El Shaarawy: ‘Roma players not responsible’ for De Rossi axe | OneFootball

Stephan El Shaarawy tells the angry Roma fans that players ‘understand’ fury over Daniele De Rossi’s dismissal, but they ‘only have responsibility for the results.’

The last few days have been truly tumultuous for the Capital club, as on Wednesday morning the club announced that De Rossi had been sacked, with Ivan Juric drafted in to replace him.

This morning, CEO Lina Souloukou also tended her resignation and today the Curva Sud was left empty for the opening 30 minutes of the game against Udinese in protest at De Rossi’s dismissal.

When the supporters did come in, they had a combination of cheering on the team and jeering specific players, above all Lorenzo Pellegrini and Bryan Cristante.

El Shaarawy responds to Roma fans

“We picked up three points and that is the most important thing,” El Shaarawy told DAZN and Sky Sport Italia after a 3-0 victory over Udinese.

“The results have not been good so far and once again, the coach was made to pay for that. We understand the disappointment of the fans, we know what Daniele means to everyone, but we players only have responsibility for the results and not everything else.

“It was important to win, we have to build from here.”

It was certainly a better performance this evening than Roma fans have seen so far, so did the change in coach prompt a new attitude?

“We would’ve changed our attitude regardless, we knew that it was crucial to bring home the three points today. The coach asked us to be aggressive and we managed it today. The points are what count,” insisted El Shaarawy.

Artem Dovbyk scored the opener, then Paulo Dybala earned and converted a penalty before Tommaso Baldanzi celebrated his first goal in the Roma jersey.

Despite the first victory of the campaign, when the players went under the Curva Sud to salute the fans, they were still largely jeered.