Ranieri reacts to Lecce victory

This is what Claudio Ranieri had to say to Sky Sport Italia after the game.

 Let's start by talking about Roma's attacking play: 23 shots, with nine on target. And you limited Lecce to one.

“It was a strong performance, which is what I asked of them, against a team that's used to scrapping it out. We needed to play with the same battling spirit we knew Lecce would have. We also had to let our quality come to the fore. But first of all we needed to match their hunger to fight for every ball – and we did that.

“I'm happy because there were several players who needed a bit of a confidence boost and they played well.

“We struggled a little at the start of the second half but when I put [Niccolo] Pisilli on that ended because with the extra midfielder we pulled ourselves together again.”

Pisilli had a huge impact on the game when he came on.

 "We were playing with two of us – [Manu] Kone and [Leo] Paredes – against three of them and we couldn't keep the two trequartisti with [Paulo] Dybala, so bringing on Pisilli to bolster the midfield seemed like the logical solution. He's a fantastic box-to-box midfielder. I said the other day that I needed someone like him because he can shoot, he times his runs well, he can do lots of things. He's young but he has a bright future ahead.

“I'm happy for the team and especially for the fans. I heard you talking about the president. I don't want to defend anyone – because I'm not the right person to do that – but I asked my press officer how many American owners there are in Serie A. There's loads, and I've never heard them mentioned. That's the way they do things. They bring in people they trust and if things don't turn out well, they lose their money. I hope they've chosen the right people because we're all on the alert. We're trying to do things the way we think is best and that's what they're like. I haven't heard any of the other American presidents speaking because they delegate. That's how they like to do things. They only talk when they have to, apart from speaking to the people who work for their club of course, and hope that everything slots into place.”

You seem to have a slightly unbalanced squad because besides the players we saw today, you also have Matias Soule, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Tommaso Baldanzi who can play behind the front man. Perhaps you're a bit short in the wide areas, which is key for the way Roma play. Are you thinking of changing anything? How do you solve this problem?

“I'm not going to tell you! As you saw, I had Saud [Abdulhamid], a boy with incredible pace. So when [Zeki] Celik went off – and thankfully he's not injured – I put him on. And I'm pleased. He was a little shy in the first half and we didn't give him the ball. I told them not to always play through the middle because we lost two or three balls that could have cost us dear on the counter.

“It's ok though because we won. And everything is rosy when you win. But we haven't even laid the first brick. We're still bringing in the cement to lay the foundations. Because this team has to do better and not settle for what we're doing. It takes time to build things properly.”

Do you expect to bring Pellegrini back in too?

“Of course. I've been saying since I arrived that I've had two brilliant goalscoring midfielders in my career: [Frank] Lampard and Pellegrini. But Lorenzo is sad because he's not the sort of Roman who couldn't care less. He feels the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, and it shouldn't be that way. He needs to be more carefree. When I see he's not troubled anymore, he'll play.”