Garcia: We could have controlled things better late on

Rudi Garcia says Roma needed to manage the game better in the final minutes if they wanted to hold onto their advantage at Torino.

Speaking after the Giallorossi’s 1-1 draw in Turin, the coach stressed that although the hosts should never have been awarded a late penalty Roma only have themselves to blame if they failed to come away with all three points.

“It’s our own fault if we drew the game because we could have kept hold of the ball better in the final minutes and scored a second goal,” Garcia began.

“Before we start laying the blame at the ref’s door for not seeing that Kostas Manolas actually won the ball, we should be looking at where we came up short ourselves. If we’d been a bit more patient and careful we could have claimed all three points.

“It’s done now but we’re disappointed because it’s two points dropped. We came here with the aim of making up for the points we dropped at home but there’s nothing more we can do now except move onto the next match.”

Do you agree that Roma made lots of mistakes typical of a team under pressure today?
“We went about the job properly. We know that Torino set themselves up a certain way tactically. The problem was that we didn’t manage to cause problems for them in the first half. We played much better after the break and we took the lead. We could have controlled the game better at the end and sewn it up by scoring the second. Now we just have to look forward.”

Is there a sense of anger in the dressing room?
“Anyone who was there after the game would have witnessed the anger. They’re all disappointed, just as I am. We showed our togetherness as a team as we always do. We have to improve on what we didn’t do well but defensively we were good today.”

You seemed to struggle to build play. Would you agree?
“Torino are a very well-drilled side. At home they try to exploit the opposition’s mistakes and punish you but I don’t think we struggled at all today. Apart from a save Wojciech Szczesny had to make they didn’t create many chances. We did better in the second half because we were patient and we gave Edin Dzeko better service in the air.”

Would you start with Gervinho if you could pick the team again?
“Gervinho was fit, otherwise he wouldn’t have played. He was going to play one half and I preferred to put him on in the first half because it might have been more of a risk for him to come off the bench. We’ll see how he is tomorrow. Hopefully it’s nothing serious because we need everyone at the moment.”

What do Roma need to win the Scudetto?
“Our aim is to be up there challenging at the top. We’ve lost a bit of ground now but fortunately it’s still the first half of the season and we have time to catch up. The Champions League saps away at some of our energy too but we showed today that we were focused entirely on this league match. We have to find a bit of consistency again and take the chances we have to win games, and we had those today.”

Garcia: We could have controlled things better late on

Source: asroma.it