Gianluca Mancini acknowledges that head coach Gian Piero Gasperini actively encourages him to develop a more attacking style of play from defense, and believes that Roma “have what it takes” to succeed in the Europa League.
The central defender scored the winning goal in tonight`s 2-1 away match against OGC Nice, after his defensive colleague Evan N`Dicka opened the scoring. The Italian`s goal was scored from open play, a magnificent volley.
“I`ve always had a very attacking approach, but it strongly depends on the coaches you work with,” Mancini told Sky Sport Italia.
“Gasperini is very focused on this style, so I know that when I push forward, the midfielders provide cover. In the first few games, we were still trying to work out the right movements, so we didn`t do it as much, but we knew Nice would leave a bit more space tonight.”
“Their striker struggled to cope with my run; I did it twice and effectively scored two goals,” he added, referring to an earlier disallowed goal.
In the first half, Mancini had already put the ball in the net, but his header was disallowed for offside; he only managed to score definitively in the 55th minute.
“This was a difficult match, and it`s important that we started our European adventure with three points.”
Mancini Embraces More Attacking Role at Roma
Nice managed to create a tense finish with their penalty, but remarkably, in the first five competitive matches under Gasperini, only one goal has been scored from open play by the team.
“Defensive solidity doesn`t start with us defenders, I`ll repeat that a thousand times; it starts with the rest of the team helping to cover us. It`s also true that we`ve had a bit of luck at times and haven`t conceded many this season,” Mancini insisted.
“After that, defenders can have a great performance for 90 minutes, then make a silly mistake in stoppage time and ruin everything. So defenders must always be switched on, and unfortunately, today again we complicated things for ourselves in the final minutes.”
“The good thing is that we all came together and held on to secure the result. We`re still working on the details, but the mentality and determination have been excellent,” he concluded.
It was noteworthy that this was the only time this season Roma had scored more than one goal in a game, and both were netted by defenders, highlighting a unique attacking contribution from the backline.
“I think we performed better in attack today; that`s the most challenging part because it`s so very new to us. Details like positioning and posture can make a big difference, so the more we work on it, the more effective we will be going forward,” Mancini affirmed.
Roma are considered among the favorites for the Europa League, especially now that Gasperini has arrived with his proven history of success in the tournament.
“Last season, there was an incident in Europe that somewhat spoiled our plans. We have several players in this squad who played in a Europa League Final; Gasperini won it two years ago with Atalanta, so we have what it takes. However, we have to take it one game at a time and realize that playing every three days is an opportunity to improve more quickly.”
“We have a very difficult fixture list in the Europa League, so we`ll see how we progress and try to get stronger with every match,” Mancini concluded, emphasizing the team`s continuous growth mindset.
