A subdued Paulo Fonseca faced the media today as his team prepares to face Sampdoria in the league tomorrow.
The mood surrounding the Giallorossi is obviously despondent following Thursday’s humiliation in the Europa League versus Manchester United. The situation is especially awkward considering the club is expected to relieve Fonseca of his duties and not renew his contract when it expires in June.
Despite the somber mood, the Portuguese tactician insisted his side is focused on earning three points against the Genovese side.
“When we faced Samp in January we were sitting third, now we’re seventh. We’ve lacked so many players during this decisive period – a stretch where we played so many games,” he said.
“All I’m focused on is finishing this season in the best way possible. The club doesn’t need advice from me, I’m just the coach. Samp are a strong team, but we’ll be motivated.”
He continued, “Obviously we have a lot of injury problems, at the moment. Samp are an intense team, we must all be focused on fighting for and defending Roma.”
When asked to recall what went wrong on Thursday at Old Trafford, Fonseca expressed some regrets.
“Obviously what happened to Spinazzola and Veretout is regretful. But we needed them and they trained without issues, it was important for them to play.”
“We were prepared to deploy the same strategy against United that worked in the first half. We had to continue with that strategy to do well. I don’t know what happened. We talked at halftime and told the team we had to keep playing like this.”
Before concluding, Fonseca was grilled about Roma’s league struggles this season or whether they’ve been unlucky.
He responded quickly, “We’ll give a verdict at the end of the season.”
