Roma manager Jose Mourinho expressed his concern for the condition of several players after the victory with Slavia Praha.
In his post-match interview, Mourinho analyzed the performance and discussed what it means ahead of the big showdown with Inter Milan on Sunday.
“Bove’s goal? We pressed very well, El Shaarawy did a great interception. Edoardo has a good shot and scored an important goal because it made the match different than what it could have been.”
“We understood that Slavia are strong with the ball, if you give them time to play, they can create problems for you. We thought that pressuring them was the right way to keep them from playing.”
“In the first half we did it very well, in the second half the energy and intensity dropped. We are in difficulty, there are players who haven’t played for a long time and others who play all the time. Mancini, Ndicka, Cristante, Lukaku practically play every minute of every match and therefore the intensity dropped… which is why the pace dropped in the second half. But we handled it well.”
“El Shaarawy is a player I like very much. He can play anywhere. For us he is very useful because he plays as a fullback, as a winger, and as a second striker. For us he is very important, because in a squad that needs available players it is very very important to have someone like him who is willing to sacrifice.”
“I think Slavia thought we would play with Belotti. But Slavia opens up a lot in possession and we thought El Shaarawy could do well.”
“There are games where we think having Belotti and Lukaku together is better for us. Today against a three-man defense, we thought it would be difficult for Belotti to adapt. We put El Shaarawy on the left and moved Aouar to the right to press. When the energy is there, we always try to be positive and we have done it very well.”
“For Sunday… unfortunately there are two completely different teams. There is a team that has two teams, that has many players who have rested, that played on Tuesday, that has two players per position and that has a lot of fuel. The other team has a lot of difficulties. I wanted to make a substitution and I saw Pagano, Pisilli, Joao Costa, Cherubini and D’Alessio sitting on the bench. It’s hard, it’s a good experience though… after the match, I went down, I see someone running for me and hugging me: it was Cherubini. Another kid from the block making his debut. It’s great to see.”
“Inter? I only know that Romelu must rest. I haven’t played and I have to rest. I’m going to Trigoria and there’s training tomorrow. Lukaku must rest and then he must think about the match. It’s a great match, but Romelu needs to rest like everyone else. When Cristante seemed to me to have hurt himself, I was completely desperate. I’m sure that when my colleague Simone Inzaghi sees an injured player it’s not a drama for him, for me every little problem is a drama.”
