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Here's what the boss had to say:
What sort of game are you expecting, considering the difficulties Manchester United are going through at the moment?
“Manchester United are finding results hard to come by in the league right now but we mustn't let that distract us. They're a top team with some world-class players. Plus, we'll be playing at a difficult ground with an electric atmosphere. We're preparing for it as if we were facing the best United team.”
Roma are in fantastic form at the moment. How far away from perfection are you?
“Not even the greatest teams are perfect and the same goes for us. One thing we do have is that we're constantly trying to improve. We know what qualities we have but we also know there are situations where we can do better.”
Manchester United's home ground is known as the Theatre of Dreams. What is your dream for Roma?
“Everyone has the right to dream. I try to make dreams come true in the short term – starting tomorrow, in a magnificent stadium that's famous the world over. I hope we can make it come true.”
What are the main difficulties you have at the moment?
“We're missing players like [Lorenzo] Pellegrini, [Paulo] Dybala and [Manu] Kone in similar areas, so we're trying to adapt. We have [Santiago] Castro as an alternative to [Donyell] Malen but in midfield we're short. Hopefully it's just a phase. We've spent the last seven games on a knife edge but we've always had players who were ready and able to recover quickly. Rodrigo Mora is fine. The 17 players we have are all ready. Hopefully we'll get the others back after the international break, but in the meantime this is a tough week.”
Emanuele Lulli didn't feature against Udinese. Are you managing his playing time in a specific way or is it just normal rotation?
“Besides Lulli, we also have Wesley who's playing very well in that position. [Nahuel] Molina needed to play and [Devyne] Rensch has done really well. It's a very tiring position as they have to cover the length of the pitch and use bursts of pace.”
You're a popular figure in England for the results you've achieved and your style of coaching, and you've been successful at different clubs, with the exception of Inter 15 years ago. Michael Carrick is going through a tough time. When you're coaching a big club, how do you turn things around?
“Every situation is different and I don't know exactly what's going on at United but they have some great players. Sometimes you go through a rough patch and then you get over it – hopefully that will happen after tomorrow. I was only at Inter for a very brief spell – three matches – so I wouldn't make that comparison.”
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