The former Lille boss has acknowledged that the Giallorossi have plenty of fitness work to do ahead of their Serie A opener against Livorno on August 25.
Roma coach Rudi Garcia admitted that his side looked "tired" in its 2-1 friendly loss to Chelsea in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

The Serie A outfit started well against its Premier League opponents and took the lead through Erik Lamela after 21 minutes, but a Frank Lampard equalizer and a last-minute Romelu Lukaku effort saw Jose Mourinho's men come out on top.

Garcia felt that there were plenty of positives to take from the performance, though, with new signing Kevin Strootman looking lively in a creative midfield role; however, the Roma boss admitted that
his side still had plenty of work to do in order to build up their fitness ahead of the start of the new Serie A season.

"We had a good first half, keeping possession and creating a few good scoring opportunities," Garcia told the media following the defeat. "In the second half, partly due to the number of changes in the sides, we were unable to play the same way. Chelsea made many substitutions and their players were more physically fresh.

"The only problem I saw in our second-half performance was fatigue. We were tired and therefore couldn’t keep the ball the same way as in the first half."

The Giallorossi, who completed a three-match swing in North America with the loss to Chelsea following victories over the MLS All-Stars and Toronto FC, kick off their league campaign with a trip to Livorno on Aug. 25.