Juric's post-match thoughts after Monza draw

Here’s what our boss had to say...

Do you want to start by talking about the match in general or the penalty incident?

“It’s a shame because Roma played really well today. We controlled proceedings and created so many chances – it’s been a while since we created that many. We need to improve at finishing them off, though. Aside from the goal we only gave the opposition one opportunity to find the net.

“As for the rest, in terms of how the game panned out and our team spirit, I think we did well. Normally we win these kinds of games easily, but right now that’s how things are going for us. Then there was the penalty situation, which compounded everything. However, we performed really well – it was an excellent display.”

What could’ve been avoided for Monza’s goal?

“Whenever you concede a goal it’s because a mistake has been made. Maybe we could’ve done better at dealing with the cross to the far post, but I have to point out that they only had three shots today. We totally dominated. Of course you can end up conceding, but given we created so much we have to score more. We should’ve dealt better with that cross. We were a bit sloppy and it’s a shame because today we made very few mistakes.”

You took the lead but conceded the equaliser only a few minutes later. Perhaps this was the main cause of frustration, beyond how the goal itself came about.

“Well, these things happen. It’s not like our attitude changed or that we dropped off. We had the right attitude. On the bench we didn’t feel like we’d concede – the team were focused and dominating possession. But then the goal came. We carried on creating chances and we were doing everything right.

“It’s a shame not to win this type of match, because there hasn’t been another team to cause Monza so many issues, based on how we played, our ideas, the way we knocked the ball about. We were also precise with our final ball – we just lacked the finishing touch.”

Can you give us a brief assessment of your first few matches in charge of Roma? What should we expect moving forward?

“Now we’ve got players heading away on international duty so we’ve got little time to prepare. We’ve picked up seven points in the league – this is really significant, although nine would’ve been a fairer outcome. I think that we’ve raised our game. The team is playing well, pressing a lot and passing the ball around nicely – there’s a lot to like for me.

“The team’s got real potential. There are lots of youngsters to develop, who, combined with the fantastic old guard, have led to us raising our game. I’ve seen us put in good performances and I’ve seen us do the right things. Today we were great at closing them down up top. We were only caught out by their long throw tactic to [Milan] Djuric, but every team suffers in that regard. As for everything else, we did really well. [Nicola] Zalewski was also back in action. We’ve got a good mix. The conditions are there to do well – that’s how I feel.”