Paulo Dybala believes Roma lacked grit in loss to Viktoria Plzen

Roma star Paulo Dybala admitted his team were fortunate to secure a 2-1 victory over Viktoria Plzen, delivering a scathing assessment of the squad’s performance and attitude. While the Giallorossi ultimately took three points, Dybala was quick to point out a clear difference in intensity compared to their last major outing.

Speaking to Sky Sport after the match, the Argentinian maestro lamented the team’s lack of “grit” and criticized their sluggish start, which allowed the opposition to seize the initiative early on.

He said, via VoceGiallorossa: “Yes, absolutely yes [we were lacking something compared to the Inter match]. I think that today, unlike the match against Inter, we created less. But we entered badly, because they scored two goals against us which then become difficult to recover.”

Dybala stressed that in modern European competition, no opponent can be underestimated, suggesting that Roma’s attitude was their biggest fault.

“Today in Europe all teams are difficult, there’s no room to be relaxed. If you underestimate the matches, these things happen, then you have to come back against teams that run a lot, that have valuable players, who don’t back down because they play with big spaces. But if we don’t take advantage of it, if we are not gritty (cattivi), we will never win.”

He doubled down on the idea that the team’s mental approach was the primary problem, expressing frustration that their preparation wasn’t translating onto the pitch.

“Yes, more than anything else, grit, I think. We entered sluggish (mosci), that is the truth. It’s hard to say, because we prepare, we train a lot during the week, we watch many videos, we tell each other things, but then lately we are not doing them. We must look at the positive things and concentrate, because on Sunday we have a very difficult match.”

Roma have now lost two games in the Europa League and have just three points from three. Gian Piero Gasperini will be looking to make sure that his attack fires before things go out of hand.