Roma manager Jose Mourinho previewed the match with AC Milan on Sunday night at San Siro and discussed his own future in the Italian capital.
In today’s presser, Mourinho declared, “I’ve been here for 2 years and 5 months and I’m the only person who hasn’t missed a single minute of training,” with regards to the news of him missing a recent training session for the benefit of releasing interviews for his Netflix special. “I was out for 14 hours and it’s not right to make this a big thing. I have never missed a match.”
“On Thursday I wasn’t at Trigoria,” he continued. “But I had been given the club’s permission to miss training.”
“We analyzed the things we didn’t do well in the derby. Now we start again and think about the next match,” he added. “Milan is a team that plays to win the Scudetto. They lost some important players in defense due to injury, but they are all there in midfield and attack.”
“I talked to my players. There’s a difference between difficulty and using difficulty as a way to justify the fact that we need to give more. During this discussion I was hard on some players. We conceded a goal due to our wrong throw-in. There’s some players who must give more individually.”
“I am not a high official in the club but I represent Roma. I must have played 150 derbies, they have always been special. In Rome I understood what it means to play against Lazio. When we won 3-0 we humiliated them. The derbies we’ve lost all come from refereeing mistakes or individual errors.”
“Our season started off really badly. We lost 8 points to begin with. We didn’t have the proper team to start the season with. Then, we played many big matches with few players available. Forgetting our difficulties is not right.”
“As the coach, I have to defend my group. We are a group of serious people. We lost a derby, but we are 4 points away from the Champions League. Right now we’re fighting for something that is very important. I’m sorry I will not be there tomorrow.”
“Llorente and Dybala? Llorente can play tomorrow, but he is doubtful. I don’t think Dybala will make it. Finding the solution to play without Dybala is not the same as for Guardiola when Haaland is not there,” he said.
“Dybala is a special player who in recent years has played in a team with other special players. At Roma we don’t have another player like him,” Mourinho continued.
“Smalling and Renato Sanches? Roma made an economic effort to have Smalling and Renato Sanches, but in practice they are not with us. Then we don’t have the possibility to replace them due to Financial Fair Play.”
“It won’t be the same team as the derby against Milan. There will be no Dybala. Here we don’t want to punish anyone, we just want to build a well-oiled tactical team to make up for technical shortcomings.”
“The teams aiming for fourth place are stronger than us. But we are Roma, and people believe my name is José Harry Mourinho Potter, and therefore the expectations increase.”
