Roma coach De Rossi frustrated with Atalanta defeat

AS Roma coach Daniele de Rossi was left frustrated after their 2-1 defeat to Atalanta.

After going 2-0 down, Roma threatened to fight-back after Lorenzo Pellegrini's successful penalty.

De Rossi said: There was a reaction after the penalty, but we should've reacted earlier.

Although Atalanta are strong and go twice as fast as many teams in Europe, there is a psychological element and we need to find that within us, because we cannot wait for a penalty to let us back in.

We shook off the tension then and fought back, but we continue to concede too many goals and that's not good. That penalty woke us up and made us regain some belief."

De Rossi said of putting Tammy Abraham on at half-time: We had planned a more direct approach than the one we took. We knew that we needed to support Romelu with vertical passes and that hardly ever worked in the first half, so I thought with another reference point in attack like Abraham, we could do more damage.

However, it was not a tactical change that I saw, but a mental one after the penalty. Despite not deserving it, we found ourselves back in the game and we changed gear for the last half-hour, creating chances.

I like possession, but not if it is for its own sake, you have to draw the opponents out of shape to create spaces."