Roma coach Jose Mourinho says he is paid to not create problems for the clubs ownership: “They have to trust my work.” The Giallorossi boss spoke with Tv7 ahead of Roma’s match with Udinese tomorrow, and offered an update on the status of his team and the kind of match he expects from the opposition:
“We need collective ball possession and to be wary as Udinese have very, very fast players , who play at a high intensity. If we lose the ball in dangerous areas we are more open. I think our team has improved at this level, that we have the ball more than before. Pellegrini is always an important player for us. Udinese have everything, their performance at the beginning of the season was a surprise because they have this kind of potential, they are also strong from the dead ball and in shooting from outside the box, for example with Samardzic and Walace”.
“I don’t look at the league table to define the difficulty of a match, this match for me is very difficult. We know Udinese as a club, they are people who have a lot of experience in football, it is not a problem for them to lose a player like they did with Beto or Becao. They took Kabasele who comes from many years of experience in the Premier League, they have good full-backs, they didn’t let Pereyra go, he plays in all positions and so for them he is more than a player. Udinese is always Udinese, even if they like to make their ‘money’ in the summer.”
“Injuries? The number of muscular injuries is concentrated on 2-3-4 players at most, there are others who have not missed a single game through injury. And they are the ones with a clean medical history, with occasional injuries that happen in a season: Bove, Rui Patricio, Mancini, etc. Those who get injured often are Smalling, Pellegrini, occasionally Dybala and Spinazzola. We know this, the players are professionals, they do everything even in their private lives to try to be well. We work a lot together, fifteen hours a day, and we think we’re doing a great job.”
“The group? We’re like in a family, if there is no empathy how do you do it? The players are the ones closest to the coach, and they are the ones closest to the coach. I call it ‘functional empathy’. With ownership the situation is different, I am here and they are there. I am paid not to create problems for the ownership, they have to trust my work and they have to have their time to diversify.”
“The last time I spoke to the Friedkins was yesterday, we work. But even yesterday we didn’t talk about a contract.”
“The fans? I don’t get tired of talking about it, certainly we must not put limits on what we give them. We have had negative results, some negative performances, but never a lack of professionalism or respect for the people. This year there is a bit of a lack of the taste for playing away from home like a gang of bandits, enjoying the antagonism, as was the case with some of my other teams in the past. Maybe someone is missing home, mum and dad, grandma who bakes cakes (smiles, ed)’.
“Against Lazio we lacked a change of speed, even though we put our feet in the opponent’s box more times than they did, and perhaps we had the same ball possession if not more”.
“Sanches? He’s not injured, but in a fortnight in which Pellegrini has been working to get him into top form Renato has interrupted this process with a small problem, which only made him train with the team yesterday. And he would need continuity in his work. He won’t even be called up, otherwise you’d think I was stupid not to play him…. He would potentially be very important for us.”
“I have some qualities and many faults. I don’t know if this is a quality or a defect, but usually people close to me know everything I think, because I don’t spare myself neither criticism nor praise, in work I am an open book.”
