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Mourinho rallies the team following first loss

Andy Mattioli
I

Jose Mourinho spoke to DAZN following Roma’s first loss of the season at the Bentegodi against Hellas Verona.

The Special One said this when asked why he had predicted this to be a challenging match:

“I’m always worried before games, it’s a way of life. I knew they had certain qualities. A team that has created real problems for their opponents in the past games.”

“With the change of coach you usually have a mental reaction, it could happen. Tudor’s way of thinking is very close to last year, it wouldn’t have been difficult to adapt.”

“We didn’t play well, we knew it was going to be difficult. They made a tremendous effort. We had the reaction, but I can’t blame my guys too much. We didn’t play well, we lost all individual duels. We need to watch footage, a few hours in front of the screen and learn from this.”

On Roma getting sliced open on both wings:

“We analyzed this before the game. It is something they do a lot. Especially when Veloso plays.”

“Last season it was like that. It is not a surprise. We have misinterpreted the situation. Zaniolo had to lower himself a bit with Karsdorp. This happened in the first half.”

“My feeling is that we had some difficulties in playing, we exaggerated with the long balls. We looked for direct play. The three goals happened too far from me to understand in detail. I got the feeling that the first 15 minutes we had a hard time.”

On managing the one goal lead at the start of the second half:

“The reaction from Hellas is obvious. They played at home, they were losing, they could attack from that side.”

“It was no surprise to us. We need to manage difficult situations better. We need to win more individual duels, we need to play better football. Veretout was limited with that yellow too early on, he was a little scared. To go into more detail I would have to see the match on TV.”

Match Center

MatchDay 30
1 Apr 17:00
Lecce
LEC
Roma