Baldissoni on Europa League draw and Fonseca's impact

The club vice-president, in Monte Carlo on Friday for the UEFA Europa League group stage draw, was asked at the event about the club's initial impressions of Fonseca, who signed on as the club's new coach during the summer.

Baldissoni revealed that the Portuguese has not been slow to make an impact.

“He’s made a great impression, that’s what everyone who works closely with him has said," Baldissoni said.

"He is someone who has shown that he has a vision of things. He’s been around the world, he’s spent time in other cultures. He has a sophisticated view of both the game and other things. Those are all things that the players appreciate, and he’s already got a strong bond building with them.

"We need to give it time, though, because as you all know it is impossible to introduce new ideas in just a few weeks – and especially after just one game. We need to give them time to improve, so far he’s working well but he needs the time to see it through.”

After drawing his first game, Fonseca now goes into a huge early challenge - his first taste of the Derby della Capitale, against Lazio on Sunday.

“Fortunately perhaps Paulo has still not quite had enough time to understand the true importance of this game in the city," Baldissoni added.

"I will leave him to concentrate on the most important things: the action on the pitch and not everything else that the city adds to the derby.

"But the game provides an extra motivation that all the players know they need to take advantage of.”

Baldissoni was also asked about Roma's Europa League draw, which will see the side face Borussia Monchengladbach, Istanbul Basaksehir and Wolfsberger AC.

“In the end opinions don’t really matter much,” Baldissoni said. “We can all analyse things on paper, but the games take place on grass.

“First of all we need to show that we have the quality to face certain opponents. We know that we were a seeded team, we are ranked ahead of the others, and are thus expected to go through. But we still need to play the games.

“A squad of players like we have at Roma should be going into every competition thinking about going as far as possible – thinking they can win each game.”