De Rossi muses on what represents ‘failure’ for Roma | OneFootball

Daniele De Rossi cut a frustrated figure after Roma conceded a last-gasp equaliser to Genoa, but insists anything less than the Champions League is not ‘a failure.’

It is now officially a disastrous start to the season, because only three times before in their history had they failed to win any of the opening four rounds in Serie A, back in 2010-11, 1984-85 and 1974-75.

“We dominated the first half, then in the second got too deep when trying to counter-attack,” the coach told DAZN.

“We made too many technical errors and this gives your opponents confidence.”

They were 30 seconds away from victory at Marassi thanks to Artem Dovbyk’s first goal in the Giallorossi jersey, but Koni De Winter rose between Evan N’Dicka and debutant Mario Hermoso to nod in the Vitinha cross at the 96th minute.

“It was the first half performance we wanted, making Genoa move around and keeping the ball, so we should’ve taken those opportunities to score a second goal.”

De Rossi had already left the touchline when the equaliser went in, because he was sent off for dissent, receiving a second yellow card.

De Rossi wants ambitious Roma

Despite the poor results so far, he remains adamant that this is the start of an ambitious project.

“I believe this is a team that has to challenge for the Champions League places. That is our objective. Having said that, if you don’t achieve it, then that’s not necessarily an automatic failure. There are many teams with that as a target,” concluded De Rossi.

“We had a strong transfer campaign to reinforce the squad for our objective. Unfortunately, these dropped points weigh heavily on our position in the table and even more so on our mood.”

There were also Roma protests in the first half for a De Winter challenge on Paulo Dybala, but the referee and VAR waved play on.

There was a very long VAR check for the Dovbyk goal, though that was reportedly mostly a communication issue rather than the offside itself.