De Rossi: “We can’t just focus on not conceding, we need to score”

What kind of game are you expecting tomorrow? Your team have done well on previous occasions when you've been able to manage the game. How will you manage this game? Are you curious to see how much your team has improved?

“I think as a player or a coach, you manage things all the time. You manage the moments of the game, the scoreline, your body... You manage everything. It would be wrong to give 'management' a negative, defensive meaning.

“Managing a game doesn't mean battening down the hatches and hoping they don't score four themselves. Managing means recognising the different phases of the game, recognising the different moments that your opponents and your own team go through, psychologically and physically. And if there's a game where we managed our energy levels really well, it was the first leg.

“Brighton took control of the game in the second half – and that can happen when they play some of the best teams in the Premier League – and we did well to defend a bit deeper and hurt them on the break.

“That's a quality this team possesses and it comes after a lot of hard work together, after a lot of improvement, getting to know each other, me and the players, and the players themselves. I can make changes to help them manage a certain moment but they're the ones who have to manage the ball. And every moment on the ball is different.”

Can you shed some light on how Romelu Lukaku and Paulo Dybala are doing? Their absence from the starting line-up could send a message to the team that the job is almost done.

“That would be the wrong message. The job isn’t almost done, we’re only halfway through. Paulo is fine. He’s training with the other players. Lukaku has a hip problem that’s been bothering him for a while, maybe even months or years. Every now and then, it flares up again and when it does, the way to manage it is through rest.

“Don’t ask me how much rest. I don’t know, but enough that he couldn’t be here. Over the past few days, he’s been telling me he wouldn’t make it.

“Whichever line-up we choose, our job and the love and pride we have for this profession force us to go and play a good match, more so when we’re missing two of our most-used players.

“I want to show that whether they’re there or not, it doesn’t make a difference for us. I’d love to start to change this idea that we can’t play football without Dybala and Lukaku.

“I think we’ve got some great players in this team, and we can play without them too. I’m still to decide whether Paulo will play tomorrow or not. I’m happy with the players I’ve got available today.”

You’ve played a lot of European games with Roma, some that ended with very negative results. What can you learn from these types of matches? Is there a risk that could happen tomorrow?

“In every match, you run the risk of conceding more goals than you thought. Brighton didn’t think they would concede four goals in the first leg. You don’t need to go too far in preparing for a match like this, so much that you start to scare yourself.

“We just need to look at the first leg. We had an exceptional first half, which finished with us deservedly in the lead. They threatened to take the lead with a shot that luckily deflected onto the post by [Evan] Ndicka.

“Conceding after six minutes, although unfortunate, can change a game. Of course, if you concede after six minutes, you carry on playing like a team. It’s not a problem. But we need to be aware that Brighton had four or five chances in the first leg.

“They’re a team that score a fair bit. We’re scoring a lot. If we score one or two goals, which is the average since I’ve been here, and they score six, that would be a lot for Brighton. We’ve got to be ready and play another great game.

“The stats say that we score a couple of goals a game and doing that would mean that we’d wrap it up as we did in the first leg. We have to prepare for the game in that way. Obviously that result does stick in your head a bit. I’ve been a footballer. You can have maybe a second to relax, but they’ll be anxious and watching the clock every two seconds. That’s football. There’s a mental and emotional aspect to it that we all carry inside us. That will obviously be part of the match tomorrow.”

Did you ever expect to have this impact on Roma?

“I think that every top team, like Roma, have dips but then they pull themselves out of it, regardless of the coach. It’s because these teams have players who are physically stronger than those they’re playing against. That’s how you win games. I’m happy with the journey we’re on.

“Obviously I’d hoped for a start like this, not just in terms of results but also in terms of the feeling we’ve created. Not just in a human way either, but with our football too. As I said in another conference, I think that they really believe in what I’m trying to instil in them.

“That’s all. I’m happy. Match after match, I see more and more things that I like. There are opponents and there are setbacks, but to get to the international break with a big result tomorrow and on Sunday would be one of the best starts I could imagine.”

Do you need to improve in the defensive phase for this game? What sort of Brighton performance are you expecting compared with the first leg?

“I don’t know because they have so many attacking players, some of whom have similar attributes and others have different attributes. I expect Roberto [De Zerbi] to surprise us, as he’s always done when he prepares for matches. I mean in terms of his choices, rather than us being unprepared.

“If we’re talking about their results from some time ago, we have to honestly say that they’ve lost two or three really important players, particularly in the attacking department in midfield and attack. The team that I saw in Rome is certainly competitive and capable of scoring against so many teams, but, of course, we’re preparing to net the goals ourselves and not concede any.

“I don’t know how much they’ll change. As I’ve said, De Zerbi is a wonderful and surprising coach, but I’m not expecting him to change formation because he always prepares for games to score goals and play on the front foot. I don’t think they’ll need to change their usual ways much. They’re not a defensive side trying to play with an attacking style for the very first time.

“They came to Rome to score goals and when you have that mentality, those players and that coach, there’s a good chance that you will. They had a few chances. There’s also the risk of conceding goals in the way that they did and they maybe could’ve shipped even more goals.

“It was a wonderful game in terms of chances and we did better in terms of taking ours. It’ll be a fantastic match tomorrow, but we also hope it’s a bit boring... We certainly wouldn’t mind a 0-0. Jokes aside, we need to head out there thinking about finding the back of the net.

“If we just think about not conceding any, we’ll drop deep after ten minutes, stay deep and run the risk of never pushing up the pitch.”

 Among all the areas that you’ll think about for tomorrow’s game, is the players who are one booking from a suspension among them?

“No, the best players will take to the pitch. I assess so many things, but not the players who are one booking away from a ban. I won’t tell those players to be wary either and not to get a yellow card. That would be the worst way to start the game and send out the worst message.

“It’s obvious that none of them should pick up silly yellow cards, but they need to just play their game and play normally. If you play not to get a yellow card, you’ll end up getting a red.”