Juric interview after Elfsborg

This is what the Giallorossi boss had to say...

That was a bad result and a bad performance. The team's play looked confused, especially in the first half, with lots of new players. Did you take too much of a gamble with your selection today?

“I don't agree with your assessment of the game. I thought we did lots of good things. We moved the ball around well. Obviously we need to improve when it comes to defending counter-attacks because we conceded a goal and a penalty, but I must have been watching a different game to you. I saw lots of chances and lots of good play. Sometimes matches turn out like this. We had loads of shots and didn't manage to score. We have to accept that. But I didn't think it was a bad game or our play was confused.”

The team seem to get caught out of position when you lost the ball and you weren't able to win it back quickly.

“I noticed the positioning problem because even in numbers-up situations we're not aggressive enough. For long spells we played really well. We controlled the game, shifted the ball around well and created chances. When we stopped doing that we immediately conceded a goal. That's something we need to improve on. But there were still lots of positives.”

You did create chances but the centre forward seemed to be lacking support. The two attacking midfielders need to get up closer to him. And instead of trying to put crosses in – especially with Eldor Shomurodov – you needed to try more one-twos, because when you did that through the middle you created more chances.

“Yes, I agree with that. We showed lots of good play to get the ball up into the final third and that's where we need a bit more quality. With [Artem] Dovbyk we were able to get the ball into the box trying to play 1 v 1, he was able to lay the ball off and we had chances through [Lorenzo] Pellegrini. There are certain things we can work on but generally speaking it was good: there was lots more good play and good use of the space. There are things we must improve on in and around the box because we can do better. We gave them too much space on the break but I saw lots of good things. It's a bad result but I wouldn't throw everything away.”

What Roma need to change on a structural level? And what are you working on?

“There's no point getting too far ahead. I have a top-quality squad and I need to get the best out of it. I'm very happy with lots of things. Of course there's plenty of room for improvement but we'll get there. Now we need to focus on our games, on Monza. We're playing all the time. There's lots of work to do but we've already taken huge strides forward in terms of our play. We came up short in some areas, for sure. But there's no point thinking about what the squad is lacking.”

How's Matias Soule doing? Do you think he feels under pressure?

“He's a hard-working lad with a lot of quality. This is his second year in Serie A. Right now he's perhaps not expressing his full potential but he's getting on the ball all the time, he's asking for it, and that means the pressure is not getting to him. I'm sure he'll only get better with time. He only had one year at Frosinone and now he's at Roma. He needs to keep calm, keep working and developing, both physically and in his positioning. I thought his positioning today was already better than other times. There's work to do but I have a lot of faith in him.”