Spalletti's press conference before Roma v Palermo

How do you move on from the game against Real, when Roma put in a good performance but got a bad result?

“You look at everything that happened taking all factors such as our preparation into consideration and you analyse what went well and what didn't. You talk to the players about it in complete honesty, without holding anything back. You have to bring it all out into the open – both the good things we can take courage from and what we did less well and need to work on.”

Paulo Sousa said that Mauro Zarate was always going to get a three-match ban so that he would miss Roma v Fiorentina through suspension. Do you want to comment on that?

“Paulo Sousa seems to be a very nice person. He was a top player and he's a great coach. And because he was such a good player and spent a lot of time in Italy, he knows things. If he says that, it means he knows. I wasn't a great player and I haven't been in situations where you learn about such things. He says what he knows.”

How much will you miss Daniele De Rossi? Will William Vainqueur replace him?

“What happened to Daniele is something which unfortunately I feel is my fault, because if you put a player on and he gets injured after 10 minutes it means there was something you should have taken into consideration. So I have to hold my hands up on that one. I'm the man who makes the decisions so I'm not looking for excuses. I watched him in training and you have to assess everything very carefully down to the finest detail but if this is the result then clearly I made a mistake.”

With De Rossi missing, can we expect to see a three- or four-man defence over the next month?

“The simple fact is that we've lost an important player but we're able to replace him. Vainqueur has proved he's a player we can count on. [Kevin] Strootman will be with us again from tomorrow. He's training well and making good progress with his recovery. Then there's [Seydou] Keita and we all know how good he is, so we're covered. It's just a shame that a player of De Rossi's quality won't be able to help us.”

Are Roma doing better or worse that what you expected at this stage?

“I thought I would be able to make a bigger impact on the team's mentality at the start, whereas it took a few days more than I expected before certain things started working. The games we won could have gone differently too – not because we didn't deserve to win them but because we left ourselves open to our opponents. I'm fairly happy with how the players are working. Everyone is keen to improve and and that reassures me and gives me reason to be optimistic about the future.”

Miralem Pjanic looked off colour against Real. Does he need a bit more consistency to be a really top-level player?

“Mire has tremendous quality and it's true that he had an off-game against Real but he did put in a lot of running. He went and did what I hoped wouldn't happen. I'd planned for us to have more possession and if he hadn't worked so hard he would have been able to express his ability better. As Real had the ball more than us we had to adapt. Our midfielders often had to move out wide to cover Real's full-backs who pushed up really high and that meant we lost a bit of quality. That's one way of explaining his performance but he can do better.”

It took a while for Francesco Totti to come on. Wasn't he ready?

“We get the players to take it in turns to warm up. I asked my assistant to call him and one of the two didn't understand, then I went and told him myself he was going on. That's all there was to it.”

How did [Edin] Dzeko take his exclusion against Real? Will he play tomorrow?

“When you're in this game and you're at a club like Roma people do get left out. I don't expect them to be thrilled about it but I expect them to be professional. And they are, even though they're not happy. In any case it's a good thing if they don't like it as it motivates them to make sure they're ready. There were lots of people on the bench against Real but everything went fine. Dzeko could play tomorrow just as the others could and one playing doesn't necessarily rule out the others. He's one of the possible starters.”

How are Leo Castan and Iago Falque doing?

“Iago has been training more than the rest of team because he felt he needed to increase his fitness and I'm happy about that. He can play in lots of positions. He's a good footballer who's willing to adapt to anything and he's in my thoughts as all the players are. Leo is working tremendously hard. We thought about the best way for him to complete his recovery process, he stayed here with us and I make my considerations based on what I see, not what happened before. I try to base everything on the evidence before my eyes, assessing all aspects for the good of Roma. I don't make any distinctions in that respect. Roma is the most important thing of all and we also have to consider the 60,000 who turned up on Wednesday night – they're an asset we should be grateful for. We're lucky to have them behind us.”

Mohamed Salah is unstoppable over the first few yards but he's not always accurate when he reaches the area. What are you doing to try and improve that aspect?

“I've told him to keep going beyond the sprint – he can keep it up for quite a stretch but at the end of it you're not always clear-headed. He can even do two sprints one after another without needing to rest. He hasn't been in perfect condition physically but he's confident in front of goal. He's very skilful and has belief in his ability. It's a shame there have been a few occasions where he hasn't managed to score but he's certainly got everything he needs to put them away. He can offer the team a lot and we're very happy to have him here. He could play a decisive role tomorrow in helping us to win a tricky game.”

What do you think about Totti's remark to Spanish journalists that he doesn't count anymore?

“I rate Totti so highly as a player that I consider him the same way I consider everyone else. It's important that he feels he gets the same consideration as the others. This is a results game and to get results I have to find the right balance for the team. I'm sure his quality can be of immense help to us and he has to do that from within the team. He can't be too far away or the others will find it harder to follow him. He needs the team. I make my assessments based on all these things. Totti trained well this week. He's been training regularly apart from a few minor complaints and I think he's ready to play. At times I've contributed to making him not feel part of the group and it wasn't good for him or the team. He brings quality to the team and it all has to coincide. He's put in a lot of hard work recently so it could be the right time to see him start tomorrow. And that doesn't necessarily exclude Dzeko, otherwise people would start saying it's one or the other and that's just not true.”