Roma will play either Edin Dzeko or Patrik Schick up front tomorrow, Eusebio Di Francesco confirms “not together”.
The Giallorossi have won just one of five games in all competitions, and both their strikers have been struggling to find the back of the net.
“Tomorrow he [Schick] won’t play with Dzeko, either he or Schick will be there,” Di Francesco revealed in his pre-match Press conference.
Roma will play either Edin Dzeko or Patrik Schick up front tomorrow, Eusebio Di Francesco confirms “not together”.
The Giallorossi have won just one of five games in all competitions, and both their strikers have been struggling to find the back of the net.
“Tomorrow he [Schick] won’t play with Dzeko, either he or Schick will be there,” Di Francesco revealed in his pre-match Press conference.
“Even two months ago when he wasn’t playing I monitored him constantly, he has to mature and he’s doing that gradually.
“He’s a heritage of football and then, yes, with Sassuolo he played badly and we can’t make excuses for anyone.
“If some of his features don’t work in the system that’s one thing, but with work, availability and humility he can prove to be the player we saw with Sampdoria.
“That’s what we’re betting on with Schick.”
Di Francesco also gave his thoughts on Atalanta, and expects a difficult encounter with Gian Piero Gasperini’s men.
“They’re the worst opponent we could face since we’re coming off the back of a not-so-brilliant spell.
“The Orobici have great physicality, and a great Coach who has caused problems for many.
“We still have the Sampdoria match to play, so we could stay six points behind Napoli but we have to win tomorrow.
“They’re very good in attack, but we have to try and play, get it forward. We had some problems against Sassuolo, but we need to be aggressive in their midfield.
“We’ve had almost as many shots as Napoli, we’ve conceded the fewest goals in the league and our possession stats are up there with the best.
“We’re seventh for goals scored though and that’s a disturbing fact, we haven’t finished well.
“If you shoot like Napoli do and don’t score it means there are problems.
“[Daniele] De Rossi won’t be there because of a problem. We need to overcome this period, because it’s the worst since I’ve been at Roma in terms of results.
“Maybe we’ve dropped in terms of emotion subconsciously, we need to rediscover that application we had before.
“There’s always a thin line between winning and losing a match, in the second half against Sassuolo we conceded a goal in our best spell.
“Now we have get our heads down and work.”