Spalletti's pre-Sassuolo press conference in full

As usual, the coach began by giving an update on the fitness of his squad.

"There's nothing much to report from the treatment room," Spalletti said. "The players have shown great desire to sort out the fallout from a defeat like that. Those knocks tend to hurt even more when you finish up on the losing side.

"There are a few niggles, for example Edin [Dzeko] took a kick and a boot to the face, while some of the players came through bruised from certain challenges. That said, there aren't any genuine injury concerns."

How do you motivate the team after a loss like that?

“You must be objective and tell truth - say what you think. You have to sit down, be realistic and analyse what happened. Yesterday was one of those days when you wake up and feel like you haven't got a grasp on anything - that you've lost it all - to the extent that you don't even want to turn the bathroom light on because you can't bear to look at yourself.

"It's a defeat that hurts, it's irritating. However, you must analyse things in the right way. When you watch it back, you realise that you're still on top of the situation. That was our performance and that's what our side is capable of. We have great potential. Sure, we're no longer involved in that top-level competition but we put in a great performance. That was the display I wanted from them and they played well. Clearly, certain results leave you lost for words but you must discuss things in the right way.

"That's the level of football we can produce especially against a top side like Lyon. When you have a record 25 shots on goal, that proves the team played very well. Perhaps late on we got hung up on the clock ticking down and we lost possession which allowed them to break. Barcelona won their game by scoring six times yet had fewer efforts on goal than we did. The lads played well. I hope that we can reproduce similarly great performances in our upcoming games. If we do so, we'll win lots of matches and perhaps we'll still be involved in Europe next season.

"You can lose a match but the next time you get back out there and show that you're still alive and kicking, that you're mentally strong. You prove you can come through the tough times that everyone faces. There will always be tricky spells in a tough league like this one. That's basically what we talked about. Now we'll try to play like that again tomorrow night. It won't be easy but you can see it in the players' eyes. Yesterday some of the players did the recovery work on the pitch immediately without staying in the pool. No one asked for a breather today for instance. These are crucial and very important details. We're working with a group of bright, quality, professional individuals."

How do [Eusebio] Di Francesco's Sassuolo side come into this one?

"It's becoming all too easy to highlight Di Francesco's ability. Last year he had a brilliant league campaign and even exceeded initial expectations. This season, he's found it harder going but he has a good side there. Last season his team played a lot of quality football. It's not easy to maintain those performance levels at Sassuolo, however. The opposition come into it too and the same goes for us. It's only natural there comes a time when things aren't going well.

"They do, however, have good players like [Gregoire] Defrel and [Domenico] Berardi, who is an Italy international with massive potential. They play as a team and their style shows that they have been working on the same tactical shape for two years. They like to play attacking football, move the ball and get it forward quickly. They're a strong side even though they're not displaying their full potential at this moment in time."

[Kostas] Manolas and [Antonio] Rudiger are excellent defenders but are Roma missing a quality ball-playing centre half in games like the Lyon match where the midfielders were blocked off?

"Often when you talk about dominating a game, you notice that the top sides always build from the back. You look for a goalkeeper who's good with his feet and a centre-back that can start moves. Napoli are a team that do it well, so too Juventus. We still have to improve a touch on this, even though I think Rudiger is capable of doing it, as are [Federico] Fazio and Juan Jesus. We must improve a bit but the potential is there.

"Often people only look at things from one side. I always ponder how much time I've actually had to work with this group of players. Rudiger got injured in pre-season and we didn't have time. Fazio joined at the end of the summer, as did [Bruno] Peres and then Mario Rui got injured. We haven't had the scope to work on the training ground. You don't end up training with such a packed fixture list. We can't go hell for leather in training.

"The defence was perfect the other night if you ask me. We were constantly breathing down the opposition's neck and we snuffed out every one of their attempts to break. It takes time to boss proceedings from the back. You need time to practise but we can already see a difference compared to last June."

Are you looking to the fixture list to restore your players' hunger? You host Sassuolo and Empoli either side of the international break, while Juventus play Sampdoria and Napoli.

"I believe the team now has a stretch of four or five matches in which, if they produce what they've shown this season, they can win them all. If you win them all, you then know there's a group of games when you can turn everything around. The context can change.

"Then it comes down to the run in. But you have to be in there. That's why we've told the players that the next four or five matches could determine our run in."