Di Francesco: Cengiz showed his fabulous technical ability

Cengiz Under and Diego Perotti grabbed second half goals for the Giallorossi at the Dacia Arena, making it three wins in a row ahead of the return to Champions League action in midweek.

“You always need a bit of individual magic to win games but our [opening] goal was the result of playing as a team," Di Francesco said. "We all worked hard and fashioned openings while waiting for the right moment.

"Udinese broke forward on the counter a couple of times but with the way we play there's always the chance that will happen. We gain from it ourselves too, though.”

Do you think the current playing system is working?

“I think my playing philosophy is working and that hasn't changed – we've just shifted the weight of the team forward. Sometimes it means giving something away on the break and you have less cover in front of the defence, but I changed things to alter the lads' way of thinking. We'd done well with 4-3-3 but after a while we went a bit flat and we were no longer performing the way I wanted. We tweaked things tactically and worked on it and it's all to the advantage of the team.”

You seem to be putting in a lot of wayward crosses. Is that something you need to work on?

“Yes, I'd agree with that. We're looking to get the ball forward more now. I don't like crosses played in from deep or balls aimed at [Edin] Dzeko that make it easy for the opposition defence. Most of the players you come up against in Europe and Italy are good in the air. We need to improve our final ball.”

How much is [Cengiz] Under worth and where does he need to improve?

“He needs to improve his decision-making. Sometimes he plays with his head down and doesn't see the options, but he's playing a lot more for the team than when he first arrived. He's got fabulous technical ability as you can see. The thing he does best is setting himself up for the shot – he shows such quick feet.”

The players are looking fitter now too...

“We made a choice based on the number of games we still have to play this season. We loaded them up and there was a risk we'd play a few games at a slightly lower level but it was a calculated risk that we took with the aim of increasing our intensity. We finished the game strongly today. We do need to do better at the start of games, though. We did a bit better today but we still need further improvement.”

Now you face Shakhtar, a team who haven't played any competitive matches for a while.

“We have to make that work in our favour. We've got more games behind us but they have some quality players up front who are capable of beating their man and getting in on goal. We need to play at a high tempo and close them down in their own half. The most important thing is that we work as a team. Recently we've been doing that on and off – there have been times when we haven't really played as a collective.”

Could Patrik Schick play in place of Edin Dzeko up front?

“Schick is an important player for us and he's slowly getting to grips with what I want from him. Edin put in another good shift today. I'm really happy with the way he's toiling for the team.”