Di Francesco: We know we cannot continue like this

Edin Dzeko scored for the Giallorossi, but only after both Andreas Cornelius and Marten De Roon had given the visitors the advantage.

Read everything the boss had to say after the game.

“We started well in the first ten minutes, but after Atalanta scored we fell apart and became nervous," he began. "We lacked character when we had the ball, we wanted to get rid of it straight away. This must not happen because we are Roma.

"Sometimes you get spells like this, but you need to have the character and strength to play in a certain way. I wasn’t happy with the team in the first half at all: they didn’t do what we’ve been working on. We’ve found it far too difficult to score goals recently.”

Edin Dzeko scored in the second half, but once again you lacked a cutting edge to finish off the moves.

“We’ve taken a few steps back, for sure. Now we must all apologise and realise that in order to be clinical we have to come together as a team. We’ll have a chance to do that during the winter break. We have to recharge our batteries physically and mentally, we need to reset and start again to be the team that we were before this period. We cannot play like this.”

How important are the leaders of this team in order to get out of this situation?

“In all top sides – if you want to be one – the most important players must drive the rest else forward. However, I expect more from everyone: we cannot be satisfied with this. We were doing some good things before but not anymore. We have to be resilient, get our heads down and work hard. Let’s wipe the mistakes out of our game and show that spark of character that comes from the attributes and quality of our squad. Our biggest players need to be able to push the youngsters forward.”

Before this game you highlighted some positive statistics from the team, but have you identified the cause of this slump as well?

“Today, even though we had I don’t know how many crosses, our goal came from a ball played forward, which is what I want. We’re all perfectly capable of playing sideways, but sometimes you need to force certain moves that we work on during the week. Here too, you need character, knowing that you may mess it up but you could also get it right. This should be our mindset when we try to play forwards.

"We’re showing that despite all our crosses we’re not able to finish off the bulk of our play, so we should try to force it through vertical channels instead. We’re not doing this enough, which means I’m going wrong somewhere because I have to insist on certain principles. Nevertheless, the players need to produce something more.”

If Radja Nainggolan had played, would Roma have won today?

“It doesn’t prove us wrong, as Radja played in our previous losses this season. Win or lose, the most important thing is the team. We made an ethical decision; it’s easy to give opinions now. You have to make choices in life: sometimes they come off perfectly and everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Right now, however, everyone has hung us out to dry and that’s normal. Radja will play next time around and give us something extra.”