Mourinho: Filling the stadium every week is incredible for us

Jose Mourinho faced the media on Sunday afternoon, as Roma prepare to host Cremonese in their first home match of the 2022-23 Serie A season.

The game at the Stadio Olimpico gets underway on Monday at 18:30 CEST.

Here's everything the boss had to say ahead of the contest, as he answered questions on Lorenzo Pellegrini, Nicolo Zaniolo, transfer activity and more...

How are Georginio Wijnaldum and Nemanja Matic looking heading into this game? Beyond that, I would love to hear your thoughts on the atmosphere around the club: tomorrow will be the eighth sold-out match in a row. It doesn’t feel like something normal, it seems worthy of comment…

“I’ll start with that. It’s incredible, it’s just incredible. For us it’s an amazing victory. Obviously the foundation of everything is the passion the fans have for this club. But we feel a little bit of pride for the part we have played in creating this bond, in helping encourage the passion of the fans. It’s something fantastic.

“I think of us, of course, but I also think about it in the context of Italian football and everything else. Even overseas. Today the fans come to watch Roma, at the Olimpico, and fans overseas from Portugal or England or Spain – I have friends everywhere – they are all given an incredible impression by the images they see. Those images of the stands completely full is something that’s linked closely to English football, whatever competition teams are playing in. So it’s something fantastic for us to have it. It gives us more motivation – but it also gives our opponents an extra incentive too.

“Let’s take a look at Cremonese. I don’t look at them as a newly-promoted side. I don’t look at them like that because they don’t play like that; they are very well-organised, they know how they want to play, they know how to disrupt the opposition. They have good players and they have spent significant money to bring in more; you just have to look at the front two, who are both top players with great potential. Credit to their coach for the work being done.

“It’s easy to say or to write that this is a game where the three points are already in the bag. We don’t want to read or hear that, though. I 100% reject that idea. It’s a tough game. When people say that last season we dropped too many points at home, from games we could have won, then I agree with that. But to then say that a game like this is already in the bag for us, I completely refuse that.

“Matic and Wijnaldum are both doing well. They have had two pretty solid weeks, with five good days of training. We are getting to the point now where we will have games every three days or so. We even have the nice little present of playing against Monza just two days after the game against Juventus…

“So the weeks of solid work in training are done, so these last couple have been especially important for players like Gini who arrived a bit later. Nemanja was there at the start of pre-season, though, so he's in good shape.

“We have everyone available for this game. Nicola Zalewski has had a few issues but he trained yesterday and is all good. Stephan El Shaarawy also had something, but now he’s in perfect shape. We are all there. The only one out is Ebrima Darboe, which is a sad story and he will need time for his recovery. But otherwise we are all available and we want to win. We want the fans to go home happy.”

Could the signing of Andrea Belotti be the move that addresses the gap in your options you spoke about after the win over Salernitana?

“In terms of that game in Salerno, the aim was not to make the club or the general manager realise that I wanted another striker. That was not the aim. The aim was to win the game.

"In that moment, when you don’t have a like-for-like replacement on the bench for someone out there on the pitch – which is clear, because no-one can say that Felix Afena-Gyan or Eldor Shomurodov are the same as Tammy Abraham, Nicolo Zaniolo and Paulo Dybala. So in that moment, when you don’t have that option, the strength on the bench was quality, experience and know-how – which Nemanja and Gini have.

“They came on and they controlled the match between them. Obviously it would have been better to kill off the match with two or three goals, but we did it in a different way – through the ability of those players.

“If you ask me if I want another forward, then I won’t answer you. Tiago Pinto knows [what I want]. And if he knows what I want, then I must wait and hope that it can be done. And if it cannot be done, then we push on with what we have.

“You ask me specifically about Belotti, I don’t want to answer on that. I think ethically it’s better not to say anything, unless they are currently free agents. So I can only say that if it is true – if, if – that he really wants to come to Roma, then I really like when a player shows such a desire to come to us. Whether or not he comes, though, I cannot say anything because I do not know. We will wait and we shall see.”

Playing Lorenzo Pellegrini in the very middle of the park; is that something that could continue going forward this season?

“Last season I said on a couple of occasions that I would love to have three Lorenzos in my team. And I said that during a period where he was growing as a player. He’s at an age where he can still improve but, right now, compared to that promising player of six or seven months ago, he has now become a truly great player. A truly great player. So good that it’s not just three positions he could play in, as I said before, but more as well.

“He’s really matured. He can play anywhere; in central midfield or even further forward where Dybala and Nicolo are. He’s someone who brings quality and composure. He’s really important to us. If you look at our squad, in the positions where Dybala and Nicolo play we do not have many options. We have them, we have El Shaarawy, we have Lorenzo. It’s those four who can play in those positions.

“So that’s why I can’t tell you that Lorenzo will only play in central midfield. There are going to be lots of games, it’s going to be a long season, and Lorenzo can play anywhere. And it’s not that I am forcing him to play somewhere that he doesn’t want to. He can play everywhere and that is, for us, something really important.”

In your opinion was it more difficult winning a trophy with Roma after 14 years – or finding a way for Roma to win something else now?

“Honestly, I don’t know. The competition we won was a European competition, and one that is not especially different to the one we will play in this season. There’s not a lot of difference.

"Maybe it will be a bit different in the group stage, which might be a bit more balanced. We are probably not going to come up against a Zorya Luhansk, to give an example, but then if we reach the knockout stages it will be a bit different. There we could find big sides like Arsenal and Manchester United and others that have come in from the Champions League. But it’s not a very different competition.

“If we had the ability, the desire and the mental strength to win last season then we need to give everything again this year in the Europa League and see where that takes us. The Italian competitions are very difficult to win, though.

“Today, before the transfer window has closed, we are a squad with more potential than last year. The issue is that so are all the other teams. It’s not that Roma have improved and the others have got worse. It’s not like that. All of the teams have improved, which is a good thing for Italian football. For us, wanting to improve on our finishing position last season, it’s not great news though. Because others have spent money and there are other teams who are better than before. Let’s see if we can win something.”

Every year around this time it feels like Bryan Cristante has dropped down the pecking order, and then he goes on to play almost every game or be among the most used players. How important is he as a player to you? And do you think that the team always needs to have either him or Matic in the side to retain a balance?

“Cristante is important, yes, in every respect. Important as a player, important as a person, important for the calm he offers both on the pitch and off it. Cristante and Matic together? I think you can have balance on the pitch without them too, depending on how the side develops and on some of the other players we have.

“Two or three years ago, Pellegrini could not provide the balance playing there – now he can. Gini can do it. I think Gini and Lorenzo could play together in the middle without any issues, without either Matic or Cristante there. The issue is whether the side is capable of staying compact defensively and taking responsibility in that regard. When it comes to playing with more or fewer attacking players then it is all about the balance of the side, the organisation, the tactical arrangements.

"I see the team becoming increasingly mature, which means there is the option to play without different elements that are theoretically more defensive.”

How important is it that Zaniolo stays? And how much is it down to you that he is still here? He also seems more light and agile on the pitch – has something changed in his training?

“Zaniolo is doing well, doing really well. I agree with you; physically he seems very agile and fresh right now. For a player who plays the way he does, who runs like he does, it’s important to be able to keep up with the tempo of the match for 90 minutes.

"It’s a credit to him, first and foremost, and then beyond that it is down to the staff for giving him the right training plan, for motivating him to train, for driving him to put in the work before and after the squad trains to work on his own individual needs. He’s really doing well. That’s to his credit, in my opinion.

"Whether he stays here is more of a question for the General Manager, not me. If you are asking me if I would like him to stay, then I would really like that. I’m not going to hide that. Today he is a really important player for us, much more important than he was.”