Di Francesco reflects on result and gives update on Radja

Substitute Edin Dzeko rescued a point for the Giallorossi - after Erick Pulgar had earlier given the hosts the lead - but a winning goal did not prove forthcoming despite a determined late push from the visitors.

How did Patrik Schick play today?

“Patrik did his bit. We can't lay the blame at his door – he wasn't the only one out there. I think he needs support and he needs to be a bit more determined in front of goal. The other players' movement wasn't as good as I wanted it to be either. Roma drew this game, not Schick. It's easy to pass judgement on him now and I hope people change their minds soon. He's at a new club in a new city, and Rome can be very harsh on footballers, but we all know how talented he is.”

Why did you rotate up front?

“I have to listen to my players because I haven't seen a lot of them over the last 10 days. I need to understand how they are and Edin told me he didn't feel up to playing the whole match. We have to win games with the squad we have. We had plenty of chances to score today against a team who defended for long spells then we conceded from their first effort. There were lots of occasions where we needed to keep our heads a bit better.”

Would it be unfair to say the players were below par today?

“We live in a world where people are assessing us all the time and we accept it – not just the players but the coach too. We're annoyed that we dropped two points today but my assessment of the game is different to yours. I'm not happy with the result but I saw some good things today – plus lots of other things that were less good.”

How is Radja Nainggolan?

“Given the way he went off it doesn't look good but he's the Ninja and he's capable of coming through it. He eased off at a certain point of the game and if he eases off you know it's serious.”

How are you set going into the Barcelona game?

“We know it won't be enough if we play like this against Barcelona but we also know Barca won't sit deep like Bologna – they'll be coming at us. It will be a totally different game to today's.”