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Di Francesco's pre-Sampdoria press conference in full

Read everything that coach Eusebio Di Francesco had to say at his press conference ahead of Wednesday's Serie A game against Sampdoria.

The match at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris gets underway at 20:45 CET.

Di Francesco began his press conference by addressing the ongoing transfer market speculation involving members of the squad.

"Before we start I'll say a couple of words about all the recent transfer talk," Di Francesco began. "As things stand, all the players here are available for this hugely important match we have to play in 36 hours' time.

"My job is to make sure that everyone is ready for it - including the players whose names have been in the papers. Obviously I'm going to have to see what frame of mind the players are in but right now my focus is on preparing for the game as best I can. At the moment all the players who are available for the match belong to Roma, and that's all that matters.

"Today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, as Monchi has said, we'll listen to whatever offers people want to make us. Right now my focus is on preparing for tomorrow's game."

We saw two sides to Roma against Inter. How do you explain the last 20 minutes of the match?

"We were less incisive than Inter despite having more of the play. We must be more clinical in the final third. When you win back 16 or 17 balls, you need to finish off moves better. Sadly we didn't do that. It's virtually impossible to maintain a high tempo for 90 minutes without ever coming under pressure from the opposition.

"People highlighted Alisson's performance and he was exceptional but he's never been troubled that much before. He's an extraordinary goalkeeper. Going into tomorrow's game we're going to have to assess some fitness issues that we've carried over from the last one."

Sampdoria come into the game in good form. What's the biggest threat they pose?

"Samp have shown they've got plenty of ideas and a clear playing style. They're good at getting the ball forward quickly and getting men into the box. I don't know if [Fabio] Quagliarella is going to play tomorrow but he's in brilliant form at the moment. They can certainly cause problems for us, just as we can cause problems for them. Marassi is never an easy place to go and it will be a tricky match.

"The transfer rumours don't really provide the ideal circumstances for us to prepare for it so I must be careful to focus solely on the game, as I did against Inter. If the lads weren't in the right frame of mind, they wouldn't have played with such intensity for 70 minutes against Inter."

Will Edin Dzeko start tomorrow?

"As things stand at the moment, he will, yes. Obviously though I'm going to assess the player's state of mind and talk to him about it. I haven't done that yet because I wanted to let him get on with things, but I have to prepare for this game as well as I can and be able to count on him. I'll take a decision together with the player. My view is that if he's a Roma player he should play. If he's our player, he can play, as long as you've weighed up all those other aspects."

Is Daniele De Rossi better now?

"He's a big doubt. We'll see how he looks today but I think it's unlikely he'll be ready for tomorrow's game. We've done our best to get him fit but I doubt he'll be available."

What would Roma lose without Dzeko? If he were to leave, would it be better to bring in a wide forward to give [Patrik] Schick and [Gregoire] Defrel more playing time or a centre forward?

"We're talking about a situation that isn't real at the moment. Of course, there are always things you need to be weigh up. We have players who can play centre forward like Schick and Defrel, but right now my job as the coach is to focus on Dzeko. If it were to come to it, we could opt for a wide player or a traditional centre forward."

How are you going to motivate the players?

"That's something I have to think about today and tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll be counting on my players' professionalism. We mustn't give them any alibis. We all need to act responsibly when dealing with situations like this."

How are [Stephan] El Shaarawy and Gerson doing?

"We'll look at everything carefully today and tomorrow. Fitness-wise we're not doing great in midfield. It's tough because we have lots of players who aren't 100% or who were carrying niggles when they came off the field [against Inter]. I could find myself with lots of players unavailable tomorrow and that might mean we change the way we set up."

What happened when you switched to five at the back? Was the team not aggressive enough in that portion of the game?

"The playing system has nothing to do with the team's mentality - it's the players' attitude that determines whether or not they close down. We were too far away from the ball when Inter scored, regardless of the number of men we had in defence. We eased off but I don't think it's a mental issue; it was more to do with the fitness of the players we had out there. We conceded the goal after I'd strengthened our backline.

"People tend to point the finger at the players who come on but not having a natural midfielder on the bench meant I wasn't able to make a different substitution that would have allowed us to remain higher up the pitch. We dropped off a bit too much when we were playing 4-3-3 too because the onus was on our opponents to push forward in search of an equaliser. We need to stay switched on in certain situations."

Do you agree with the club's choices or do you just have to accept them?

"I don't run away from the things I have to deal with but there are others where it's not the coach's place, like when it comes to choosing players and situations at club level. I wanted to coach Roma and I'll do my very best here, whatever happens."

Have you spoken to Schick? Do you expect him to step up his game?

"He's the present in my eyes and Defrel can play in the same position. Patrik needs to do things with a bit more grit and determination - that's something he can improve. We saw the goal he scored from outside the box yesterday. Perhaps if he can do that a bit more regularly it will increase the belief he has in his own ability."

Have you ever been asked not to pick a player because of transfer talk?

"All sorts of things can happen but I always pick the team by myself. That's something I've always done and always will. It's up to me who plays - no one else. Whether or not Dzeko plays is my choice and my choice alone."

Will [Kevin] Strootman play in the holding role again? Could he play there in the future or is it just a temporary measure?

"It's not the first time I've tried him out there - it happened against SPAL and on other occasions too. When our usual holding midfielders are unavailable he can play there and he does what I want from him. He does need to get the ball forward a bit more but in terms of his positioning and consistency during the game I liked what I saw. So yes, he could play there again in future."

Would a Roma side minus Dzeko and Emerson be capable of beating Shakhtar?

"We set out to win every game, no matter where we're playing. We've shown that but we need to rediscover a bit of consistency and togetherness as a team - as we saw against Inter. That was something resembling the sort of Roma I like to see, and that's important. I hope to see that more and more and I'd also like to see the spirit we played with against Inter. Doing all those things will help us do well against a team like Shakhtar."
Source: AS Roma
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