Mancini: Mourinho is raising the level

On Friday the Rome-based newspaper Il Massaggero ran an interview with central defender Gianluca Mancini.

Here's a quick recap of some of what the Italian had to say...

The coach

"Mourinho is a leader. He's raised the level. You look at him and it immediately inspires you to give even more. It's a great thing to have him. When his appointment was announced, we were all fired up."

The changing room dynamics

"Am I leader? It's a nice word, so if people say that about me I am not going to be disappointed. I am definitely one who likes to talk about football, discuss tactics. And then beyond that what is most important are actions, the example you set. If the team follows my lead, then I am delighted because it's something I've achieved."

The team's ambitions

"We want to stay calm. We need to keep the right approach; if we lose games we need to make sure we respond in the right way, as we have done so far.

"With time we will improve both defensively and in attack - the more time we have working with the coach then the more things will improve.

"But Roma right now are not a title contender. From now until Christmas we have a lot of games. And it's not just about winning the big head-to-head games: if we beat Juve or Napoli and then lose to Cagliari then it doesn't make a lot of sense. We need to make sure we strike the correct balance."

The Roma environment

"Roma is a passionate city and that's how it always has been and how it needs to be. We lost the derby, we went to the Curva Sud and we acknowledged their efforts cheering us on.

"It's normal that such a big city, with so many citizens, has this pressure and expectation around the team. Whenever I enter the stadium and I see the colours and the passion and I hear the noise, I always think it's something beautiful - it's never a problem.

"We need to just make sure we do a good job of blocking out those who want to stir up problems or have different agendas."