De Rossi: “A crucial win. We need to win them all”

Read what the boss had to say about the win over Sassuolo...

How important was it to win such a difficult match?

“Crucial. It’s crucial to win all of them. We need to win all of them. The race is on. I don’t know if everyone believed in us as much as we believed in ourselves at the beginning. To catch up with these teams who are going so fast, you’ve got to win them all. When you’re winning lots of matches, as we’ve been doing over the last two months, you’ll win some of them easily by scoring lots of goals, and others will require more work.

“Sassuolo were great today and we weren’t so good. We were a bit static after the first bit of build-up play when we had the ball. It’s not the first time Roma have won a match thanks to a moment of brilliance from one of their star players. That can happen too and I’m very happy.”

Lorenzo Pellegrini said, “De Rossi is an example.”  What is Pellegrini for De Rossi?

“I’ve got no complaints from the last two months. He’s scored in basically every match. Pellegrini is Roma’s captain and that’s not an easy job. You’re on the receiving end of people’s grumbles and annoyances. If things aren’t going well, you’re the captain, you’re from Rome and you’ll be the first to be targeted.

 “I know that because it’s happened to me. People love me now. They make banners and sing my name, but there have been difficult moments in which I’ve ended up in the eye of the storm. That’s how it is, and we accept it. He wears that armband and bears the responsibility with such a clear-headed and mature approach, and that surprised me. When I left, he was a young lad with a good head on his shoulders. I came back and he was a captain.

“It’s not easy. You don’t become a captain just by wearing the armband. He helps his team-mates, he’s positive, and he’s a professional. I’m very happy with him. He’s a great player too. There aren’t many mezzalas like him. I’m happy he’s in the national team too because that’s the level he’s at.”

At the start of the season, people said it would be impossible for Roma to reach the Champions League with these players. It seems you’re proving them wrong.

“I’ve said since the beginning – maybe people thought it was just a type of motivational slogan – that Roma don’t have players that are significantly better than the rest but a squad that should be challenging for the top four. Maybe only Milan, Inter and Juve are superior to Roma. We’ve got to play it out against the other teams.

“Even with the teams [Milan, Inter, Juve] that have a better squad than us, you still have to play it out because football isn’t just about numbers, wage bills, and the cost of transfer fees. Otherwise, Bologna would be in tenth or eleventh place.

“We need to believe in ourselves because if we don’t think we’re good enough, it’s difficult to earn points.”

How proud are you to have won a game by digging in the way you did today? Are you seeing your team improve with every game?

“I've been part of some fantastic Roma sides down the years, amazing seasons with a record number of points... We often finished second. Whenever we had those runs, there were games like this one. Sometimes we won through great football, killing our opponents, and other times we won with a flash of inspiration, an individual moment. Because Roma are a team with fantastic individual players, and sometimes they get you out of a tight spot when you find yourselves up against good teams like Sassuolo.

“I think Sassuolo have lots of very good players. Their league position is not a true reflection of their worth and sometimes you have to win games the way we did today. We had a few quite clear-cut chances to kill off the match earlier and it went the way it did. Not winning today, right before the international break, would have been a massive blow. Starting work again with two points fewer would have been tough. We had to win this one some way or other.”

Did you expect things to be more difficult when you joined? What's your overall assessment? 

“It wasn't easy. Everyone tells me I'm inexperienced, and clearly that's the case. So that's what I thought. Maybe you need a few more grey hairs to deal with it when things heats up.

“I was lucky to be given this job opportunity, because I didn't earn it through the results I achieved in previous seasons. I was lucky to join a club and players who trusted me. They believed in me and my staff, and so far things have been going well.

“Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, there's still a long way to go. We still have time to do better but also to ruin everything if we're not willing to keep putting ourselves on the line in these last two months.”

What's your fondest memory of your first two months here?

“I don't know. Today the fans dedicated a chant to me, a banner, a show of affection, something they've done a thousand times during my career. Receiving that sort of love in a different guise now really hits home.

“Perhaps the first game was the one where I felt the most emotional: the hugs in the dressing room with all my players, all my staff... I think that was the most emotional moment. That and the home game against Brighton.

 “We're enjoying every day in Trigoria, though. There's a great atmosphere and lots of nice moments every day.”