Gianluca Mancini admits it ‘hurts’ to lose 4-2 against Inter after taking a 2-1 lead, but Roma have definitely changed since Daniele De Rossi took over from Jose Mourinho.
The Giallorossi had turned around the Francesco Acerbi opener with goals from Mancini and Stephan El Shaarawy, but capitulated in the second half to a Marcus Thuram tap-in, Angelino own goal and late Alessandro Bastoni counter-attack.
“It hurts, because when you lose it can never be a positive feeling,” Mancini told DAZN.
“We lost to Inter, who are the best team in the league, and our first half was marvellous. The regrets are that 10-minute spell in the second half. We’re angry, but also aware that we had the right approach.”
Roma had won all three matches under new coach De Rossi until this setback, but even then the extremely aggressive start showed a vast difference to Mourinho’s defend and counter tactics.
“The coach is well-prepared, he brought his ideas and we understood them. Things weren’t going well before he arrived, tonight we put into practice what he asks of us. The 4-2 result feels a bit much considering, as we could’ve equalised.
“If we continue like this, then the results will arrive.”
The biggest shift under De Rossi was moving from a 3-5-2 to a 4-3-3, although it was more of a disguised three this evening to mirror Inter’s system.
“We are more aggressive with three at the back, whereas in a four-man defence you need to work more as a unit. As I said many times already, we’re accustomed to four too,” added Mancini.
“We are Roma and we must try to win every match. We tried, it didn’t go our way, but we will do better.”
𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 👀
𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐍 🏃Roma strike back through a brilliant header from Gianluca Mancini 🔥
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— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 10, 2024
Reality check…