Ranieri's pre-Atalanta press conference

Here's what he had to say...

Will you go with a back three and two forwards behind Artem Dovbyk against Atalanta? Or will you opt for an extra midfielder?

“It will definitely be one or the other. I think we should be talking about Atalanta. I've already said in a meeting I had in Parma with [Arrigo] Sacchi and [Fabio] Capello that Atalanta are the pride of Italy. They play marvellous football. I think this is the third team we're playing with that sort of philosophy – of always attacking, always playing forward. Napoli are at the start with [Antonio] Conte – it's his fourth month in charge. Tottenham play a different system but still have that mindset of always attacking.

“Atalanta are a well-oiled machine – hats off to their president, [Antonio] Percassi. In the first four years, he used to say, 'Our target is staying up', but they kept finishing higher and higher. Now they're quite rightly aiming as high as possible – that is, getting back into the Champions League again next year and improving on last year's league placing. We'll be playing against what we could describe as the perfect team, though nothing is perfect.

“As for us, we've seen a ray of light. I saw footballers with an intense desire to achieve something. I think we need to make our fans proud of what we're able to do. We're not in the sort of form I'd like us to be in, because that's not possible after a week or ten days of working together. You can't have everything immediately. There were some negative aspects against Napoli, regardless of the mistakes, which can happen. I said to them: 'I didn't ask you to sit back and defend. I asked you to take them on blow for blow.' They understood that, took it on board and did what I asked against Tottenham. It's true that we could have conceded on two or three of their counter-attacks – and we do need to improve our positioning play to prevent that happening – but we played well. We had three goals disallowed and lots of shots. I like that – it makes the fans proud of what we're doing. We might win or lose games but we must play with that mindset.

“We'll be up against a team that since 24 September, when they lost to Como, have won ten games and drawn two, scoring 35 goals – an average of almost three per game. That's a lot! They've scored the most goals, created the most chances, they have the third-most forward passes, the most shots on goal, second-most crosses, the most balls won. They gobble you up. And I don't want to see my players gobbled up. I want to see a great game on Monday. That's what I hope and I'll encourage my players to do.

“At our last home game, our fans started leaving early. I'd like them to stay till the very end, as they did in London, against Tottenham. Even though we could have ended up losing that game instead of scoring in the 90th minute or whenever it was.

“I'd like our fans to leave the stadium after seeing the players give their all – that's what I want. And regardless of the formation – because, as I've said many times, you can write it down on paper, as I often do myself, but it's fluid. That's the most important thing. I may have spoken a bit much, but I that was something I wanted to explain.”

The fans' spirits were lifted by the performance in London as they can see themselves in the team again. How important is that? That they feel an identity again?

“It's incredibly important. I've already told the players it's up to them to make our fans fall in love with the team again because they're magnificent. And quite rightly, when things aren't going well, they say what they think needs doing. That's why we must give 100%. The fans know when you're giving your all and when you're not.”

You have Alexis Saelemaekers available again now. What do you think is the best position for him? And how important is it to have such a versatile player as him?

“As a coach, you're always looking for players who can play in different positions. I've spoken to him and he really likes playing high on the left, but he can play on the other flank too. I see him more as an attacking player but he also has to put in a shift defensively.

“I told Dovbyk to never chase back but then he won the ball in incredible fashion in the second half to stop a counter-attack. If he does that once, I'm happy with him, but he shouldn't always be chasing opponents back.

“Saelemaekers is back and doesn't have 90 minutes in him but you could see the energy he exuded in the one-on-ones. He played the key pass to Angelino.

“We're getting back to being the team our fans are used to seeing.”

You spoke about the progress Atalanta have made. Is that the sort of plans Roma should have? Do Roma need to follow the Atalanta model to kick on in the coming years? I'm asking you in your director's role as well, regarding the choice of the next coach. Do you think Roma need someone like Gasperini?

“That question was a little... Up until the 'Atalanta model' part, it was a good question.

“We always relate to what we see. Right now every tennis player wants to be like [Jannik] Sinner. And everyone in football says they want to be like Atalanta. Atalanta are a model, a top-level team who can be seen as a model. But everyone has their own qualities and difficulties. Atalant have developed slowly but surely and become a symbol of Italy. When I watch European games, I always hope Italian teams progress – not just Atalanta. That's important.

“The model was built starting with the foundations. If I remember correctly, Gasperini didn't do too well in his first five or six matches either. But he nurtured the team and they blossomed. They've produced so much good football with players who weren't able to perform at the same level away from Atalanta, and that means the coach deserves much of the credit for it. We must tip our hats to him and congratulate everyone at the club. From Percassi the father, to the son, who was a player of mine at Chelsea, the coach and everyone else who's pulling in the same direction.”

Do you have the foundations here to create a model like that?

“We certainly have players that we're trying to get back to performing at their best. Then it's up to the coach to tell us who he wants. And we'll do everything we can to give him what he wants. In England people often say, 'Rome wasn't built in a day.' We are Rome, we're Romans. Give us a bit more time...”

Are you a very different coach to Gasperini? And do you think you deserved to win more?

“Me and him?”

Yes, both.

“I'll talk about Gasperini: definitely. I've done my bit and I'm super happy. We all know what situation we came into when we joined a club at a particular time, and I'm very happy with my career.

“As for the differences between us, what do you mean? Because I'm always calm in the dugout? That's because you don't see me in the dressing room...”

The way you attack. Gasperini is seen as a coach who always plays man for man.

“There are lots of others who play Gasperini's way. I try to do the best I can with what's available to me. I don't have a set formation. I have set players. I try to put nearly all of them in their best positions, then of course sometimes I have to ask someone to put in an extra shift in a position that's less than ideal. I think I'm a coach who's able to get the best out of every player. I say that because whenever I've left, my successors haven't done better than me. I think I can say that at the age of 73.”

I wanted to ask you about Paulo Dybala and Lorenzo Pellegrini. Are you likely to use Dybala for less than 90 minutes? Is the captain helping you more from a psychological perspective or something else?

“I assess Dybala from one training session to the next. We know he can encounter certain problems and I have to try to prevent them happening. I took him off against Tottenham because I needed another player to press and close down opponents in their penalty area. I have no problem saying that when he turned it on he did fabulous things, like that ball for [Stephan] El Shaarawy for the goal, the shot of his that was saved superbly by the keeper. He hasn't done the amazing things he knows how to do, but he's given me lots of running and pressing, so I have to weigh it all up carefully every time.

“As for Lorenzo, I told him: 'You're running around like crazy. You're feeling the pressure. I want you to enjoy yourself. So now we're going to switch off, reset and you'll see that you'll go back to being the midfielder I know.'

“I've had two amazing goalscoring midfielders in my career. One is [Frank] Lampard and the other is Pellegrini. He comes in for a lot of criticism but how many midfielders score as many as Pellegrini? My job at the moment is to help Roma. And in helping Roma, I was very clear with Lorenzo, I told him, 'Lorenzo, this is my plan.'”

So when do you think he'll return?

“It depends when we switch back on. In football you never know how long such things last. I can tell you that he's started scoring goals in training, hitting the target more than when I first arrived. I don't know how long it will last. You can tell when a striker is in form: when he shoots, he always hits the target. When he's not in form, he misses the target. Now his shots are always on target. He's scoring. He's started the reset process that he needs. He's a very sensitive lad, very introverted, and the situation is affecting him more than others.

“I read somewhere that he was supposedly responsible for [Daniele] De Rossi getting sacked. There's no truth in that. None whatsoever. The fans should know that. It wasn't [Gianluca] Mancini, or [Bryan] Cristante, or Pellegrini that got Daniele sacked. On the contrary, they did all they could to keep him. People need to know the truth.”

Speaking of goals, Dovbyk has only scored one in the last eight games. Is it a physical problem or a team problem with him not getting enough support?

“Both. He had those minor problems in Ukraine, a knee problem he doesn't have anymore. We know what sort of service he needs and we're not helping him. I've spoken to the team, showed them videos, and we need to help him because he's our goalscorer. We mustn't heap pressure on him but we have to give him the sort of deliveries a striker like him needs.”

The team have been passing the ball backwards less. Is that something you've worked on?

“I make them play only forwards. I'm a football fan, not just a Roma fan. I love it when both teams are trying to score. Then I'm happy In the last four months – and I'm not talking about Roma – when I saw the ball being played backwards, to the goalkeeper, I'd change channel. I'd turn it off or put a film on because I didn't want to fall asleep. I played basketball as a child: in 30 seconds you had to score a basket, put the ball in the hoop. It was that simple.

“The match we played the other day was fantastic because we wanted to score, they wanted to score, and I think people enjoyed it. It could have finished 5-5, 5-2 to them or 5-2 to us, but that's what I want. That people come to watch the team and they say, 'We're trying to win at last.'

"Sorry to go off on one again but in 1997 I went to coach Valencia in Spain. At the end of the first training session, I called the players over and said, 'You know the opposition goal is down the other end? When are we going to get there?' That was before people spoke about tiki taka. They'd had a coach, [Jorge] Valdano, a real expert on the game, who loved that style of play. But they never got close to the opposition goal. We have to go straight for goal. I worked on that team, I changed some of the players, and after I left, under [Hector] Cuper, they reached two Champions League finals. With nearly all those kids I'd put in the team. With the likes of [Gaizka] Mendieta, [Javier] Farinos, Claudio Lopez, with a few more experienced players like [Jocelyn] Angloma, [Amedeo] Carboni and others. And we enjoyed ourselves.

“I think you need a mix of youth and experience to entertain the fans. The fans pay to watch. We're Italians. We like people who win. Like Sinner in tennis. That's the way we are, us Italians. We're winners.”

In December you'll have more games at the Olimpico than away. How important is that at the moment? 

“In my career, both as a player and as a coach, I've never looked at the name of the opposition. Because you might be playing an amazing team and catch them on an off day. I always say, 'Let's knock at the door and see who opens.' I've never been interested in the name. Every team wants to beat you playing their way, with their strategy. We have to be good enough and smart enough to win. Football is a simple game. But the hard part is making it simple.”