Daniele De Rossi feels Roma have rediscovered their “battling spirit,” but struggles to forget he was Vincenzo Montella's teammate.

“Talking about what Vincenzo, I mean Mister, has changed in these two days is a bit excessive,” said the midfielder after scoring in their 1-0 win at Bologna.

“But I knew him as a player and can say he started out with great character, enthusiasm, determination and clear ideas. He had that as a player and is still showing it as a Coach.”

Following Claudio Ranieri's resignation, Montella made some changes on his debut, switching back to the 4-2-3-1 system used by Luciano Spalletti.

“We had already played with this system, so it was not a problem to go back to it. I think we always worked hard in every game, so cannot say we did so any more today.

“What we did have, especially towards the end, was a battling spirit that had been absent at times.”

Bologna were furious, though, as De Rossi risked a second yellow card just before scoring the decisive goal, but only got a telling off for his handling offence in midfield.

“I probably would've protested as well in their shoes, but not every handling offence is a booking. I accept the free kick, but a yellow card would've been excessive.”

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