Ranieri's media conference before Tottenham

Read what he had to say...

It will be a tricky match tomorrow against tough opponents. Is it more important for the standings or for morale?

“It's important for both, of course. We know it's not going to be easy. They've won 13 of their last 15 games in Europe and drawn two. They put four past Man City last time out so they're going through a fantastic spell. They've lost twice recently but they've beaten the likes of City, Manchester United and Aston Villa.

“They move the ball around a lot, they hammer you, they press you and they're always pushing forward, one move after another. It's the sort of football I love because it gives the fans great joy. Their coach is doing a fantastic, wonderful job so I tip my hat to him.”

Is the fact that Hummels was chosen for the press conference a clue regarding who will play tomorrow? If so, will you play with a back five?

“Hummels was chosen for the press conference because he's a player of huge international standing but that doesn't mean he'll play. I'm not playing mind games. I need to work it out tonight and tomorrow morning. I'll speak to him and everyone else to get a better idea. He played 45 minutes. We'll see if he's recovered.

“I wasn't displeased with our performance against Napoli. We lost but we lost because of a moment's hesitation, misreading the trajectory. We were expecting a long ball but instead [Giovanni] Di Lorenzo cut inside and caught us off guard.

“However, we responded well to it and battled to the end looking for an equaliser. I think those things are important and it's what I asked the lads. I ask them to give their all, 100%, because you have to produce a good performance. You might play well or not so well but you have to leave the pitch knowing you gave everything you had.

“We made some mistakes. I didn't expect that sort of match. I'd told them, 'When they put a move together, then we need to go and put one together.' But we were a bit too shy and we misplaced a few too many passes in the first half. The performance was there, though.

“A new coach doesn't come in, wave a magic wand and fix everything. We're like a sick man with a doctor who's trying to find the right antidote to elicit a response. We are responding because I can see the desire in training, during our tactical sessions. I'm moderately positive. I'm not expecting anything spectacular in these three games but the lads know what we need to do. We must get it into our minds that we must fight till the very last second.”

Would you have preferred not to have this midweek match in Europe given Roma's situation in Serie A? Or is it motivating for you? And could Paulo Dybala play?

“It's immensely motivating. I haven't had any friendly matches to assess all the options open to me. And I don't have a friendly to play. I have to play against a magnificent team that's top of the goals scored table and the pressing table in the Premier League – they won't let us breathe. We need to be smart against them. I'm not going to say 'Europe is important to me' because every game is important to me.

“Dybala has trained and doesn't feel any pain. I put him on for a few minutes against Napoli. We'll decide tomorrow what to do. As I've said before, it's one thing playing with Dybala and another playing without. That's why I threw him on for the final minutes against Napoli, because I knew he was capable of coming up with something. I wasn't even going to take him to Naples but he wanted to come with us to be there with the team. He cares a lot about his team-mates and about everything. I threw him on as a last resort, to see if he could conjure something up. But I also told him to be careful not to get hurt because otherwise there would be no point putting him on the for final minutes.”

Roma concede a lot of goals from set pieces and headers. Is that the reason for playing with more centre-backs?

“So you know the line-up already, do you? It seems like you've already put three defenders on the pitch...”

No, it was just a question.

“I think it was a clever question.”

You've never been to Tottenham's new stadium, have you? What sort of game are you expecting tomorrow?

“No, I've never been here before. We've studied Tottenham. I like the way they attack, like a powerful car going full throttle. I've told my players that we must be tactically astute. When we have the ball, they're capable of snatching it off us so we have to move it around quickly.”

You came out of retirement for Roma, a club that you love. Another club going through a tough time at the moment is Leicester. Would you have come back for them too?

“When I decided to retire, I felt sure I wouldn't return to coaching and I didn't hope to return. The only two teams that could make me change my mind were Roma and Cagliari. I hoped I wouldn't come back because it would mean that things weren't going well.

“I'm sure Leicester will pick themselves up soon because they have great fans and great management. [Jamie] Vardy is still scoring goals. I really hope to see them get out of the rut quickly.”