Fonseca delighted with clinical performance

Coach Paulo Fonseca was delighted with the effort shown by his players on Sunday afternoon, as they won 3-0 against Udinese.

Jordan Veretout scored a first-half brace to set the Giallorossi on their way - with Pedro's late strike rounding off a successful afternoon's work.

Here's what the boss had to say about the match at the Olimpico...

Are you pleased with how your players approached the game today?

“Very pleased. We started the game really well. We scored twice, we created lots of chances and then in the second half we managed the game well too. It was important not to concede, but I think overall we played really well.”

Did Gonzalo Villar do what you asked of him today?

“Yes – it was important to really press [Rodrigo] De Paul well, he’s a great player who has a big influence on the way Udinese play. Villar did very well both in that aspect and when we had the ball too. As I said, it was important we didn’t give De Paul much time or space, and Villar did well with that task.”

In terms of his attributes, does Borja Mayoral fit your style of play better than Edin Dzeko?

“They are two different types of players, so it depends on the match and how the other side tries to defend. However, it’s true that Mayoral’s runs in behind are useful – as they were today. Even if he didn’t score, he helped the team out a lot. Then in the second half we brought on Dzeko: we were under a bit of pressure and Dzeko’s ability to hold the ball up was useful. But I have to say that Dzeko tried to make the runs in behind too. Both of them played well.”

Roma have done really well this season against sides in the bottom half – what do they have to do to take that into games against top-half sides?

“We need to improve the results, first of all. If we look at the game against Juventus, for example, then I think we put in a decent performance but we made mistakes with the final decisions. We are working on that, to improve against the big sides. But today was all about the three points and we managed to get them.”

How do you decide where to use Bryan Cristante? Could he have a future as a centre-back?

“Yes, as I’ve said before Bryan is a very clever player. Yesterday we had an issue with [Marash] Kumbulla and so we put him in a role that he has already covered a few times this season, and always done well in too. He played well today, he didn’t let the opposition get in behind. He is a leader on the pitch who helps his teammates and keeps everyone organised. He’s a player who could continue to do well in that position.”

And what about Jordan Veretout’s performance today?

“We talked about his goalscoring. I have a challenge going with him: the number of goals he will score this season. At the start of the season I told him that he needed to score at least 10 goals this season, and so I asked him [after today] how many short he was of that. He told me: one.

"Veretout’s movement is really important, and we worked on that passing move with Cristante and Villar at the start of the play too. We needed to get Veretout further forward – he made lots of run in behind, which also opened up spaces for others. It’s always important that Jordan makes these sort of runs.”