De Sanctis on Szczesny, Spalletti and Udinese

“[Wojciech] Szczesny is a complete goalkeeper," said the Giallorossi man. "He can do everything required of a modern goalkeeper. He's 26 and, despite having already played lots of games at the highest level, he still has the potential to develop and improve in terms of consistency and performances. He's good at everything as a goalkeeper: Dealing with the high ball, knowing when to come off his line and when to stay at home and he's good with his feet. He can only improve from here."

Just like Luciano Spalletti, the Roma goalkeeper also knows the city of Udine well, where he played between 1999 and 2007. Five of those campaigns came under the stewardship of the current Roma boss.

"The gaffer was important for my career. He was for me and all the players in that Udinese crop, many of whom went on to make it big, like Marek Jankulovski, David Pizarro, Vincenzo Iaquinta and even Antonio Di Natale, who joined with Spalletti. Spalletti did very well at Udinese. He was already knowledgeable and determined to play attractive football, he succeeded there and has continued in that vein throughout his career.

"He spent time abroad, something I've also experienced in my playing career. Now he's more well-rounded as a coach. He performed on a big stage in Russia and he's come back a better coach. Plus, Roma is a place he was already familiar with. He appreciates its strengths and is aware of its shortcomings. He's come back with greater knowledge but, above all, he knows what being a coach is all about. Basically, he wants his players to adhere to specific instructions from a technical and tactical perspective but also in terms of their behaviour off the pitch."

Roma go into the match on the back of a defeat in Madrid which sent them out of the Champions League.

"We weren't as ruthless as we could and should have been in either of the two legs, so we came away with a pair of losses. It doesn't matter whether we deserved to lose or not, nor whether the scoreline was harsh. We're in the midst of a broad period of transition that we shouldn't try to define. I'm very much on board with how he wants to change the players' mindsets with his post-match comments. It's the same message he's been relaying for the best part of two months. Certain things cropped over the course of the two legs against Real Madrid that we could have taken advantage of and that he foresaw, he had warned us about them."

There are ten matches to play in the league to try and secure Champions League football for next season.

"The campaign we've had, 28 games in, means we have no margin for error," concluded De Sanctis. "We have to try and take maximum points, like in our past seven games, and then hope that the sides above us stumble. It could happen but we have to be fully focused on our job, starting with the match at Udinese, which won't be easy. They have a very talented squad and a strong side. We're making sure we study what Udinese's strengths are to best counteract them. We have to play well to be able to win the match."