Gasperini’s comments following Roma v Cremonese

Here is what the Roma coach had to say.

What would you say about your 23 shots?

“And most importantly about those five shots on target [laughs]. However, we struggled in the first half, no doubt about it. It wasn’t easy as Cremonese were playing well too, but we did a good job at reaching the final third, but we were only dangerous on a few occasions. Then we made a few adjustments, moving [Bryan] Cristante closer to [Donyell] Malen, and pressed them more. We scored from a corner, but we created a lot.”

Did you expect that you would implement your football style, your ideas here after just half a season?

“I was hoping it would happen. You never know, so you always start off with the best of intentions. I started to believe that it would happen when I immediately saw a response from these players. It came in the first few months, or rather from the first training sessions, the first weeks of training. I was completely convinced that we would do well – maybe not as much as now – but they have always had the right spirit, that of a team that wants to reach certain objectives, with a solid group and many young players who are growing. From matchday one, the team has shown great consistency in their performances. And they enabled these young players to grow; I’m referring to [Niccolo] Pisilli, today [Lorenzo] Venturino too who came on and did very well, [Daniele] Ghilardi, [Jan] Ziolkowski – I won’t list all of them. It’s starting to bear fruit. So it’s definitely very satisfying.”

Speaking of corner kicks, you insisted a lot on the near post; was it an idea you had to beat Cremonese, did you see a weakness or did you just want to take advantage of Cristante’s good timing?

“Cristante had also scored a similar goal in Florence; he has certainly scored some goals from set-plays, free kicks or corner kicks throughout the season. It’s not always him who makes those runs; today it was him, but others have as well. We were lacking goals from corner kicks because we have taken many throughout the games. It had been quite some time since we’d last scored one. I think that today we took some good shots and we also moved very well. After all, we scored two of them. It’s a good sign because I see that for all teams set-pieces can be a huge asset. We were underperforming in that area and today we made up for it.”

What’s your relationship with the team’s leaders?

“I’m fortunate enough to have already trained some of these players, such as [Paulo] Dybala, Cristante, [Gianluca] Mancini and [Stephan] El Shaarawy. I have many leaders in the team and they spurred everyone on. Everybody, including the new players, showed great professionalism. It was already a positive environment before my arrival thanks to the work done by [Claudio] Ranieri, but they have always shown great commitment.”

Do you still believe that the race for a Champions League spot will come down to the end of the season?

“Yes. On Sunday we have a very important game and winning would be a great step in the right direction. I qualified for the Champions League five times with Atalanta and we always earned our spot at the end of the season, two matchdays before the end max. We still have many games left and there are some teams that are catching up, such as Atalanta and Como, and they’re very dangerous. It will be a tough battle. It’s a very important phase. Tonight’s win is crucial because we can face our upcoming matches with a small advantage that can be useful.”