Roma manager Jose Mourinho sounded proud of his team’s effort in tonight’s dominant win over Monza. The Special One singled out certain performances in his post-match interview and explained the words exchanged in his embrace with Paulo Dybala as the Argentine footballer left the pitch.
“Last year, when Juventus played here with us and he was being substituted, I told him ‘You’re really good, kid.’ Well, tonight I told him the same and we laughed thinking about how things have changed since then,” Mourinho told DAZN.
“Overall, this was our best game in terms of how calm we went about getting the result we wanted,” the boss continued. “But the game was more difficult than it seems. They created problems when in possession at the beginning of the match, we had to press them very hard.”
“Monza are a very interesting team, and they will be better once their injured players come back. With more space and experience we could have scored more goals, but that goes for them as well.”
“This equilibrium that we seem to have found gives me the chance to rest Karsdorp and Spinazzola and let Celik and Zalewski play. We are fine, we are slowly getting there.”
On Ibanez’s growth, Mourinho commented, “I’m glad you are talking about Ibanez: he is one of those guys whose difference on the pitch I can spot right away. Even with the ball at his feet he is more serene, he finds more solutions in possession. He no longer gives the ball away automatically to his teammate.”
“With your permission, I want to talk about someone nobody will talk about today: Tammy. Today he played exactly the way I like him to play. Today he was my Tammy.”
“Obviously it’s Paulo’s night, but Tammy was amazing today. With him playing like this, with Belotti and with Eldor…. Eldor will help us too,” Mourinho added, clarifying the future of Eldor Shomurodov.
“Paulo was perfect tonight,” he concluded. “Paulo, with us, is a great talent but he plays with and for the team. Even on defense, even if he wasn’t born for it, he does an extraordinary job.”
“When he was about to go out he asked if he could stay on and score his third goal of the night, I told him that he will do so with Udinese.”
“He’s coming off a difficult year filled with injuries, but he’s getting better. He can’t wait for the World Cup. Perhaps this time around, Scaloni [Argentina’s coach] will have to send us a few more bottles of wine because he will have a fantastic player at his disposal.”
