Roma sporting director Monchi believes “we have to manage defeat better and manage victories better”.
The Giallorossi have reached the Champions League Quarter-Finals with the midweek win over Shakhtar Donetsk, but the Spaniard warns against getting carried away.
“Finding the motivation to play for the chance to go to the Champions League Quarter-Finals is not difficult,” Monchi explained on Roma Radio.
Roma sporting director Monchi believes “we have to manage defeat better and manage victories better”.
The Giallorossi have reached the Champions League Quarter-Finals with the midweek win over Shakhtar Donetsk, but the Spaniard warns against getting carried away.
“Finding the motivation to play for the chance to go to the Champions League Quarter-Finals is not difficult,” Monchi explained on Roma Radio.
“But after the adrenaline of match like that, returning to the League and playing against a complicated team has to be a growth. We need to do that.
“Five minutes after the game, speaking on Spanish radio, I was thinking of Crotone.
“I was just talking to the Coach [Eusebio Di Francesco] and he was watching the Crotone game. If we want to get bigger we have to manage situations like these, playing with the same level of motivation.
“If we don’t win against Crotone it’s a mess.
“It's a sign of maturity, it's the road we want for the Roma of the future, we want a strong Roma in all matches. I want to see pictures on Instagram after a final, not after a Last 16 game.
“It’s not easy to find solutions, I think – after 11 months – that we have to manage defeat better and manage victories better. For me that’s the first problem we have at Roma.
“Whenever we start winning we’re champions, whenever we lose it’s a disaster. I go back to my message of four or five months ago, we need to find the grey, the balance.
“That evening with Shakhtar was wonderful but we can’t stop at just one victory or one loss. It’s not easy to change, to find this path we haven’t taken for so long.
“I think that’s our first problem.
“If the team doesn’t win criticism is normal, and vice-versa.
“I always think about the next game, there is no past in football and there is no future: there is only the present.
“Mistakes? A lot of them, I made a lot of them but I had the ability to understand where I’d done badly.
“An example would be Hector Moreno. I was convinced he could be a Roma player, but then I stopped and I understood he couldn’t.
“I took that on board and I’ll try not to do it again.”
Monchi was then asked if he wants to face his former team Sevilla in the next round.
“Now it’s difficult for everyone in the Champions League, anyone can meet anyone else.
“You’ve got Barcelona, Real Madrid who are built to win everything, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, who are the strongest of them all.
“In Rome everyone wants Sevilla, in Seville everyone wants Roma. My son saw a photo on Twitter with the eight teams, that’s the beautiful thing.
“If the other seven teams all want Roma it’s ok for us, it’s better that way. The goal is mentality, and ours is good now.”