Mancini happy to have improved but insists not yet uhuru

Gianluca Mancini believes he has improved as a defender, and scored for Roma in the 3-0 Europa League win over Shakhtar Donetsk, but has more to work on.

The defender had seemed to be limping in the first half, but stayed on for the full match and even scored the third goal with a header.

“We all really want to play these games. I did feel pain, but fortunately it wasn’t so bad that I needed to come off, otherwise I wouldn’t have scored,” Mancini told Sky Sport Italia.

The centre-back is scoring regularly this season, so is there an area of his game that he would like to improve?

“I have to improve on so many areas, such as not getting so many yellow cards and reading the game better. I do feel that I have become a better defender over the last year, also because I am accumulating experience.

“I think we lacked some determination before, so when the opponent breaks away, stop him with a foul if you have to.

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“We changed something after the defeat to Milan, because we haven’t done well against the big clubs in Serie A this season and that means we had to make changes.

“We now don’t lose the ball so easily playing out from the back. I think we’ve got a lot of quality in this squad and have to make the most of that in our passing.”