Roma coach Claudio Ranieri admitted his team must find a way to overcome the absence of injured talisman Francesco Totti.

The Giallorossi lost for the second straight league game today without Totti, falling 1-0 against lowly Livorno at the Stadio Olimpico to drop to 12th in the Serie A standings.

"Without Totti we struggle," Ranieri said.

"When you are missing a player like Totti, who is a reference point in this team, it's not easy.

"Today we created five chances in front of goal and had Totti been on the pitch, perhaps he would have scored one of them."

Despite enjoying numerous chances to cancel out Francesco Tavano's first-half goal as well as playing 10 men for over 25 minutes after the visitors had goalkeeper Alfonso De Lucia sent off for two yellow cards, Ranieri's men failed to turn around the result.

"Rather than a poor defence, it has been an ugly game," Ranieri continued.

"Livorno had just one shot on goal and we lost the game.

"We have played badly although we didn't deserve the defeat."

Roma had gone into the game looking to bounce back from last weekend's 2-1 defeat at AC Milan and Thursday's 1-1 draw at Fulham in the Europa League.

"We used a lot of energy on Thursday and it's not easy to play every three days," Ranieri added.

"We did well in the first 10 minutes of each half but we were unable to finish off our chances.

"We wanted to win after the defeat at AC Milan but instead we have accumulated another loss."

Ranieri is hopeful Mirko Vucinic, who missed a hatful of chances against Livorno, will soon deliver in front of goal.

The Montenegrin forward has failed to score in seven league appearances for the Giallorossi this season.

"Vucinic has had four goal-scoring chances and has been unable to find the target," Ranieri said.

"Sooner or later he will score although we hope it is sooner rather than later."