Roma boss Claudio Ranieri has lambasted Rodrigo Taddei after his red card during Wednesday's 2-1 defeat to Udinese.

Udinese dug deep to ease the pressure on coach Pasquale Marino and heap misery on Ranieri in the process.

This crunch fixture of two sides struggling in the bottom half of the table was eventually settled when Antonio Floro Flores poked home his second of the night six minutes from time.

That was despite Udinese having gone down to 10 men moments earlier with the dismissal of Dusan Basta. That, however, only levelled up the numbers with Roma having had Taddei sent off early in the second half.

Flores gave Udinese the lead after 21 minutes, but Daniele De Rossi cancelled that out three minutes before half-time.

Despite the defeat, Ranieri, who took over at Roma following the departure of Luciano Spalletti in early September, remains optimistic that Roma are capable of achieving more than most this season.

 "He (Taddei) says he was hit in the face, but evidently he said something to the linesman. There are no justifications for such a thing, Taddei should've bitten his tongue," Ranieri decalred.

"In any case the lads will emerge from this difficult time. I have a fantastic set of players and they are putting all the effort in. They're playing the same way they did in the past and had success, whereas now they don't win and can't figure out why."

 "We created many scoring opportunities and were unlucky not to win it. Don't forget this is a Roma side without seven first choice players, including Francesco Totti.

"I cannot take the fans for a ride. This is going to be a difficult season that requires sacrifice from everyone and I am working with the team I inherited from someone else."