Mourinho: In the derby you have to play for the fans

Sunday's game at the Stadio Olimpico, which gets underway at 18:00 CET, sees the two sides go head-to-head separated by just a point in the Serie A standings - with both city bragging rights and European aspirations at stake.

Here's what Mourinho had to say about the impending contest...

Why is the derby always a different proposition to other games? And, in terms of team news, have you got everyone back for this one?

“Everyone is back and available, only [Leonardo] Spinazzola is still out. Of the rest, all of them are ready to play.

“The excitement of the derby? It’s a derby. It’s never like other matches. It just has something more about it. For my whole career, for 20 years I’ve had derbies. The first was the Lisbon derby [Benfica and Sporting Lisbon], the most recent is this one in Rome. But, amid those emotions, there is a bit of deja vu – we have become a bit accustomed to it too.”

This derby will be the first one after the pandemic with the stadium pratically full. Will that add something to the whole spectacle?

“It makes the spectacle even better. A few derbies have been played behind closed doors, or with a limitation on fans much more than the attendance could have been. But now we are back to something close to normality, where you will be able to tell which team is playing ‘at home’ and which one is ‘away’.

“Football without fans is not football. A derby without the fans is not a derby. And that’s why the spectacle will be better tomorrow, without question.”

[Former Roma and Lazio coach] Zdenek Zeman said in an interview this week that Lazio are favourites for the game and Mourinho has been a disappointment this season. How do you respond to that?

“My response might be one you aren’t really expecting – but my response is that a coach with 25 trophies to his name doesn’t need to answer to a coach with two Serie B titles, which is all he has on his CV. I can’t respond to that.

“If you had asked me the question in relation to something Giovanni Trapattoni or Fabio Capello had said [about the two teams], then maybe I would be required to answer to it. But with Zeman I don't have to answer.”

After Thursday night against Vitesse Arnhem you talked a lot about your team being able to dig deep. Is that going to be a key quality in this derby?

“It’s important in every game, not just the derby. When I say that we have learned how to dig in, it’s because of what we’ve seen in recent games. It’s right there in front of us. It happened against Atalanta, Vitesse, Udinese and Sassuolo.

"All of those games were in the balance at one point or another, where you are trying to find either the resilience to hold onto a winning position or the strength to come back from a deficit. We did that. We also did that in the first derby this season; they won 3-2 but we were right in it until the very end trying to get a better result.

“Our group has its qualities and it’s limitations but there is one aspect that I cannot reproach them for. Even in the most notable game this season, in terms of negative memories, against Juventus; even in that one we could have drawn after going 4-3 down. So as I’ve said, if this group has one attribute it is that they can stay in the fight right until the end and they always give me hope of changing the final scoreline.”

According to one statistic, you have managed 98 derbies during your career. Which is the most passionate derby you have experienced?

“98? Mamma mia. For me all of them have been important. For me, when I’m coaching a derby, I don’t think about myself or my players but I think about those people who, for years, have been experiencing the derby and living it, with their blood. I’ve seen the Lisbon derby as Benfica coach and then faced Benfica as Porto manager. I can’t say that one is better or worse than another.

“Derbies are derbies. You can’t think of yourself as the coach, or as a player, but you have to think of yourself in terms of the others. And those others are the most important people in any football club – the fans. So that’s why I could never choose the most passionate derby for me. Right now it’s this one, because I am here to represent the Roma fans.”

Pedro has scored nine goals so far this season. Looking back on it, would you have rather kept him in your squad? And can you tell your side of the decision to let him go?

“I don’t want to go back over the story; if there is one person who can tell the story then it is Tiago Pinto [the club’s General Manager]. If he has scored nine goals this season then that’s great for him and good for Lazio.”

You have been at Roma for nine months. Is there one aspect of the experience that has really struck you, or that you perhaps didn’t expect?

“The first thing that really left an impression on me is the affection I was shown by everyone before I even got here. Usually, whenever someone joins a new club, you have to earn that affection. You have to give everything in order to earn that affection.

“On this occasion that affection was shown to me before I even got here, before I even started to sweat over the planning of a training session. The fans have really special hearts, to give such affection without having first received anything in return.”

Roma have had more possession away from home this season than at home, where the side has often seemed more compact. Which of the two versions do you prefer?

“The version of Roma I prefer is a Roma that wins – and that’s what I want tomorrow, a Roma that wins.”

Can you give us a bit more on how Lorenzo Pellegrini is feeling?

“Sure. He was at home for a day with a fever. I don’t want to say that he is at 200% now, but today he managed to train without any issues. In his head he is available and ready to start. It’s not a bluff, there’s no pretence about whether he’ll play or not. He’ll play.”