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This is what the boss had to say:
Can you give us an update on the overall fitness of the squad? How is Mile Svilar doing?
“Unfortunately, Svilar is going to be out for a few weeks. He sustained a stress fracture at the bottom of his little finger in training. It's a simple fracture – it's not displaced – but it will take at least a month to heal. They're assessing whether or not to insert a screw to strengthen it. He'll probably need until after the next international break to recover.
“It's a blow for us but sometimes you get surprises like this over the course of a season. We'll get [Pierluigi] Gollini ready. He'll replace Svilar and he'll have the chance to go back to being the goalkeeper he was for a while. Everyone else has come back. We all trained together yesterday and some of them came back earlier in the week. We were able to work well with the players who stayed here, although they were long weeks. Apart from [Bryan] Cristante, whom we know about, [Kostantinos] Koulierakis picked up a nasty bruise in the last game against Germany. It's only bruising though. He won't be fit for tomorrow but he should be available again on Monday.”
How big an impact does it have when players come back later? Is Lorenzo Pellegrini ready to start?
“Everyone is ready. The Argentines obviously came back last. The first session with everyone together was on Friday but that's normal when you have players travelling from so far away. As for the others, some played more and some less, some not very much. Now we have Serie A to focus on. We're going to have a lot of games to play so there's no point looking back at what happened in the last few weeks.
“We'll try to pick up from where we left off, which was an in-form team playing with real confidence. This game against Como is very important and we'll go into it with the desire to keep doing well. Pellegrini is fine. The last few weeks have been very useful for him. He's fully recovered now.”
How has Gollini been training? When a back-up keeper gets to play in the league for the first time in a while, does he need any special mental preparation?
“I think, throughout his career, Gollini has only played regularly with me. I got to work with him again here at Roma after he'd moved between different clubs. He's an excellent second goalkeeper. Now he has this chance to get some regular games. When I had him at Atalanta he was in the Italy set-up and third choice for a while – a couple of years at least. So he's certainly got the ability and the quality. He's always trained well and he should have everyone's conference because we're not fielding a goalkeeper who's never played before. Now he has this opportunity to perform consistently.”
What answers are you expecting from this match against Como? And what are you expecting from Cesc Fabregas’s team?
“Fabregas’s team have proven themselves with their results in recent years, so we’re not discovering anything new. They deserve all the praise they get. They’re certainly a quality side and they're challenging for the top spots with the best teams.
“As I’ve said before, pretty much everyone agrees that Inter are a little bit ahead at the moment. We played a very, very good match against Inter. I thought it was very encouraging, very positive. That’s what we need to build on.
“Then we have Como, ourselves, Juventus, Milan, Napoli, Atalanta and possibly some other surprises who are in that group of teams behind Inter, vying for the top spots and hoping that Inter might stumble from time to time. It seems quite clearly set out to me, although we haven't played that many games yet.
“Como, like us, can play different ways. In the two matches we played against them, Como played with a three-man defence in the first half of the first game, then they switched. We can switch it up too. The tactical side is definitely important, but I wouldn't say it's that decisive.”
Just to be clear, did Svilar have a problem in training or did it come from the Inter game?
“There was a clash against Inter that led to some bruising but it was what happened two weeks later – a week ago. He had recovered from the bruising and had been training normally.”
Is Wesley fully recovered? He hasn't always seemed to be at his best in this early phase of the season. Will you continue to rotate on the flanks?
“I think he's produced some excellent performances. He was exceptional against Inter. People may view things differently but Wesley has been very good in this first part of the season.
“As for rotating, with nine games to play in 27 days, we'll definitely be alternating on the flanks, as we will in the other positions.”
I wanted to ask about the goals conceded at the start of the second half. Is that something you're working on? Are you close to finding a solution?
“Often it comes down to tiny details. Obviously it's something you look at but I can also say I'm very pleased with the goals we're scoring in the first half and in stoppage time, for example. We’re trying to keep up the good things and fix what isn’t working. Of course, conceding goals in the same situation at the start of the second half does give you food for thought, but I think they were more individual, isolated incidents than being down to the team’s approach.”
People sometimes say the atmosphere in Rome is restrictive. Are you trying to get the fans on your side?
“I don’t have to get anyone on my side. If anything, it’s the other way round: the incredible passion of these fans rubs off on me and the team. For sure, playing with all this passion, surrounded by all this enthusiasm, in a stadium that’s always so full, is very beneficial, very positive. It's something the team and the players can feel very strongly.”
What did you make of Fabregas's Subbuteo analysis?
“How did that game finish? You don't even know! We'll see on the pitch.”
I wanted to ask you about Marten de Roon. How important was this break for him and the work he’s been doing?
“The break was certainly beneficial for players like him, and like Pellegrini. [Rodrigo] Mora was away on international duty with Portugal, but [Nahuel] Molina, for example, trained a lot. [Leonardo] Balerdi was away too, unfortunately.
“For the players who joined at the end of the transfer window, the league kicked off straight away, so the break was certainly useful for them. The downside is they haven’t played for some time. They're going to need to start playing though, because with these nine matches in 27 days, as I said earlier, we'll be able to get everyone on the pitch.
“You'll see that by the end, there will be players who have started five games and come on as a sub four times, and vice versa. Some will have come on three times, and so on. With such a hectic run of matches, with the five substitutions and hopefully without us losing any more players, we'll inevitably need to use the whole squad. That needs to be our strength. I've always tried to get to that stage: you can't have players in the squad who never get to play.
“Everyone in the squad has our confidence and they can all be important and decisive, as they were last season. Yesterday we were talking about [Devyne] Rensch, who scored a goal and won a penalty right at the end against Parma, and the fact that he may only have been decisive in one moment. The same goes for everyone really. Obviously some players are going to play more and some less, but they'll all get minutes. That's important for everyone.”
Rodrigo Mora came back from international duty after scoring a brilliant overhead kick. How is he looking and could he start at Como?
“I can’t talk about every player one by one because then it gets complicated. In Como we’ll have 18 outfield players, plus Gollini in goal, and of those 18, 16 will probably play. I hope the message gets across at some point.
“I can’t predict today who will play against Real Madrid on Wednesday, and certainly not who will play against Genoa on Saturday, against Bratislava on Tuesday, at Napoli the Saturday after, against Cagliari on Tuesday, in Udinese on Saturday, in Manchester on Tuesday and then against Sassuolo to finish.
“It really is not something you can predict. The only thing I hope for is that we don’t get any injuries, as has just happened to Svilar. You look at the footage of how he got injured and you wonder, 'How is that possible?' He’ll be out for a month now.
“That’s all I’m hoping for. I’m not worried about anything else – whether one player starts or another comes on. As long as I have players to bring on, they're all capable of delivering good performances for Roma and for the team. They all have a strong sense of belonging. As long as we have 16, that’s fine.”
Recently you said you wanted to involve the owners more. How do you intend to do that?
“I don’t know. After all, they quite rightly do what they think is best. My point is simply that, they're making huge investments to build a great team – great in the way I see it, ideally in Italy and in Europe – and to have this amazing stadium, and we'll have the centenary to celebrate too, so I think it’s important to have a club with owners who are very involved. However, that's just my view. I joined Roma after meeting Dan and Ryan Friedkin – that convinced me we could achieve something significant. I hope we still share that idea, that vision.”
What do you think is the main reason why it’s so difficult to win in Rome? What can be done about it?
“That’s a very long question the day before we play Como. It’s very complex. I don’t know. I’ll let you analyse it, look at different angles and each of you can draw your own conclusions.”
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