Gasperini reacts to Genoa win

Here's what he had to say.

This is the first time I've seen Daniele De Rossi's Genoa struggle so much. They lost to Inter and Atalanta but still played very well. Today they seemed to find it really hard. They made some mistakes which were caused by your pressing on the first and third goals. And lots of players were involved in the build-up to Manu Kone's goal. I think there's a lot to say about Roma's first-half performance tonight.

“Definitely. We made a few technical errors at the start but our movement in attack was good. We caused quite a few problems for them with our runs from deep and we always looked dangerous. I'm a bit disappointed about the second half. I'd have liked us to play better football but the match fizzled out a bit. In any case, we have to take all the positives.”

You've often said it makes no difference to you if you play with a false nine or a real number nine – whoever's in the best shape plays. You've pointed to the likes of [Luis] Muriel in the past and [Paulo] Dybala this year. However, while everyone is entitled to their opinion, the statistics say that you're more likely to win with a real centre forward. Do you think there's a connection there?

“I don't know what statistics you're referring to because I see that [Evan] Ferguson has played in every game except three. [Artem] Dovbyk, until he started having injury problems, always played. He didn't play 90 minutes and we perhaps didn't start with him, but even in the games we lost sometimes we started off playing one way, then lost in the second half playing a different way, so it depends on how you interpret things.

“In any case, that's not what it's about. It's about producing good performances. You can't get your approach or the level of intensity wrong in this team, because we're a team that gets results when we play at a high tempo, and when we haven't been able to get a result we've still played well. That's the main thing.”

What have you done with Dybala, physically in particular, to get him looking as sharp as he was tonight? He looked like the Dybala of old, chasing back, helping out his team-mates. Is that why you played him in a deeper role today? How did you get him in this condition?

“When he's not injured he plays in any case because we don't have other players of his quality. Obviously when he's fit like this evening and we can produce attacking play like this everything is easier. But when he's not in this condition, when he's not this strong, or when he has some sort of niggle, he can't play like he did tonight. At the moment, in this team, if he doesn't have to sit out, he'll play.”

Kone scored his first league goal today. He's an incredibly powerful player who covers every blade of grass but it does seem that when he's near the opposition area he loses his way a little and often plays the wrong ball. Do you agree? Does he have room for improvement or is this the player he is?

“Every player has room for improvement, even when they're 'old' in sporting terms. As I said yesterday, you have to see the glass as half full – you can't always be looking at what's missing.

 “He's a France international and a regular starter. He has some phenomenal qualities. It's true that if he scored more goals he'd likely not be playing for Roma – he'd be on another level already. But I think that's definitely an area of his game where he can improve.”