Eusebio Di Francesco helps his pre-match press conference today ahead of Udinese-Roma. These are his words:
How’s the team after the break?
I saw some players today for the first time in training. Yesterday we did a little bit but I have to say in general, quite well.
Udinese changed managers. What team will be in front of Roma?
Certainly fierce, but also seeing the last performance they did, it is a team that has great physicality, which is fine. They did not deserve that result either against Milan, or especially the one against Empoli, where they played a great game. I know their manager very well – he is very attentive to details. I have faced him several times both in B and A. He will certainly prepare well for the match at a tactical level to try to cut off the play or at least give us little space.
Are the recovery times lengthened for De Rossi and Perotti? What are the conditions of Kolarov and Santon?
Kolarov is all right, Santon had a fever yesterday but today he has trained with the team, he is available. For De Rossi and Perotti, it’s not that the times have lengthened: in the past we were a little too hasty to get back some players. It happened with Pastore and Perotti. The right way is to bring Perotti in after the Champions League match, as his continuity in training goes on improving. Following De Rossi, the idea is pre or post Cagliari. I do not want to field players who are only halfway through recovery or who, like Daniele did, do not play well because they need more time to train.
After the international breaks, it did not go well with Chievo and SPAL. How do you keep your attention high?
I think in these cases, maybe we’ve look ahead and such as the match we have upcoming against Real Madrid, but I think the most important match between Udinese, Real and Inter is always the next one. The lads must understand that this match must be handled in the right way, it is not an alibi to have so many international breaks. We will have to be good at approaching this match knowing that it will be a very hard game from a physical point of view. We are preparing in this sense.
Olsen said he’s still angered by the penalty against Fiorentina. Do you feel protected by the new VAR protocol?
If applied in the right way, yes. We had a meeting and there is the desire to improve it: VAR is always watching, but then the choice becomes subjective and not objective, in this case, an error has been made and it was admitted. Beyond this episode, we can not look back anymore and we have to move forward without looking for all these excuses. We have to go on and have a lot of confidence in what the referees are doing, so many things have improved.
