Mourinho: “A brilliant response and an important result”

The problem of creating many chances and not converting many of them seems to have been resolved tonight. There were no signs of Europa League tiredness either. What’s happened to Roma in recent days?

“We’ve changed a few players around: Lorenzo [Pellegrini] and [Georginio] Wijnaldum had played for 45 minutes on Thursday, while others didn’t even play. I think that only three or four of the lads had played the full 90 minutes in the Europa League. We took a risk, but the team provided a brilliant response. The result may make it seem like it was an easy game, but in all honesty, it never felt like that to me until 3-0. I didn’t even feel calm at 2-0. Then there was the penalty save by Rui [Patricio] as well.

“At that point, they changed the inertia of the match. They were the ones set up in our half. Our pressing game dropped and that’s when you could feel the tiredness in terms of coming out to press higher. When we were in a low block, that’s when we found ourselves in difficult situations. Rui made the save and the third goal put the game to bed, but it’s a 3-0 win that I didn’t see coming from the bench.”

I really liked the aggression in midfield in the first half, which meant Udinese never got their own game going, allowing Roma to get on track. You selected six Italian players tonight. How important is it to have an Italia core in a team at the top?

“I like to do that. Is it the consequence of our way of being or our financial means? No, because it’s also the way that the club thinks and has an excellent relationship with the academy and youth football in general. Of course, I like having an Italian core.

“Football is universal. There are so many foreign players in every league across the world and I continue to think that the players from Rome and Italy who haven’t come through the ranks at Roma have a specific way of adapting and creating a situation whereby those who come in feel that this team is a family and there’s a good relationship with the fans. Maybe this is also one of the reasons why this team – win, lose or draw, play well or badly – is always alongside the fans. I’m pleased about that.

“[Edoardo] Bove was fantastic today, but he also made a big mistake that could’ve changed the course of the game. If Rui hadn’t saved the penalty, it would’ve been difficult for us with the way the match was going. I’m angry with him, but that’s part of development. He also showed fantastic character and, of course, I’m so pleased that a young Italian lad from Rome, who grew up here, has had a chance to start and do well.”

Could you tell us about the hug with the skipper after his goal? How much did he need to make amends tonight?

“He just needed to win and play with confidence without feeling any pressure from missing a penalty. A few performances in recent times hadn’t been fantastic. There are different reasons behind that. We also don’t always need to say what’s happening internally, but he’s still a player who we’ve had confidence in.

“My decision for him not to take the penalty was simply due to the fact that I didn’t think he needed extra pressure. I said to him, ‘If there’s a penalty at 2-0, it’s yours. If there’s a key penalty, it’s not yours because I don’t want to give you extra pressure. He turned in an excellent performance and scored a brilliant goal.

“If there have been some negative comments on social media after the game in Rotterdam, that’s just the world we live in today and it’s not a problem. That’s the reality of our planet. It’s about exchanges with the fans. It’s about the performance that he turned in and understanding that we’re all in this together in the good and the bad. That’s a quality of this team and this club.”

This team has real defensive strength. When you speak about the squad and the players helping one another, if someone has a strength, it needs to be given a leading role. With that defensive block, you aren’t conceding goals and you’re taking the lead in games, which is a big strength that you’ve brought to Roma.

“I always say that the quality of a normal coach, which is what I am, within a normal situation such as the one here at Roma, where we can’t just choose all the players that we want and buy all the players that we might want as there are limits, what we need to do is develop our strengths and mask our weaknesses as much as possible. Our defensive set-up is important to us.

“Without many fast players up front, as we don’t have explosive players apart from [Ola] Solbakken, who was on the bench with Tammy [Abraham] ready to make a contribution if necessary, we need to press high, win the ball back high because when we win it in our half, we don’t have the ability to put together very fast transitions. It’s what I was saying earlier about how when energy levels were low, when [Mehmet] Celik, [Stephan] El Shaarawy, Bove and Gini, then Lorenzo, dropped the level of intensity, we sat back as a team and had to dig in.

“This team knows how to dig deep. This is an important result. Now we need to forget about the league for a few days and see if we can pull it off on Thursday. I think we can.”

Will Paulo Dybala be back?

“Maybe. If you ask me if I’m more optimistic or pessimistic, I’m more optimistic, but the answer is ‘maybe’.”