Di Francesco: A decent point but we can still do a lot better

Stephan El Shaarawy opened the scoring for the Giallorossi early in the first half - but a 90th minute strike from Dries Mertens denied the visitors all three points.

“We’re disappointed to have conceded in the 90th minute, even though I have to say Napoli deserved to draw in the end, given how the match went," Di Francesco said.

"We had players starting with fitness problems. What we most struggled with was keeping our rhythm and being incisive. We were much better in the first half in playing the ball out through their press, taking risks at times, but that was the idea – we knew that playing around their first press would help us create danger. We also forced them to run a great deal.

"However in the second half we were the ones forced to run around and we struggled to reverse the momentum, dropping too deep. We did have our chances in the second half but overall Napoli deserved to get the draw in the end.”

Is this the response you were expecting from the team?

“We need to improve in many areas – we’ve got numerous players that I still need to fully integrate into this Roma side. When you’re not getting the results in the league, you go into certain matches with real determination and, in particular, the desire to get something positive and to play well, as my players did in spells.

"We were playing a team in great condition. We on the other hand had a number of fitness issues, starting with Daniele De Rossi and Kostas Manolas who were forced off – these players are hugely important for us.”

On four or five occasions they robbed you of the ball as you played out. Was that a calculated risk or can you play through that press without taking too many risks?

“I often shouted that to the players, when they played the ball long for Edin Dzeko. When you’re lacking fluency, you need to interpret certain situations. There were times their pressing caused us problems, but there are particular ideas that we’re constantly working on. When you always play the ball short and sideways, you give your opponent more of an opportunity to press.

"There are certain times in the game when you need to draw them in and play over the first line of pressing. When we did that tonight we managed to make them run into dead ends.”

You’re having real ups and downs at the moment. Why are you failing to stabilise the team from an emotional point of view?

“I think we put in an excellent display this evening. We made a few bad technical decisions, but in terms of our desire, our compactness as a team and our fight, we did well. This feels like an achievement in itself. We’re keeping on working – we’ve played thirteen competitive games this season. We’ve made some changes and we’re trying to calm things down for the players, in our results and our play. I want to be consistent with the players and convince them of the displays they are capable of. At least we got a positive result here.”

Your plan in the second half seemed to work, when you dropped very deep. Did they perhaps have a little too much joy on the flanks? Did you plan to allow more crosses from wide, so you could better defend the centre of the pitch?

“Against Napoli you need to stop them finding their central passing lanes and that’s what we wanted to do – we allowed them a few more crosses from the flanks, also with Arek Milik going off, which helped from that perspective. I’m not a huge fan of the plan B – we lose a bit of our identity and we were pushed back too far.

"We’ve not trained to defend so deep. It can happen, but I’d like a team that is more on the front foot compared to the defensive approach we showed after the break. That’s what happened, however, and it was also a result of physical factors.”

What are some players missing to make that step up mentally?

“Do you remember how Lorenzo Pellegrini was last season? Now he’s a completely different player. Young players need to be given time and helped to develop. If we had won today, even if we didn’t deserve the three points, it would have been a confidence boost for everyone. Instead there’s a bit of disappointment that we conceded in the 90th minute.

"That’s the kind of thing that could help us improve quickly. There are other times, however, when you need to be patient, also taking what you can from less positive performances. I’m hopeful and optimistic, however. This team has shown real potential – sometimes they don’t show it to the full and that’s where I have to be at my best also, creating the conditions for the team to show their quality consistently.”