to face.”

Sardar Azmoun got the penalty and Tammy drew Roma level. They had a positive contribution, do you agree?

“Yes, because these moments make a difference in football, both positive and negative, and they were the key players involved in those moments. They helped us as much as they could. They both could’ve done better, even though Tammy came on at the end. You can always do better, but I’m happy with the forwards I’ve got. It wasn’t an easy game. When you play against teams this good, your first thought is to take the ball away from them, not when they have the ball, but when you have the ball. You need to disrupt their tempo and take away the chance of them getting close to our penalty area. We knew they’d be dangerous with the ball as they’ve got so many quality players.

“I don’t think we kept the ball very well. We could’ve done more. We could’ve done better. Even our forwards’ performance could’ve been much more positive.”

The most crucial thing is that your heads are always in the game, even during this one which was really tough. You drew because you’re switched on.

“We’re doing good things in terms of performance and especially results. It’s been quite a positive journey since I got here and I’m happy with our attitude. There are teams that always lose when they play badly and there are others that have the heart, the brains, and the experience to bring home a point from a poor performance.

“We didn’t cover the ball very well. In the second half we left too much space behind for Osimhen, a player that can sometimes find that space because he’s so fast. I rewatched the one-on-one chance down the wing. It didn’t seem that dangerous at the time, but we can do better in those circumstances too.”

[De Rossi is shown a replay of Gianluca Mancini’s block on Victor Osimhen]

“Here Mancini saves a definite goal. I have players that, even in matches that aren’t that great, are fully invested in our season. They want to get something out of this season, knowing it’ll be difficult.

“We’re heading into another three tough games. We have Leverkusen, Juve, Leverkusen, Atalanta, without forgetting the last two that will hopefully be interspersed with the Europa League final.

“It’s hard. We tell ourselves that and we know that. We’ve got to find the strength to earn the points we need to secure a place in the Champions League or to win the Europa League.”

How do you beat Bayer Leverkusen?

“Honestly, I thought Milan were very good. I was scared of Brighton and Feyenoord too because they’re similar in the fact that they both wanted to play football. Preparing games against teams that want to play football is a bit difficult.

“One thing we’ll have to do is play very carefully in defence. But above all, as it always is against teams that want to play football, we need to stretch them and move them out of position when they don’t have the ball. That’s always an interesting option. They have very good players who pass the ball well, and they have a lot of dangerous forwards. If you take the ball away from them, they get nervous, they lose balance and they lose their shape. We’ll have to play both phases perfectly because if they never lose, and, above all, have the heart to draw 20 games in the final few minutes, if I'm not mistaken, then they have something special. They’re unbeaten but there’s no such thing as unbeatable.”