Roma coach Rudi Garcia admits his team is going through a difficult spell after Tuesday's 2-0 defeat at home to Fiorentina saw them crash out of the Coppa Italia.
Two goals from Mario Gomez saw I Viola silence the crowd at the Stadio Olimpico and fire Fiorentina to the semi-finals of the competition, where they will face Juventus. "We played a good first half, but it was not enough to win this game," Garcia told Italian TV station Rai. "Fiorentina scored in their first opportunity.
"Being clinical, especially in a knock-out game, is crucial. I have nothing to say to my players as they gave their all. They don't feel confident right now. We are conceding too many goals at the moment and we lack sharpness in attack. We don't have that many available choices."
Roma were without injured trio Kevin Strootman, Daniele De Rossi and Juan Manuel Iturbe while Garcia handed new signing Victor Ibarbo his Roma debut against Fiorentina. The Colombian striker joined Roma on Monday on loan from Cagliari.
"I was forced to play Ibarbo, who hasn't played for a month-and-a-half due to a muscular problem," Garcia said. "He only trained one session with us before playing. He is the positive note from this game. We hope to recover our injured players as soon as possible in order to be stronger."
Roma have won just two games in the last two months and are seven points adrift of league leaders Juventus in Serie A. I Giallorossi are also competing in the Europa League and take on Feyenoord in the round of 32 later this month.
"We have to get straight back to work," Garcia said. "We have the Serie A and the Europa League, those are the only two things left. The fans are disappointed, as are we, but they can rest assured that we will get straight back to work in order to return to winning ways.
"You can tell the quality of a squad in difficult times and not when everything is going well. We will fight to win our next game."
Roma travel to Sardinia to face Cagliari on Saturday. "We have to win at Cagliari to turn things around," Garcia Said. "We must get luck going our way again."
Source: FIFA.com