Mourinho praises Pellegrini as he rules out major changes

Jose Mourinho faced the media on Wednesday afternoon, as Roma prepare to face Trabzonspor in the conclusion of their Europa Conference League play-off tie.

The Turkish side come to the Stadio Olimpico on Thursday (kick-off: 19:00 CEST) looking to overturn a 2-1 first leg deficit - meaning avoiding defeat will be enough for the Giallorossi to reach the group stages of the new European competition.

Here's what the Portuguese had to say before the game...

Has getting rid of the away goals rule in UEFA competitions changed the approach for these sort of games – especially the second leg?

“Perhaps a little bit. I think there will now be more ties that go into extra-time than before. So the dynamics change a bit – even if our aim regardless is always to try to win each match.

“We know that a draw will be enough for us, but we will only think about that when it gets to the 80th or 85th minute of the game, when we won’t want to take too many risks [in that case]. But the mentality needs to be that it is a standalone match that we want to win. So for that reason things don’t change a huge amount.”

What were your feelings after a first real experience of the Olimpico? And do you think this team can improve a lot from that performance?

“Of course, a lot. I praised [Fiorentina coach Vincenzo] Italiano because both of us have only been training our players for less than two months. And when a team comes and plays here the way they did, then you have to credit them for that. But we are just two examples, lots of other coaches are new too.

"Perhaps for Simone Inzaghi and Inter it’s a bit different, because that team could play with their eyes closed, but it’s not the same for us. We still have a lot to work on. Today we worked on an in-game situation that I didn’t like against Fiorentina, because the players resorted to a dynamic that they were used to doing before I arrived. And that is obviously not a criticism of Paulo [Fonseca, Roma's former coach], in fact it’s the opposite. Whoever arrives after me will run into the same thing.

"As coaches we all have our own ideas. And myself, Italiano, others, are currently in the process of helping these players make these mechanisms become automatic. There’s a lot to improve, but that’s why I was pleased with what we did because I knew it would be difficult to ask for much more. It takes time.

“As for the fans – they were great, just great. But it is down to us as a team to create that bond with the fans, and that depends on how we play. If, then, on occasion we don’t play so well – the fans will accept that. They will support the team even after a bad result.

“But there are certain things that are non-negotiable for us, that we have to show them first. The fans can see when the attitude, the professionalism is there. And so we need to show that and build that bond with them. That link will come as a result of what we do on the pitch, what we put into our work for this club. So that’s our responsibility.

"We shouldn’t ask anything of the fans – they will give us what we deserve to get. So our task is to do what we can to build that bond.”

Do you see Lorenzo Pellegrini purely as a No. 10, or could he also play deeper in midfield?

“He can play in all those roles. If we had three Pellegrinis, then I would play all three of them in the team. I won’t leave even one of them on the bench. He’s a versatile player, he can adapt to a number of different roles and positions. The other day he even played wide on the right for a bit. He also created that great moment from which Tammy [Abraham] hit the crossbar.

“Lorenzo is intelligent, he knows the game, he knows what the coach is asking from him. If we had three, all three would play.”

So far you have started just 12 players in the two matches to date. Will this third game bring more changes?

“We are in a moment where players need to be playing. We had a good pre-season, where everyone got the chance to play, and the first four or five games were at a fairly low competitive level. But now we need to play.

“There are a few players that we need to manage well given they have had a few injuries or issues recently, but there are others that need to play, that need to get minutes on the pitch behind them. It’s not the moment to be making lots of changes.”

Is there a role for Amadou Diawara in your Roma? And do you want to say anything about what happened outside Trigoria [where a fan insulted the player] this morning?

“That was nothing, it wasn’t a physical altercation. There were a few words said that provoked a small reaction. It’s nothing big, nothing out of the ordinary. As far as his role goes, he’s a member of our squad. As you all know, we have a group of players, that’s a bit smaller now, that are training separately from the first team. But Diawara is with us and is in our squad.

“The transfer window is open until August 31 and until then things can happen, but it can also happen that Diawara stays with us. He’s an option for me, he’s a quality player with experience and he’s a good professional too. We have a good relationship because he’s a great boy – he will never be a problem for us. So because of that we are calm as far as Diawara goes. There’s no issue.”

Do you think it is right that there is no VAR in the Conference League?

“I said before the first leg that we will need to adapt ourselves to that a bit. I still think that perhaps Trabzonspor’s goal was offside, but we have to accept it. At the very least I would have expected to have goalline technology tomorrow – but perhaps they don’t have it in Turkey. That would already be an improvement.

“We have to adjust, let’s see. I understand how difficult it is for UEFA: it’s a new competition, it’s a competition with a play-off phase and teams from countries and stadiums where they perhaps don’t have the conditions to have VAR right now. So we have to accept that these things are a process.

"For these countries to grow and develop in that regard then they need to play in these sort of competitions for the first time. We were not lucky with the draw we got, but there are lots of other opponents in other countries where you have to acknowledge that it wouldn’t be easy. Let’s see if we manage to reach the final, where there will be VAR…”

Ten years ago you created a winning culture by building something of an us-against-them mentality with you team – the famous ‘rumore dei nemici’ (‘noise from our enemies’). Will you be doing something similar here at Roma too, or is this a new version of Jose Mourinho?

“The new version means the enemy now is Trabzonspor. And then on Friday the enemy will be Salernitana.

“We are not in a position to do something like that, to make a target or to say that these two or three are our enemies. We are a team that’s in a building phase, that needs time to improve and develop. We want to try and win every game though, and that means the focus has to always be on the next match.

“Tomorrow the Conference League is more important to us than Serie A. I am not thinking about making many changes, I am not thinking about rotation. For us, tomorrow is the big game.”