Claudio Ranieri: Roma to improve during tough season
AS Roma's manager, Claudio Ranieri, has admitted that his team is suffering from a poor start to the season, but also said that he backs his players to perform better in the club's coming fixtures.
The runners-up in last year's Serie A have lost one league game and drawn two so far this season. Last Wednesday's trip to Bayern Munich in the Champions League ended in a 2–0 defeat, after which captain
Francesco Totti expressed his frustration with the tactics chosen by Ranieri.
"I have no messages to launch towards the fans. Everyone can see what we are doing," said Ranieri, who took charge of Roma, one of the clubs he played for during his professional career, at the beginning
of last season. "It's not nice and we don't like the way we have started. We wanted to do well, but we have been unable to."
Injuries and lack of confidence
With John Arne Riise, Rodrigo Taddei, Stefano Okaka Chuka and Paolo Castellini, Ranieri said his squad has been decimated during the early stages of the season.
"For me Roma is there and we are compact, but it's a difficult period with injuries, and nothing seems to be going right for us. It's hard to see this, but we want to fight. It's not a physical problem,
but a mental one. We are demotivated from a poor start."
Roma's mental frailties were exposed against Bologna on Sunday, when the team squandered a two-goal lead after two late strikes by Bologna's Marco Di Vaio.
As Ranieri looked ahead to Wednesday's encounter with Brescia, Ranieri said that Roma will not play any easy games this season.
"However, we will come out of this situation, I am convinced. No one gives anything away, not in Serie A and neither in Europe. Brescia will be a tough game for us, and we will have to run plenty."
Tags: