De Rossi Has No Striker Pressures Ahead Of Key Feyenoord Clash

After Jose Mourinho’s largely successful, but tumultuous spell in charge of AS Roma, when he was finally given his marching orders, plenty of fans were understandably a little bit torn on the board’s decision.

He had however criticised the board, he had often criticised and isolated the players, because at no point could he shoulder blame – but fans of the i lupi knew exactly what they were getting on the first day it was reported that he might sign as our new gaffer and best sites to place bets in Ghana would have reflected that in the odds.

Again, we had success but Mourinho’s off pitch antics were off the scale, and club legend Daniele De Rossi is cut from a different cloth, and from the moment he walked through the door his attitude has been ‘get the players on side’ and ‘build them up’ and I will shoulder the lack of experience to give them a break when things go wrong.

Having secured a 1-1 draw with Dutch side Feyenoord in the first leg of the Europa League knock out round Play Offs, we go into the second leg full of hope of getting the job done in front of our own fans.

De Rossi would like nothing better, but when speaking to the media ahead of the game, he felt like the second leg would be just as similar as the first game with each side probing and testing. Neither has a tangible advantage in his own eyes and neither needs a cricket score to go through, so he was expecting a tightly contested affair again.

He did, in his new management style at the club, attempt to lift the pressure of both Romelu Lukaku and Paulo Dybala, knowing that victory was dependent on eleven players, and not two and their own individual performance levels.

“I think if we analyse what the players are contributing we should look beyond who gets the goals. For you journalists it’s the most obvious thing, the easiest statistic to look at for a striker or an attacking midfielder. I look at the performances and they’re doing what I want of them, as all the others are.”

Although his time in charge has been relatively short, he again repeated the message that he feels the players are responding to him and buying into his methods and desires, and slowly but surely their performances are beginning to reflect his ethos, and again for Lukaku and Dybala specifically.

“They’re buying into what I want from each and every player. I’m happy with them. Our goal is to reach the next round, whether or not they score.”

I can only imagine the players are loving their new love and that should hold benefits of its own in the future.