Di Francesco: Plenty of mistakes - but our spirit was spot on

The win at the Stadio Olimpico brought to an end the Giallorossi's recent run of poor form, as Federico Fazio, Justin Kluivert and Bryan Cristante scored the crucial goals.

"I have to give credit to the lads tonight," Di Francesco said.

"They played under difficult circumstances in a strange atmosphere and we all had emotions going round inside. There was a kind of protest and we know that it’s our fault that it’s come to this. It wasn’t easy for our players.

"You can see that we’re still sick as a team, but we showed our pride and desire to get three vital points. In many other respects, we’ve definitely had better performances than this without getting any reward."

Nicolo Zaniolo was immense tonight. He never stopped running!

"People told me I had got it wrong when I gave him his debut against Madrid. We’ve found the talent, application and determination that we’ve often been lacking in a young lad who had a great game tonight, just like Bryan Cristante and many others, given the difficulties. There were lots of mistakes in terms of both tactics and technique tonight, but in terms of emotion that was the performance I wanted to see.

"We were up against an in-form side – their players are fit and they knew that their opponents were a little afraid. It’s all part of football. Only those that have played here in this city understand it."

Which are the players that you can build around now?

"I made different tactical decisions today based on the specific situations involved. I wanted to see some emotion in our performance. We made a few mistakes in defence tonight. But I tried to get us to show a lot of emotion and I got lots of positive responses. Obviously we came up short a lot on a technical level, but that was the least of my concerns tonight."

Were you impressed by the three in attack?

"At the start the plan was for Zaniolo to play as a trequartista, but he was finding it tricky to link up with Cengiz [Under] and [Justin] Kluivert, partly because they weren’t used to playing together, and because those two were leaving themselves too open. I asked them to play closer together and they linked up better and got into the box more.

"In the second half we went with a three in central midfield, because they were struggling to put pressure on their midfielders, our central midfielders were holding too flat a line and our centre-backs were struggling to close them down. When he shows that spark Zaniolo can do it all, though he does need to improve his decision-making with the ball and sometimes hold the ball for a while. That said, when he goes to get at the opposition you can see that he has what it takes to play at the highest level. If we start thinking that we’re Roma so we can afford simply to pass it around, we won’t get anywhere.

"We need that temperament and determination, so I’m happy to see such qualities in a 19-year-old lad, though that doesn’t change anything for me because I believe that age is relative."

How are you picking the team at the moment? What’s the first thing you look for when you’re making the decisions?

"We needed players who could play with freedom. We needed confidence and freshness. I knew that Kluivert’s running was going to cause them problems. I only had [Patrik] Schick on the bench as an alternative, and in midfield I had no choice. I tried to put another aggressive player on further back in Juan Jesus, because we needed to be tough today."

Schick got a booking almost immediately after coming on today…

"Yes, but he showed desire to help the team. He’s done that on other occasions too, but he’s lacked determination. I want him to play as a striker and not create problems for himself. It’s a mental thing. We all expect more from him. I understand the lads, though - in this team we have some guys who need to be helped during the tough times."