Gasperini: If Koné scored more goals he’d not play for Roma, we need ‘high tempo’ to win

Gian Piero Gasperini insists Roma need to play at a ‘high tempo’ to get results and admits Manu Koné ‘would likely not be playing for Roma’ if he scored more goals.

Gasperini examined the Giallorossi’s 3-1 win over Genoa on Monday. A win that allowed the Giallorossi to overtake Juventus in fourth: “We made a few technical errors at the start, but our movement in attack was good,” the Roma coach told DAZN via the Roma website.

“We caused quite a few problems for them with our runs from deep and we always looked dangerous. I’m a bit disappointed about the second half. I’d have liked us to play better football but the match fizzled out a bit. In any case, we have to take all the positives,” Gasperini said.

The reporters noted that Roma win more games when Gasp fields a classic centre-forward, but the Roma coach didn’t quite agree: “I don’t know what statistics you’re referring to because I see that [Evan] Ferguson has played in every game except three. [Artem] Dovbyk, until he started having injury problems, always played,” the coach replied.

“He didn’t play 90 minutes, and we perhaps didn’t start with him, but even in the games we lost, sometimes we started off playing one way, then lost in the second half playing a different way, so it depends on how you interpret things.

“In any case, that’s not what it’s about. It’s about producing good performances. You can’t get your approach or the level of intensity wrong in this team, because we’re a team that gets results when we play at a high tempo, and when we haven’t been able to get a result, we’ve still played well. That’s the main thing.”

Paulo Dybala looked particularly sharp against Genoa.

“When he’s not injured, he plays in any case because we don’t have other players of his quality,” Gasperini noted.

“Obviously, when he’s fit like this evening, and we can produce attacking play like this, everything is easier. But when he’s not in this condition, when he’s not this strong, or when he has some sort of niggle, he can’t play like he did tonight. At the moment, in this team, if he doesn’t have to sit out, he’ll play.”

Manu Koné scored his first league goal this season: “Every player has room for improvement, even when they’re ‘old’ in sporting terms. As I said yesterday, you have to see the glass as half full – you can’t always be looking at what’s missing,” Gasperini concluded.

 “He’s a France international and a regular starter. He has some phenomenal qualities. It’s true that if he scored more goals, he’d likely not be playing for Roma – he’d be on another level already. But I think that’s definitely an area of his game where he can improve.”