ROMA - "Let's give credit where it's due. Roma played a great game. We contributed something, but we were no match for them on the day. It was an off-day for us. We aren't the team we were. It's time to draw a line through it all and start from scratch," were the first words Claudio Ranieri had to say after the game, as he spoke of a 'bitter return' to the capital.
"It was a bit of a blow, we didn't really get into the game; we were left on the blocks from the very start. We have to score a line through it and ask ourselves what has been going wrong since we lost the derby. We weren't on the pitch. They showed more determination than we did and I had warned them. Apart from that we conceded a goal from a dead-ball situation... We must pick ourselves up and react: we have two matches and then the Champions League and we must be ready. Today we reorganised the team from a tactical point of view at half time, but the third goal came and it was all over. Except for the effort those lads put into the game who put everything into it and kept fighting even when they were four goals down...," he added.
The coach was asked why he took Giampaolo Pazzini off: "They played four midfielders against our two, if we moved inside we left their wingers free, if we went down the wings they moved infield... What was missing was focus and attention, we'll be able to verify it on Tuesday. We have fallen in the past and picked ourselves up. We'll try and do it again this time. But I'm still convinced that this group want to win. After the determination and attention we showed in the derby we let our adrenaline levels drop too much along with our concentration," he added. "We have to get back to playing our various roles and as a team. We've lost our way in the past ten days, but we can get back on track; we've done it before and we'll do it again.
"If we look at the first goal," he went on to explain, "we knew that Juan was good at getting up in the area but we left him unmarked and he was able to do what he wanted: we must be more careful. We can't let attackers have free headers on goal like that. Will Guarin make any difference? Guarin arrived here with a calf muscle injury, but this has nothing to do with him. We have to pick ourselves up first of all and then bring back players like Sneijder, Forlan and Stankovic. Maicon will be suspended for the match against Bologna. I decided to give Faraoni a run out as he had played well when we were winning and we'll need him."
Finally Ranieri was asked once again if he missed Thiago Motta: "When a player wants to leave it's always better to let him go."
