Mourinho: It'll be 11 against 11 ... plus our 60,000 fans!

Jose Mourinho faced the media on Wednesday afternoon, to preview the Europa League home match against Real Betis.

Thursday's game at the Stadio Olimpico gets underway at 21:00 CEST.

Here's what the Portuguese had to say ahead of the game...

Can you give us an update on Paulo Dybala? And what difficulties are you expecting from tomorrow’s match?

“Dybala is okay, he will play tomorrow.

“The difficulty will be in the fact we will play against a good side, with a very clear identity, with a proper philosophy about the game and a great coach who has a lot of experience. It’s a side that won a trophy in Spain, which is always difficult if you are not one of the three big sides in the league. They have a lot of experienced players and international ones too. So it will be a tough game – but it’ll be tough for them too.

“At the end of the day it will be 11 against 11 … plus 60,000 fans. And I hope those 60,000 will make themselves heard. Not just because, in the return match in Seville, we know that their fans will definitely play their part. It’s an amazing stadium there for how the fans cheer on their team.

“I believe in my starting XI, I believe in those on the bench with me – and I believe in the 60,000 fans behind us.”

With Nicola Zalewski, do you see him also playing as a trequartista or purely as a wide player?

“Zalewski knows how to play in a few different positions. His development is probably something you know better than me, but this is the player he has become. He’s very good in that wide role and that’s where he plays for the national team too – which is a strong national team. I think he feels comfortable in that position and I think the team around feels comfortable with him there based on the way he plays.

“He’s a very important player for us. Whether or not he is starting games from the start, that doesn’t change the fact that he is important to us.”

If you were to win tomorrow, it would be your 107th win in European competitions – and you would become the coach to have won more matches in Europe than any other. Is that something you think about?

“It’s not really a motivation for me. I am proud of the 106 wins so far. When No. 107 arrives, whether that is tomorrow or further down the road, I will still be proud of my career. But these are all things to spend time thinking about when your career is over. When I retire I will have a lot of time to think back and remember.

“Right now what interests me is winning the next game. Always the next game. And the next game is tomorrow. It’s definitely going to be tough; it’s a quality match-up. I want to win simply because we need the points. We only have three so far and that’s not enough.”

When you need to win the game, like you’ve just said, is it therefore a match where you could pair Tammy Abraham and Andrea Belotti together in attack?

“Good players can play together, it’s never a problem. And that’s true for the coaches as well and finding ways for them to pair together. To give you an example, at the start of the season, for a lot of you – and especially those who talk a good game on radio but never ever come here – it seemed almost impossible for those guys that Zaniolo, Dybala, Pellegrini and Abraham could all play together.

“Unfortunately, with different injuries here and there, it’s only happened on a few occasions. But when it has happened, things have worked well. With Belotti and Tammy, we are talking about two good players. So putting them together is just a question of us finding the right setup, the right time, and building up to that little by little. But clearly for any team coming up against an on-song Roma – because it needs to be an on-song Roma – then it is not going to be easy for them if Tammy and Belotti are together.

“Is tomorrow an opportunity for that? Every game is an opportunity. I don’t want to say who will play tomorrow, especially when there aren’t too many doubts for the opposition anyway. This time around there are a lot of different ways Betis could go. I really don’t know who they will pick. So if my opposite number doesn’t want to show his hand, then certainly neither do I. As I’ve said: it’s 11 against 11 … plus 60,000.”

Nicolo Zaniolo has scored a lot more goals in Europe than Serie A – why do you think that is?

“He is a player that always worries the opposition, I don’t think there is any doubt about that. He’s not a selfish player – even if on occasions he makes individual decisions when he is on the ball. But he’s not selfish, he doesn’t just think about himself. He doesn’t save energy when defending so he has more when he gets the ball in attack again.

“He gives everything he has for the team, he works really hard for the team from a defensive perspective as well. And so for any player that works as hard as he does, it’s normal that they won’t score 20 goals in a season. He’s a really important player for us and I will never get tired of underlining that.

“For me, whether he scores more goals or fewer goals, it’s not a dramatic issue. If he has scored more goals in Europe than in Serie A then maybe that is because, teams like Leicester and Real Betis apart, the level is a bit higher in Serie A. Obviously those teams I mention are top class, but in Serie A we definitely face more difficult contests.”

How important is it psychologically for this team to have taken four points from trips to Juventus and Inter Milan? And how much of your mindset was in that comment from Gianluca Mancini about being ‘the stronger side’ after Dybala’s goal in Milan?

“The four points we’ve taken from the games against Inter and Juventus, if we are comparing with last season, then we’ve gained four from those but dropped four from the games against Udinese and Atalanta. Because last season we drew in Udine and won against Atalanta at the Stadio Olimpico. So, if we are being really pragmatic about it, we haven’t gained anything and we haven’t lost anything.

“But in terms of the mental side of things, it’s important. It’s a different feeling to go to a top side and a big stadium and deliver a result. We talked about that even before the match. For example, after the game against Atalanta, we lost but we came away feeling we had been the better side. We lost but we were better. We played well, we played with confidence.

“Ahead of Inter, I put that on the table – saying we could win and we could lose but we want to leave the stadium feeling like we were at least the equal of our opponents. We want to come away at least feeling like the better side. The players took that on board and played really well. They are points that are worth a bit more than that as a result.

"Mancini is a leader, he speaks up, he knows when it’s the right moment to say something. I was very pleased with the lads.”

How is Lorenzo Pellegrini? And can you tell us a bit of how you experienced the game at the weekend from the team bus?

“I wasn’t on the team bus. The team bus at the San Siro goes under the stadium, and I didn’t want to be down there. So I was in another place. I was in a van – a really nice van, to be honest. I like being able to hear the sounds from the stadium, because you understand from the noises what’s going on around the match. Where would I prefer to be? It’s definitely better on the sidelines, it’s a lot tougher to watch from the van.

"With Pellegrini, let’s see. We still need to train today. We still need to hear from him. He knows that it is a really important match for us. I know Lorenzo really well and so I know if he says no, then it’s a no. If he says, ‘I’m available’, then I trust him. With him there is no time-wasting, there’s a really high level of trust there. So we will see what he says.

"In this case, more than what the medical staff have to say I will be waiting for his view. His word will be the most important thing for me.”