Ten key quotes from our Strootman interview you might have missed

This week we published a long interview with Kevin Strootman, as he gave his full and final assessment of the 2016-17 campaign.

You can still read the article here – and the full, uncut conversation on Medium – but for those without quite that amount of time to spare, here are 10 key comments from the Dutch midfielder…

On returning to action after injury…

"Physically I felt good, and I think I was in form physically, but to play games it’s a different thing. If you don’t play for two years — and yes, I played some games, but really it was two years of nothing — then you have to play games to get to the level that you want.“You can’t just train, you need to find yourself again, because maybe you also have to change the way you play a bit after the injury and the way the injury has affected you. Your body reacts differently. I needed time.”

On scoring in the derby…

“Yeah, oh man, I didn’t know what I was doing. It’s overwhelming. I don’t score so many goals, so I can’t really think like, ‘If I score, I’m going to do this’! But with that goal, and because the game had been so tight … we were a little bit better but we didn’t really play good, we didn’t really create a lot of chances. And then to score a goal out of nothing, it gives you a really good feeling.”

On Edin Dzeko’s impressive campaign…

"He is always a real professional, he is always in the gym doing his exercises to improve himself. After training he stays to practice with the coaches, he is shooting from 5 or 10 yards and we are looking at him like, ‘This is easy, you can do this already!’ but he just wants to improve, to get even more precise.“Maybe even last season he actually did too much, because he wanted to help the team so much. You know, he would be everywhere — he would run 50 metres back to defend, to fight and do everything for the team, and then try to go forward and score goals as well. Maybe he was doing too much, and this season he found a great balance.”

On ‘surprise package’ Emerson Palmieri…

“Maybe for the people outside, but for us there is no surprise. Even last year, in training, he was like something unbelievable. He could do things with the ball that no-one could do; how he dribbled, how he controlled the ball. He is like an attacker who can defend. Also last year in training he had that, and he played one or two games and didn’t really show that. So we were like, ‘What’s the problem here?’ Is he a little bit nervous? But this year he changed things, maybe the mentality, and on the pitch he was really good.”

On the Europa League defeat in Lyon…

“We were just going after the goals and then, especially after 2–2, maybe there was that feeling that we were so strong in the first half that we can win this game. And maybe we spent too much energy on making the goal to go back … and we just let it go a little bit.“That was something that was unacceptable for us as professional players of Roma. To play a first half like that, and then let it get away like that in the second half, the difference was too big.”

On Daniele De Rossi…

"Last year when he got the critics, it was never the players, it was just the journalists and the media. Of course players have good moments and bad, but he has always shown his quality and even now, at 33, he doesn’t play like that.“Maybe he looks like that a bit in the face, but if you see him playing he is so smart! In training he already knows where you are going to go so he plays the other way — and you see that with Italy and with us. He has so much passion: he and Totti were two of the reasons I wanted to come to Rome, because they are idols and examples to everyone."

On the squad’s strength…

“Everyone brings their own individual qualities, but everyone knows what they have to do as part of their role. We know everyone in our squad can play, they can play. With some teams, you know that, ‘Okay, that guy can stay on the bench and come in, but he cannot play 90 minutes’ but with our guys, like Paredes, they have that quality to come in.”

On the appointment of Monchi…

"He could have gone to a lot of other clubs, but he chose to come to Rome. So Roma managed to convince him to come here. That is good, that shows ambition from everyone. It shows the club wants to improve and is doing that.“In interviews he has made it clear he wants to win, and that’s good to hear.”

On fans returning for the final games…

“It helps you. For sure, it helps you. 1–0 behind with a full stadium [like against Juventus], you cannot give up! You go, you give it everything and a stadium like that you want every week. It makes such a difference.”

On Totti's farewell...

“Everybody wanted to come to the stadium for the game [against Genoa], which shows you his impact. Everyone was texting me, calling me, wanting a ticket. Just for this game, just for him. It shows what he did for Rome, and everything he deserves as a result of that.”

The full interview with Kevin Strootman can be read on Roma's official Medium account.