Mourinho: "I trust my players and my stadium"

Here's what he had to say...

Roma have hit the woodwork more than any other team in the top five European leagues. Do you feel you've been a tad unlucky this season? What might have been different if some of those had gone in?

“First of all, we're a defensive team. We're a defensive team who have hit the woodwork 27 times. There's a bit of a contradiction there. I wouldn't call it unlucky – we could have been more accurate. Whether it's the woodwork or a great save by the opposition keeper. I'd call it being efficient. We should have put those chances away. Hitting the woodwork counts for nothing. But I think it means we create chances, which is important. The match starts at Roma 0-1 Feyenoord so we need to score. The woodwork statistic doesn't worry me. Quite the contrary: it means we're capable of creating opportunities.”

How is Paulo Dybala doing? Could he start the game?

“Honestly I don't know. You saw the first 15 minutes of warm-up and rondos. Then we did some low-intensity tactical work. We've decided to give Paulo another 24 hours to see if he can make it or not. We'll take a closer look at him tomorrow and up the intensity to see what he can do: play, start on the bench or nothing. I don't know at the moment.”

How has Tammy Abraham been since his goal at the weekend?

“He's fine. He's a happy chap, always positive, smiling and joking around. He always looks fine to me. He might play well or not so well. He might score or not score. But from a personal, social perspective, he's always fine. There's no problem there.”

How important is it at this stage of the season to have confidence in your alternatives? We've seen Diego Llorente and Edoardo Bove playing more regularly recently.

“It's very important. Llorente and Bove are both players who need to grow. Bove is young and doesn't have much Serie A experience, but he's started three or four games this year. He's improving all the time and is becoming a better player, although he sometimes makes mistakes. It's part of his development. Llorente is a player with a lot of experience playing at the top level. He needed to learn how to play in our set-up, which is different from learning to play football. He's a quality player. When he first arrived, he wasn't used to our style of play. He's a lot more settled now and it's as if we have two extra players, but there are others too and that's important. We have eight league games left, nine including tomorrow's, which could become 11, or 12. It will be impossible to play all those with the same players.”

Feyenoord striker Santiago Gimenez has already scored five goals in Europe. Have you come up with a plan to stop him?

“We need everyone to stop him. If you want to know about his qualities, you're better off asking his coach, who knows him better than me. We'll respect him, as we respect the whole Feyenoord team.”

Are you thinking of starting with Dybala on the bench? Considering that tomorrow's match that could last 90 or 120 minutes and possibly go to penalties, which he is very good at...

"For me the question is whether he's fit or not. Because if there's a doubt, it makes little difference. If he starts, he definitely won't have 90 or 120 minutes in him and there's always the risk that after 10 minutes you might have to use up a sub. If he starts on the bench and comes on and gets injured, that's a substitute used up. For me it's more a question of whether or not he can play. But we don't have a lot of options. In extreme circumstances, it's not impossible for him to go on the bench. We'll wait and see tomorrow. Even for those of you with the best contacts, it will be impossible for you to know our starting line-up as not even the coach knows what it will be.”

What's the best strategy tomorrow? We know about Salzburg: 2-0. Do you need patience tomorrow?

“We need to score two more goals than Feyenoord. To speak about Salzburg doesn’t make much sense to me because Salzburg is Salzburg and Feyenoord is Feyenoord. That game is over, this game hasn't even started. Patience or no patience, I know we have to score two more goals than Feyenoord. Are we going to do it in the first minutes of the game or in the last minutes or in the extra time? I don’t even know if we are going to win. What I know is that we have a team full of confidence and a stadium that wants to play the game. They don’t want to be there just clapping or singing or waving flags. They want to play with us. They know the difference between just being at the stadium and playing the game. They know that because they have played some matches before. I trust my players and I trust my stadium. Full respect to Feyenoord, but I trust my players and I trust my stadium.”