Jose Mourinho confirmed he spoke to his players about the betting scandal in Serie A ahead of their match against Monza tomorrow. Giallorossi players Nicola Zalewski and Stephan El Shaarawy were named by paparazzo Fabrizio Corona as potentially being involved in the betting case, but neither has been formally investigated. Speaking to the press ahead of the match, Mourinho insisted that he has faith in both his players, saying they’ve laughed about the allegations:
“Smalling made his return to group training yesterday, but trained with little intensity as we mostly focused on tactics. He won’t be there with us tomorrow. Llorente, on the other hand, is available.”
“Sanches and Pellegrini are still out, but seeing Kumbulla and Abraham back on the training ground makes me happy.
“Llorente is feeling well and can play. I hope and hope that next week Renato Sanches will also be able to return to work in the group. For the time being he’s training individually.”
“We scored plenty of nice goals this season, we improved in terms of construction. When we are at full strength we play even better than last year. For me, beauty remains the result, the points – that’s what matters.”
“Belotti-Lukaku to start tomorrow? I don’t want to answer so as not to give advantages to my opponent. In attack we are in good shape even with Dybala’s absence which means a lot.”
“I spoke to my boys about the betting scandal. We even laughed about it with Zalewski. I am very calm, I trust them and so does the Club. If Roma makes an official statement it is because we are all together, we are calm.”
“Ndicka? He hasn’t learned anything with us in the last 15 days because he was on international duty. There he can also improve his tactical awareness. He’s not perfect, he has to learn, but Mancini and Karsdorp who have been with us for two and a half years make mistakes, it’s normal for him to make mistakes. Although I think he was very good against Cagliari.”
