Luciano Spalletti refused to discuss his future after Roma went out of the Coppa Italia semi-final to Lazio. “My destiny is in my hands and nobody else.”
“We’ll see if this affects the rest of the season. Clearly it’s a defeat that disappoints us. We cannot modify the past, so must be more careful in future,” Spalletti told Rai Sport.
Luciano Spalletti refused to discuss his future after Roma went out of the Coppa Italia semi-final to Lazio. “My destiny is in my hands and nobody else.”
“We’ll see if this affects the rest of the season. Clearly it’s a defeat that disappoints us. We cannot modify the past, so must be more careful in future,” Spalletti told Rai Sport.
“I thought Roma did quite well, in general. Coming off a 2-0 first leg deficit, you must be ready to react. There is the risk of losing your head, of letting it drop, of getting stretched out and opening up spaces – which we did on the second goal.
“You have to accept the result on the field and analyse it correctly, putting in all the elements of the work done. Unfortunately we won many games, scored many goals, but got it wrong at those two or three big appointments.
“If I look over the two legs, we didn’t play badly. Conceding a goal changes the psychology of the game, but all the work done around it remains the same.
“We needed the character to stay alert and expect the incidents that did in fact happen, but we didn’t.”
The Coach had said he would leave the club if he failed to win any silverware. The Giallorossi are second in Serie A, but out of the Coppa Italia and Europa League.
“I have my destiny in my own hands, nobody else, and it depends only on me. We keep saying we have to win, we are strong, we have to win, we are strong, but if we don’t win then someone has to take responsibility.
“Now we have remaining games in Serie A and above all our position in the table, which in my view is extraordinary. Last season we were 12 points off Napoli, six or seven off Inter, five from Fiorentina. Now we are up there with Napoli, trying to reduce the gap with Juventus, which means overall there have been improvements.
“It is important now to not lose energy thinking about this defeat. My future… this is not the time to talk about it. My future is trying to get us the best position possible.
“I needed to create the utmost focus in the players and tension too, as long as we were in the running. I took the responsibility of saying we are a strong team and that therefore we have to win. If we don’t win, we went out against Lyon and tonight too, then who is responsible? Someone has to take that on board.
“I think the tie was lost with the second goal in the first leg. That was avoidable.”