Jose Mourinho spoke to Sky Sport minutes away from kick-off to today’s afternoon fixture with Monza.
When asked about Diego Llorente’s availability for today, Mourinho replied, “He still doesn’t have 90 minutes in his legs. That is why it would have been a risk to start him today. Yesterday I said that he is available and that means that I have a defender on the bench that I didn’t have last time out.”
“I don’t know if he will get to play a few minutes but this means that he’s here with us and we can rely on him to some extent,” he added.
“Bove? I like that we look at him as a quality player and not as a young player. If he starts, he won’t surprise anyone anymore because he is a quality player who learns at a tremendous rate.”
“He has important physical and mental abilities when we don’t have Cristante in the midfield. Edoardo gives us stability.”
“Lukaku? He always scored goals even when he played in smaller teams. Scoring goals is in his nature. Beyond this, he is an important reference for us, because we are not very fast and we have some limitations in the transition phase and Romelu in the offensive phase is a player who also gives us this much needed depth.”
“He is a man and no longer the child I met at Chelsea, he also has great psychological stability and even if he arrived recently he is important in the locker room.”