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Di Francesco, Fazio speak ahead of CSKA clash

John Solano
I

Roma manager Eusebio Di Francesco and defender Federico Fazio spoke today ahead of tomorrow’s Champions League clash against CSKA. These are their words:

DI FRANCESCO

How are you preparing for this match? You didn’t like the approach against SPAL.
Our approach was good in the early part against SPAL in terms of our desire, but as it went on we lost our way. We need to recover mentally before CSKA rather than working on the physical side of things. Those who didn’t play yesterday trained, but more than anything else, we now need to rebuild certain things.

How do you explain all the highs and lows?
This is the thing that bothers me most of all, the fact we found a new and positive system of play. When a match gets difficult, we drift too far off — I was disappointed with our reactions in the second half. We must mature and have strength even in times of difficulty. We had the potential against SPAL, we proved to be superior.

The conditions of Kolarov, De Rossi and Schick?
I think I’ll have all 3 available, even if I have to wait today to make it official. Schick had a small muscle inflammation problem, yesterday he trained with a little annoyance but I think he will be available.

What is the atmosphere in the dressing room? How is Dzeko?
The mood? We can not be happy after a defeat. However, we are really lucky: we play an important match tomorrow and we will try to get back to winning. There is no time to talk. We must re-establish our ruthlessness. Dzeko? He must be one of our protagonists. Tomorrow many fans will be present, this team needs his affection. We have to be good at spurring them on.

Is the 4-2-3-1 the ideal module for this phase or for the whole season?
Someone said that I changed formations 3-4 times in the match. I did it mainly to try and shift things. When playing football, this type of system allows us more movement. At this moment, I think it is appropriate to continue with this system to take advantage of our characteristics. We will continue with this system. When you say that I changed to a 4-2-4, I do so to put a striker alongside Dzeko, otherwise it always remains a 4-2-3-1.

Under your management, Roma have been at a disadvantage 20 times, yet they’ve only come back 3 times. Why does Roma have difficulty in overturning matches?
It is a fact that makes us reflect and think. This annoys me and is something we must improve.

Does this team have a small personality flaw?
There’s been a lot of analysis, but we also have to grow in this sense. As Federico says, when we talk about the defensive phase, we must defend with 11. We have shown we have shortcomings. We lack balance in our performance.

 

FAZIO

What is the way to avoid dips in the future?
Now let’s think about tomorrow’s match and preparing in the best way possible.Tomorrow and the match in Moscow is very important, these two matches are essential to advancing to the knockout stage.

What is there to be worried about most with CSKA?
As I said before, we have to prepare better. They are a good team, they won against Real Madrid. The most important thing is our approach to the match. We must work better with determination and ruthelessness.

Since you’ve been here, you’ve been one of the pillars of defence. This year we have not yet seen the real Fazio. What happened?
I do not look back, I always look forward. I look towards today’s training. I want to prepare for the match better, which is what matters.

Match Center

MatchDay 30
1 Apr 17:00
Lecce
LEC
Roma