Daniele De Rossi would love to succeed “as a Coach after winning nothing with Roma as a player. I don’t feel a winner, but not a failure or a loser either.”

The midfielder turns 34 this summer and his thoughts are inevitably turning to the future. You can read the rest of the interview here.

“Being a Coach is the best job in football, but also the worst and certainly the toughest,” De Rossi told Sky Sport Italia.

Daniele De Rossi would love to succeed “as a Coach after winning nothing with Roma as a player. I don’t feel a winner, but not a failure or a loser either.”

The midfielder turns 34 this summer and his thoughts are inevitably turning to the future. You can read the rest of the interview here.

“Being a Coach is the best job in football, but also the worst and certainly the toughest,” De Rossi told Sky Sport Italia.

“I can only imagine that the wife of a Coach has to share his joy, frustration and stress. If I spend so much of the day thinking about football, imagine a tactician. We’ll have to see if I have the strength to put my family through that.

“It would be a great story, though, to win as a Coach after winning nothing with Roma as a player.”

If anyone knows the family life of a tactician, it’s De Rossi, as his father Alberto is the Coach of Roma’s Primavera youth team.

“Moving between two centre-backs is something Luis Enrique was very familiar with. We were in pre-season training, he sat me down to watch the videos of the Barcelona B team and said I had to move like that. I played a few games as a centre-back.

“Pep Guardiola had this movement in him and we used to drive him crazy when he first arrived. He was disconcerted at us Italians, winning the ball back and immediately going on the counter. He urged calm and passing.

“At the end of training sessions, he’d take his boots off and spend time telling me where I was going wrong. I realised he was practicing to become a Coach, it was already happening there.

“I found some of that style of football with Luis Enrique, a more thought-out approach. I feel more at ease in that. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have Andrea Pirlo’s precise long pass, or Paul Pogba’s change of pace or Radja Nainggolan’s intensity. I need teammates to move in certain ways and in that sense the Coach is decisive.

“The more years go by, the more I realise how important that element is to the game.”

De Rossi didn’t always have a good rapport with Coaches, as he was largely frozen out by Zeman, but holds no ill-will.

“I find it absurd that people thought it was something personal. There is no Coach who doesn’t want to win. If Zeman doesn’t pick me or anyone else, it’s simply because he thinks someone else is better suited to his football. In that sense, the fact my father is a Coach really helped me see it from that perspective.

“A Coach is alone. As a player, you can lose a game and be forgiven, but the Coach is always to blame. You can be suspended or banned, but the Coach is permanently in the firing line, especially in Italy.”

Despite understanding the stressful nature of the job, De Rossi still seems to be gravitating towards that career.

“I used to get a bit bored watching the video lectures, but I realise now that it’s fundamental. A player with the right teacher can grow exponentially. I am one of the few players who is really passionate about the video and tactical lectures.”

He has won the World Cup with Italy, but is well aware that Roma have underperformed over the years.

“I realised that it’s not easy to reach victory and for the most part I didn’t get there. It’s harder when you are a team with many people, because it’d be easier if we were tennis players and just had to focus on ourselves. It’s a complex alchemy, a team.

“If you finish second seven, eight or even 10 times in your career, it means you must’ve won a lot of games and worked well. If you win many games, lose very few, it means you have the right mentality and are a professional – a winner.

“Unfortunately, despite all that, you still are not the winner and that can destroy you. Not finishing first is a defeat and defeat is the worst feeling.

“At Roma there’s a big difference between victory and failure. I do not feel that I am a winner, but I don’t feel like a failure or a loser either. Apart from a few seasons that were a failure, I did my job.

“A team that starts strong and then doesn’t win at the end has failed. A team like Roma that finishes second is evidently missing something. We don’t lift imaginary trophies, but we’ve certainly done good things too.

“It’s only natural we all want to win and relish a memorable moment, but ultimately we have to analyse seasons and potential in a more level-headed way.”

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