Mourinho: "We must show courage"

What do Roma need to do to get going again after the defeat to Genoa?

“We want to win. We have to win. We mustn't look for any type of excuse or shirk away from our responsibilities in this game. We had three matches before the transfer window shut and I think the single point we earned [against Salernitana] weighed on many of the players, given what happened afterwards.

“I thought that after that incredible result against Empoli and our win in the Europa League the weight had been lifted off their shoulders, on and off the pitch. However, that wasn't the case when we drew at Torino. Given what's been happening in Serie A this season – with teams who theoretically aren't aiming for the top spots getting results against the top teams – that point against Torino, and a good performance, doesn't look so good. In normal circumstances, if we'd gone to Turin with seven or eight points, it would have been a good point because we played well and we earned it against tough opponents.

“I expected to see consistency and further improvement against Genoa but that didn't happen. Lots of things happened in that game: we started badly, we conceded a goal, we played well and got an equaliser, then instead of getting better we got worse, because with our most consistent performer at the moment [Bryan Cristante] playing centre-back, we got worse as a team. Afterwards, with the changes we made and the way the game developed, we did even worse. Playing with four at the back, with Bryan and [Evan] Ndicka centre-backs who have never played in a back four – the team lost its stability. We scored a second but it was offside and when it looked like we might equalise we conceded a third from a set-piece. As for the fourth goal, as I've said before, by then it was a totally different scenario - we might have conceded five or six. It can happen. Empoli conceded seven...

“However, your question wasn't about the game but what we need to do. What we need to do is have the courage to go out there tomorrow and accept the Roma fans' reaction, whether it's a display of brilliant support or of disappointment, a negative display. We must respect whatever they express, positive or negative, and have the courage to play our game against a good team with high morale after an excellent start to the campaign. We must be aware that this match will be doubly difficult because we'll have that extra pressure – an attack on the pride of a group of professionals, as we are. And some of us are Romanisti. We must show courage.

“With two days 'work' to make up for the result in Genoa, there's not much more we can do except muster the courage and the confidence to go to the Olimpico. It's a shame the game isn't today. I'd have liked that.”

I think some sort of spark is needed. If Dan Friedkin offered you a new contract today, would you sign it?

“That's a hypothetical situation. I don't like talking about hypothetical situations. You're saying 'if'. It hasn't happened. It's not an answer I can give you. What I can say is this, and perhaps this is not the answer you were expecting because I'm not answering it directly: three months ago the idea of me leaving was seen almost as a tragedy. In Budapest, on the pitch, I told my players and staff that I was staying here. Two or three days later, we played against Spezia and I was suspended. I went out onto the pitch after the game and I told the fans I was staying. Two or three or four days after that, I met with Dan Friedkin and I gave him my word that I would remain at the club. During the holidays, I received the biggest and craziest offer a coach has ever received in the history of football. And I turned it down. I did so because I'd given my word to my players, I'd given my word to the fans and I'd given my word to the club owner. Three months later, it seems like I'm the problem. I can't accept that.

“I don't read the papers, listen to the radio or watch the TV but I have friends, I have players, I have assistants, I have people who, even if I don't want to know, inform me of things. I won't accept it. Because it's not true. I'm not the problem. In football, and in life too, there are multiple factors. It's the same when you win: you can't say one person is responsible for it. We all are. Lots of little things are at play in a football club, a business, a political structure, an educational structure, and I know because I've worked in one. It's always multiple factors.

“Three months ago the one who was the biggest problem for Roma fans, for the players, for Trigoria, committed and gave his word and I'll keep my word till the very last day. Until 30 June 2024 I'll be here fighting every day, working every day, for the players, for the club, for the fans. There's only one person who can tell me it's over before 30 June, and that's Mr Friedkin. He's the only one who can say to me: 'Jose, you have to go.' If he doesn't tell me that, I'll stay here, with an expiring contract or a ten-year contract for the same amount. It doesn't change anything for me. I'm the same person who gave his word to the players, to everyone in Trigoria, to the world. Because when I speak, I speak to the world. That's how it's been in my career: when I talk, I talk to the world, not just to you. I'm the same person. Until 30 June I'll be here with my players, working for the club owners, working for the fans.

“There's only one person – and of course I mean the owners, whether it's Dan or Ryan - who can tell me it's over. I'm not afraid of external pressure. I'm not afraid of being booed as I enter the field, at the stadium tomorrow. I'm not afraid at all.

“If people want to find me, they'll find me in Trigoria, where I live. Sometimes, when I decide to go out to dinner with my colleagues because I need to get out of this closed environment, I go to a hotel for a day or two. That's my life here. I'm not afraid and I'm not lacking in belief. I'm here. And tomorrow I'll be there, with my players. Together, as always. And as we have since day one, my players and I will take responsibility for what happens before the game, during the game and after the game.

“That said, the only thing we're all thinking about is winning tomorrow. That's what the team needs.”

Where will Cristante play tomorrow, in the coming  games and probably until the international break in October? In his usual position in front of the defence, in his new role further forward, or at the back because problems in the transfer market mean you have the same defenders as last year plus Ndicka?

“I think Tiago Pinto came here on 31 August and gave a good explanation about the way the club has to deal with the Financial Fair Play agreement: if we want one thing, we can't have another. You have to make decisions even if you know they're risky.

“You say we have the same players but you forgot that [Roger] Ibanez is no longer here. We don't have [Marash] Kumbulla either, and he helped out in these situations when he was available last year.

“When [Chris] Smalling got injured we were left with three centre-backs, and not at a time when we're playing one game a week, but at a time when for three weeks we have a match every three days – eight matches in a short space of time.

“Diego [Llorente]'s injury is part of his injury history and it made things difficult for us. As I said before, now is not the time to make excuses or, worse, to play the blame game. It's a result of a situation linked to Financial Fair Play, which I knew perfectly well could happen.

“Our best moment in the game against Genoa was obviously the goal. After the goal, when the team seemed to be going in a certain direction, we were forced to make a change [due to Llorente's injury]. I don't like talking about individual players – though it's easier to speak well than to speak ill – but right now Cristante is the player who's giving us something extra. He's improved immensely tactically, technically, in the way he thinks about the game and even in his speed of execution. A player who wasn't what you'd call a football genius has become smarter, more objective, faster. He's important both in attack and in defence. He's a key player for us. In that moment, the team became worse.  

“You're asking me what we'll do tomorrow. Later I might get asked if we'll play three or four at the back, which would be a normal question.  To defend with four, [Primavera player] Joao Costa has to play tomorrow. And he'll be in the matchday squad. I won't tell you whether we'll play with four but the only way we could do it would be with [Stephan] El Shaarawy on the left and Joao Costa on the right. Because if anyone says that [Paulo] Dybala can play right wing in system with four, I'll remind you that people are saying he looked very tired in the last two games – and that was playing in the middle, so you can imagine on the wing...

“I shouldn't even be talking about these things with you. We have a tough game tomorrow, an important game, with added pressure, and we have to play it the best we possibly can.

“There might be a question about whether I expect more from my players. Yes, I do expect more. I expect more from myself because I'm always extremely demanding with myself, but I also expect more from the players. When I concede two goals from set-pieces, you might ask me if I coach them on defending set-pieces. Yes, I do. I coach them on defending set-pieces.

“If you ask me if I've coached them on building from the back and I told a midfield player to move out wide, then when we lose the ball we have a gap in the middle, then no. I've never told them to do that.

“If you ask me if I told our most attacking player to drop back 30 yards and leave [Romelu] Lukaku isolated, no. I never told them that.

“I do expect more from my players. I expect more from myself and from them.”

Have your players responded well?

“It's not something you can always know. It's something you sometimes know more or less. These lads are my friends. I'm their friend. We're a great bunch. There's not just empathy, because sometimes you get empathy in the workplace but it's not friendship. There is empathy between us and that's a priceless foundation to have, especially at times like this.

“But when people say the coach is a lonely figure in hard times... I'm never alone with them. Never.  I'm a little bit more alone, because I like being alone. I like to be able to hide myself in my thoughts and in my analysis. Sometimes I like to isolate myself. But I've never felt alone with my players. Nor have my players ever felt alone with me.

“I expect more on the pitch. I expect to see the things we work on. I expect a different mentality, a different hunger, a different sense of responsibility. And I think the new players will improve as quickly as we show them how we should be.

“To give you an example: Ndicka as an out-and-out defender and Ibanez. There's a huge difference. With the ball, Ndicka is much better than Ibanez. But defensively he's not the same warrior. He's not a gladiator. Ibanez made mistakes in possession and the mistakes he made were in games that people don't forget. But he was that warrior. Ndicka can get to that only as quickly as the others show him.

“We had seven corners in Genoa. Do you know how many times we attacked the ball first? Not one. How can we score goals from set-pieces if we don't have the courage to attack those balls. We simply have to improve.

“I expect more from my players and more from myself. And it's easier to say that when you're friends. It's easier to say I need more.”

Luciano Spalletti said that it's harder to get the players to follow you in the third year because the words go in one ear and out the other. Players get used to it and play less attention. It has less impact on them. Is it true that in the third season...?

“I don't see it like that. When you're happy with someone, it doesn't matter. Third year, fifth, tenth.”

The players always follow you the same way?

“There are problems in the first year too. I have friends that I've known for five years and they're still my friends. I don't believe there's a third, fourth, fifth year. It's a marathon and in this case it's the marathon of life. A marathon lasting four, five or six years in which you're at a club. I don't see it as a problem.

“The problem – and this is something I've experienced – is when you don't feel that love and then you feel the need to say, 'That's enough.' Or when you're tired in a relationship, sometimes even if there aren't any problems, but that's a relationship with a certain limit. I don't see it like that.

“There are coaches who have lots of money to spend, who change players as easily as they like. We can't do that. There are clubs who decide to sack a coach and bring in another because they spend less money and it's easier. But I think that the starting point is not the years behind you but whether there's a relationship or not. And in this case there is a relationship.

“I don't want to go back to the question about whether or not I'd sign a new contract because it's totally hypothetical, but being here, working here every day with my players, is something I enjoy a lot. And while I can't say I haven't been this happy at other clubs, I can say I've haven't been happier at any other club.”

Do you have a Mourinho move up your sleeve to fix the current situation at Roma?

“The answer I'll give you know is the answer I should have given you last time and I was rude, then afterwards I apologised to you. Now I'll try to give you an answer to this question.

“At times like this you need to isolate yourself. But it's one thing to be isolated because the others want you to be alone. They don't care about you, they don't want to be with you, they have no empathy, they don't want to help you and they leave you on your own. That's common in football and it happens that when a coach loses, he's left on his own. It's another thing when you choose to be alone, which is my case now.

“The last two days, I went to bed at 6:00 the morning after the match. Today I only got up at 12:15 having been awake since 7:30. I was thinking by myself, deciding by myself. Because right now lots of people are talking and giving their opinions, both outside and inside the club. If I go to my assistants today, each of them will have something to say to me. Because everyone has an opinion.

“At the meeting I had with the players yesterday, I started by saying that I was going to ask some questions and I was going to answer the questions. I was going to put myself in their shoes and answer for them. I told them that if I answered any of the questions wrong, they should raise their hand and tell me I was wrong, that they had a different opinion.

“I asked ten questions and gave ten answers and not one of them said I was wrong. I answered the same way they would have.

“Why did I do that? Firstly, because I know them very well. And secondly, because I didn't want to hear any of their opinions.

“That's what I should have said to you last time when I gave you a rude answer and said that if you don't sit in the dugout you can't give your opinion. Let's end it here because I was really rude.”