Roma coach Luciano Spalletti praised his side as well as Sassuolo following the Giallorossi’s 2-0 victory away to Sassuolo.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Stephan El Shaarawy was enough to cling onto a valuable three points, despite Radja Nainggolan’s dismissal with pivotal Seydou Keita highlighted as vital to combining defence and attack.
“Seydou is the kind of guy that gives you that balance,” Spaletti told Mediaset Premium.
“I asked him to control the game and he did so.
“He picked up on various positions to close down on Sassuolo when they changed the tempo.”
Taking an early lead pleased the Italian coach but were almost pegged back by a Neroverdi side fighting to get out of a poor run of form.
“The team played very well in the first-half,” he added.
“However, it was still difficult because Sassuolo are a good team and [Eusebio] Di Francesco is a great coach.
“He has good players and also behind them a lot of hard work but even so, I do think we deserved to win the game.”
New signing Diego Perotti, who arrived from Genoa, gave a solid debut performance that could even revive the likes of Edin Dzeko who has been critiqued recently.
“This supposed problem with Dzeko does not exist,” stated Spalletti.
“He is usually supplied with chances and recently he has not had as many and that depends on us.
“We have not yet figured out how best to play and serve him but we must strive to do so and he will give us his best contribution.”
