Di Francesco: We showed character but know we can improve

The Giallorossi - who failed to beat Atalanta in two meetings last season - emerged victorious in Bergamo thanks to Aleksandar Kolarov's first-half free-kick, a fine strike that was complimented by a dogged defensive display.

And Di Francesco was pleased to see his side get off to a winning start, even in somewhat scrappy circumstances.

“Today I wanted a show of character, compared to the last outing of pre-season," Di Francesco said. "They didn’t lose many games here last season. Roma were beaten here. Atalanta always manage to press up, and they do it impressively. We needed to keep the ball and pass a bit better.

"I understand however that the players aren’t in their best possible condition. The fact that we didn’t concede and that the team worked as I asked them to is very pleasing to me. I saw a side out there that wanted to bag all three points. That’s the mentality of a top side. Those at the top often have to win ugly – that’s what we had to do today. I know this team can develop even further.

"When you keep the ball better, you don’t drop back so much. But, whether we were deep or not, the team stayed compact throughout and were willing to dig deep. I believe that ability to really dig in is something that can take this team up a notch."

Were there any errors that made you angry?

“We’d be better off not looking back at the times I got angry there on the bench. In the 90th minute, you can’t take a corner and give it straight back to the keeper, allowing the opponent to break forward – especially with the experience we have out there. You need to show a bit of ruthlessness and we have that thanks to some of our players with international experience.

"They could have taken the ball and kept it there, something that can really make a difference. We did well to keep hold of the ball in certain situations. We worked them out very early on. We did well to hurt them and get at them high up the pitch. We showed that we were not afraid.”

Are you worried about the few goalscoring opportunities created?

“I think Atalanta only hit the post in the second half – that means the team played well. Our opponents caused us problems because of our own mistakes. There wasn’t enough quality in the way we moved the ball – we made too many errors. We can do better from that point of view.

"There were times when we could have made better use of the ball. I’m calm, however. The team was better defensively than in an attacking sense. From tomorrow they’ll improve in attack.”

Have you been upset by any of the scepticism shown this week?

“No. I know what I’m doing here. Sometimes you have to be on the defensive, sometimes you have to be on the attack. One of my qualities is maintaining balance. I hope that’s a quality that my team shows too. We did very good work during pre-season.

"In the last game, I made choices to protect players that were set to feature today. That applied to everyone. We have a different coach here – I have a different approach. I want to create a team that always wants to play. We need to improve. I want an aggressive and compact side, which is what we managed to show, aside from the last few minutes when we were under pressure, backed into the corner.

"Honestly, this is a stadium that really makes it tough for you in the final 20 minutes. They press you back into your own half and are able to push you. We needed a bit more quality playing the ball forward.”