Jose Mourinho sounded upset with the pitch conditions in tonight’s draw with Lecce. The Portuguese manager praised his players despite the underwhelming result.
“It was a difficult, tough game. Obviously it shows in our attitude that it is not the result we wanted. Very tough, intense match,” he told DAZN after the final whistle.
“We played on a horrible pitch tonight. It’s difficult to play quality football when you’re playing in such terrible conditions. We had the possibility of scoring the second goal.”
“Tonight I don’t feel like saying anything negative to my players. It’s not the result we wanted, but it’s still a point, it keeps us alive.”
“Abraham played well tonight. Falcone made excellent saves, Abraham built chances for himself. These are matches in which you don’t have 10 scoring opportunities, but 3-4 and you have to score. When Lecce recover the ball you hear a click in the transition, they are aggressive in the counterattack. I expected it to be difficult. I’m not upset with my players.”
“I was happy to hear some of the things players said in the dressing room: they were angry at the result, it’s not what they wanted. And I think that says a lot about us, it’s fantastic to see the mentality change in the team. 2-3 years for Roma would have been lost, now we have the right mentality.”
“Gini [Wijnaldum] lacks intensity, but Belotti is finally getting to the point where his physical conditions allows him to be useful to the team. Now we’ll need everybody to contribute: we’re going to play in the Europa League too and it’s going to be difficult.”