Roma manager Jose Mourinho held his pre-match press conference on the eve of Sassuolo-Roma.
The Special One addressed the media a few days after Roma were unable to win against Servette in the Europa League.
“When you’re alone you share responsibilities, maybe this is also why I like individual sports like tennis where you need courage, personality and another thing that I can’t say because it’s a bad word. I don’t have to make anyone responsible.”
“As a collective sports coach, I really like analyzing individual sports for this type of mentality. Even today I had a good conversation with the players, I said this a few weeks ago: if a relationship with a person is positive, you are more comfortable in saying bad things because there is love and you can return to the normal situation. I said what I thought and what I continue to think, but the relationship is very good and we are together again, going to Sassuolo and trying to get a result in a match that I won’t say scares me, nothing scares me in football, but it’s a difficult match for several reasons.”
“Sassuolo have good players, a good coach, play 40 games a season, they prepare for just one game at a time, these are their first qualities. Afterwards I’m honest and say that I’m worried about the referee. We’ve had him as the fourth match official 3 times and he doesn’t have enough stability for this match. It’s not just Sassuolo-Roma, Roma are a few points away from fourth place, super important for us.”
“His profile doesn’t make me feel comfortable and neither does the VAR. We’ve always had bad luck with that referee and after that we still have an opponent in front of us, Berardi, fantastic player, I love him, but he must have more respect for the game and the opponents. What he does is too much, non-existent penalties, teasing. I love him but I hate him on the pitch. He would have big problems with me.”
“As a team we must face the situation we’re in. It would give me more adrenaline to play with a team that has to fight relegation than to be in a calm situation that maybe others like, like many who play well but without responsibility. I told the guys that we need to have less superficiality, I used this word, and I find it perfect for what I think. I won the league title with Real Madrid with 100 points and lost with 93 points, every weekend Barcelona won like us, this is hard, having to win every game.”
“We need to bring out something more, but not just all the usual ones. We don’t have the potential to fight against Juve and Inter but to try to stay there and fight for fourth place, yes. We need to raise the tone and that is what I am here for, I don’t know if words are enough, field work is also needed. I work more with those who don’t play than with those who play. Let’s move on and see if we can improve this. Then we play Fiorentina and we have a full week to work.”
“I know our situation, which is why we are underestimated in everything we have done. Ownership, club, staff and everyone. We are in a fight with teams that have other kinds of potential. My team without injuries can fight for top four, no doubt about it.”
“Without Smalling it’s tough, every match without him is tough, let alone 3 months and even 2 more. If he doesn’t return until the end of the year he will have been out for 68 training sessions. Someone who doesn’t do 68 training sessions even if he comes back on December 31st goes back to doing what? To play? To train, and it’s not like you recover your levels in a week. It takes time.”
“In the 15 minutes you saw, Kumbulla warms up, then stays out. Ndicka came here, excellent signing from Tiago [Pinto], but he said “he is perfect off the bench” and he became the starter. Sometimes Cristante has to play in defence. Right now I’m more positive than before. If Mancini gets a yellow card with Berardi after 10 minutes he won’t play with Fiorentina but let’s move on from that.”
