Ranieri: “Roma now, evaluations later”

The Serie A season is nearing the end as it enters the final month and Sampdoria have long since ensured their top-flight status but Claudio Ranieri insists now is not the time to be resting on any laurels.

“We’re doing good things, but I want to wait until the end of the season to make the final evaluation,” the boss explained ahead of Sunday’s match against Roma. “We mustn’t think the job is done just because we’re safe. I’m on at the players like a jackhammer to try to reach 52 points.”

The Giallorossi come into the game at the Ferraris after a 6-2 defeat away to Manchester United in the Europa League, and Ranieri knows they’ll be smarting.

“I wasn’t expecting that kind of result and it’s a shame because they were playing well, then things transpired the way they did. I was hoping they’d come here with a good chance of reaching the final but now they’ll be determined to bounce back from Thursday’s result.

“We’ll need lots of desire and spirit as well as being extremely focused and determined. We play every game to win, and sometimes the result goes against us and sometimes in our favour.

“We perhaps ran out of energy towards the end of the game against Sassuolo. We’re a team that does a lot of running, so coming back from Crotone in the early hours of Thursday morning and facing Sassuolo on Saturday was tough

“We’ve trained well this week, albeit with a few niggles, so I’ll need to weigh up my options.”