Roma boss Daniele De Rossi addressed the media ahead of tomorrow’s afternoon fixture with Genoa.
The Italian technician sat down at Trigoria to attend his fourth pre-match press conference of the season.
Among other topics, De Rossi addressed Nicola Zalewski’s situation at the club.
“His situation is linked to his expiring contract. The decision to exclude him wasn’t mine. He’s someone whom I considered important in preseason. The club made this decision and I was informed of it a few days ago,” he said.
“I don’t think the decision to freeze him out is final. If he were to renew his deal, he would be allowed back.”
“Tomorrow is a complicated match. Genoa is a difficult team to face, in one of the most fascinating stadiums, at a time of the day that I don’t like too much.”
“Hermoso and Hummels give us more possibilities, increase our experience. They need time to get to 100% condition. They are ready to play, we just need to understand how many minutes they can give us right now.”
“Dovbyk is ready to play. He will play tomorrow. For us he is a very important player, we focused a lot on him. We have to help him get less attention from defenders. Once he gets his first goal, there will be no stopping him.”
“We chose Koné for his characteristics, I wanted him at all costs. He allows us to play with other offensive players in midfield. From time to time, Pellegrini, Paredes and Cristante are respected less than they should be in this city. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are important players for us.”
“There is a lot of new players that must still get to know each other. Things take time. Right now I am looking for more compactness. During pre-season we worked a lot on this from a defensive point of view. Meanwhile, in attack we have to do a better job of filling the opponent’s area. It’s not easy, but we will get there.”
“If we think we need to be more aggressive in the offensive phase we can do it by having more of the ball, not less. Verticality is the thing we ask for most often, we try to be more vertical than before. It doesn’t matter how much possession you have, but what you do with the ball. Dominating the game doesn’t just mean having the ball, but also, for example, dominating the counterattack.”
