Di Francesco: Sometimes you have to win ugly too

Edin Dzeko scored in the dying moments to belatedly secure victory for the Giallorossi.

What do you take away from this game – the good result or the not-so-good performance?

“I'd have been happier if we'd played better but every game throws up problems of some sort in this period. Today the weather and the wind weren't conducive to playing a certain type of football. Frosinone fought tooth and nail because they're scrapping for their Serie A survival. We made lots of technical mistakes and should have played better – playing like that you risk drawing or losing the game.

"The good thing is we never stopped wanting to win it right till the end. That's one way you can win games. We were excellent in the first half against Bologna too. I hope we'll start playing for 90 minutes again now.”

Do you think your playing system stretches the team?

“We conceded the second goal from a set-piece of our own because our positioning was poor. We had the game in our clutches, although we could have killed it off instead of trying to hang on. We're good at scoring goals but we concede too many as well – that's our main shortcoming. It's not the playing system but our mentality. When the opposition have the opportunity to play the ball, all too often we spread out and in doing so we risk getting caught on the counter. We need to improve in certain situations. I can partly excuse the players today because of the pitch and the wind but if we keep performing like this long term, nothing good will come of it. We must improve in certain areas.”

Edin Dzeko and Lorenzo Pellegrini were two of the positives today. Pellegrini played a starring role in the derby earlier in the season. How is he developing?

“I'm alternating him between between midfield and further forward in the hole. He's different to [Nicolo] Zaniolo – less physical and more technical. He made me angry in the second half because he could and should have hurt the opposition more. There was a foul the referee didn't give him on the edge of the box. He can only get better.”

How's Kostas Manolas?

“We'll have to see. He took a knock to the ankle and it swelled up. We'll have to assess him.”

How will you prepare for the derby? Was your team selection today made with that match in mind?

“If I'd only thought about the derby I wouldn't have picked the players who were one booking away from suspension. This was an important match and I mixed up a few players because we've had lots of games and we'd lost a bit of our sharpness. I needed fresh mental energy and I got it in part, but the main thing was going into the derby with a win because every match is tough in this league.”