Franco Baldini insists Roma “are on the right track” with Luis Enrique, even though “the fans are losing patience.”
Franco Baldini insists Roma “are on the right track” with Luis Enrique, even though “the fans are losing patience.”
The Giallorossi were crushed 3-0 by Fiorentina, seeing Juan, Fernando Gago and Bojan Krkic sent off.
“Is this the most difficult moment? Well, you don’t need to strain to find something wrong with this game,” mused the general manager and former England director.
“There is bitterness and disappointment, because we represent a club with great fans and they have the right to not be happy with what’s going on. We knew it would be difficult to build this project and with every defeat it gets tougher.
“Nobody is happy on a day like this, but we believe this project is worth fighting for. I saw improvements in games against Novara and Lecce, while Udinese” data-scaytid=”9″>Udinese last week wasn’t so bad either.
“Unfortunately, we barely got a chance to see what we could do in Florence, because we went down to 10 men with a penalty and it all became more complicated. Add on the difficult week we’ve had and the pressure got to the squad.”
Pablo Daniel Osvaldo was suspended and fined €50,000 after a locker-room punch-up with teammate Erik Lamela.
Some Roma fans are turning on Enrique now and chanted for his resignation after the 3-0 loss.
“Are we reconsidering our project? Absolutely not,” insisted Baldini. “I will concede the fans are starting to lose some of that extraordinary patience we had seen up until now. There’s no point denying it.
“We should stop trying to make comparisons with Barcelona, though. We’re trying to create a team that works with possession, but other sides do that too. We’ll refer to Barcelona when we have quality.
“This is the first year of a long-term plan and clearly every defeat seems to make it shorter, but we’ve got to keep our eyes on the road and keep going forward.”
Thus means Gago, Bojan and Juan will all be suspended for the next Serie A match against leaders Juventus.
“Osvaldo will return, as he has always trained hard and his suspension was an important signal on how one should behave.”