De Rossi: “I have to give 200%”

That was a good start today.

“Yes, it's a good result.”

How did you feel coming back to the stadium?

“It was nice. I always felt a lot of love when I came here to watch matches. I feel it in the city all the time as well – the Roma fans never scrimp on affection. But now I'm here in a different role and while I felt a lot of emotion I also felt a lot of tension because I have a job to do. I tried to balance the two feelings and I thanked the fans at the end because I heard them chanting my name during the match. I couldn't be happier.”

It was a game of two halves for Roma: in the first, they zipped the ball around, created openings and scored two goals. In the second half, something changed. We could hear you telling your players to move the ball more quickly. What happened?

“That's basically it. I was very happy with our first half. If you do the same thing as in the first half but slowly, if the ball lacks pace, and above all if you don't understand why you're doing it, then it becomes difficult because you become predictable. Then of course Verona have a lot of energy and stamina so it's easier for them to close us down and win balls which in the first half we were able to play between the lines.”

How are Leo Spinazzola and Paulo Dybala?

“Paulo felt a little twinge before the game but it wasn't anything serious. I think that's all it is. He said it nothing particular happened, he just felt a bit sore, a bit of discomfort, as if he couldn't push himself. He's spent 10 days on the sidelines then we came in and upped the training loads, so maybe it's partly our fault. In any case, he says it's nothing serious.

“Spina may have a bit of an injury but his is not very serious either.”

[A clip of the second goal is shown] This is something for Roma to build on: everyone takes one or two touches then tries to play it forward. I don't want to make comparisons with before but... the team are trying to keep the ball on the deck and flooding the penalty box. There's mentality, drive, desire. That's something to build on.

“Yes, it's one of the first things we touched upon and worked on. I think it's important to dominate and be in control of the ball. But another thing these images show us is that if we take one touch, if we do it quickly with the aim of playing around the opposition's pressure, then it makes sense. Otherwise we don't take the sting out of the game – we just take the sting out of ourselves.

“Teams are well prepared, well trained and fit. If you play slowly and try to keep the ball, they'll kill you. If you move the ball around quickly, with the idea of playing around the wave of pressure and getting the ball in behind, then I think with the players we have we can enjoy ourselves.”

How did that exchange with the Curva Sud at the end of the game feel to you?

“It's one of those moments I'll put in the photo album of my life, of my career. Many years ago I said, 'If only I had two careers to give to Roma...' It was something like that, I can't remember really. But as it's turned out, maybe I've been given a second one.

“We'll see how long it lasts. I need to enjoy it but I also have to give 200% because what we carry with us, what I carry, is the love of these fans, who never let me forget that we spent 20 years together.

“I went over to the Curva today because it was the right thing to do for the welcome they gave me, but I won't be going over to the Curva or doing a lap of the pitch every time!”

How do you turn boos into applause?

“By playing better in the second half, If we'd done that, we'd have all gone away happier. But part of our job is emphasising the fact that we won the game, that we got the three points. We should celebrate our victories, be happy and get the buzz back.

“The good thing is that even through we had to dig in and didn't play well in the last 25, 30 minutes, we still battled away and didn't spare any energy. The fans want a team that always gives their all. I think we showed how much we wanted to win this game.”

We saw a different sort of performance from Lorenzo Pellegrini today.

“He's one of our most important – and best – players. In Italy too. I think he needs consistency during the game. He needs to see a lot of the ball and he needs to get up into the box because he's got goals in his locker.

“He plays in my position, he's the captain and when things aren't going well it's only right that we Romans should face up to our responsibilities, because we have lots of love and honour but we have  duty too. Those scales need to be balanced. That's how it works and he's not afraid to take it on.

“He's improved a lot and matured a lot over the last few years when I only saw him occasionally. He's been a real leader this week and I'm delighted with him. He dropped off in the second half because we all need to do better but I was very pleased with him in the first half.”