Mourinho: “Great team spirit. Delighted for the lads”

Here are coach Jose Mourinho’s post-match impressions of this evening’s encounter.

What’s the latest on [Paulo] Dybala?

“We’re not optimistic. I trust my players’ opinions – if he’s lacking optimism then I’ll follow suit. Obviously we’ve got to wait and see what the test results reveal over the course of the coming days, but I trust Paulo’s gut instinct. He knows his body well, and as he’s not feeling positive neither am I.”

Have you had a chance to speak to him?

“I asked Paulo the same question you asked me – it’s with the medical staff now. We’re waiting for the results and our staff will only discuss matters after these have come back. I just asked Paulo a straightforward question, and if he’s not optimistic then neither am I.”

I really enjoy watching Roma’s current midfield setup. It seems that the team have taken a step forward in their gameplan, would you agree?

“We’ve tried to shore things up. The game in Genoa was a strange affair, with the injuries and conceding a goal early doors. We spent a lot of time – possibly too much time – analysing that match. We’ve reflected on the fact that, given that we’re not a pacey team who play full throttle in midfield – especially without Renato [Sanches] who’d normally be our midfield engine, and having been forced to move [Bryan] Cristante – we needed to become more solid and improve our transitions. This also means that our number five and the spare man in midfield would be there whether the ball was on the left or the right-hand side of the pitch. We tried to find some balance and we managed to do so. We weren’t threatened on the counter-attack nor when the game was stretched. We kept it tight.  

“When Paulo plays he occupies the positions in the hole on the right while [Lorenzo] Pellegrini and [Houssem] Aoaur do so on the left. However [Leandro] Paredes and [Edoardo] Bove did great in the team today. It was a real challenge because our only midfielders on the bench were two kids – [Riccardo] Pagano and [Niccolo] Pisilli.

“What’s more, the fact that three of our midfielders had been booked before half-time further complicated matters. We were forced to hold back in certain transitions in possession turnover because we’d have run a huge risk of one of the lads getting a second yellow. It was a balancing act.”

I’d like to ask you about what the club has described as ‘fake news’. What sort of atmosphere do you sense around you?

“I work closely with the players every day as well as the kitmen, the medical department, my coaching staff and the performance analysts. We’re a tight unit. We’re together every minute of every day. We train together, we eat together.

“We’ve only been thinking about one thing – winning game after game. That’s all we think about. I’m a recluse, I don’t have a great social life. I don’t go out. I live in isolation. I don't think about anything else. I'm not a child, I know perfectly well what I want. I'm very happy because we won the match. I'm not happy about the fact that we’re on 11 points, because I think we could’ve done more. However we are where we are, and we’re not that far from the league positions we aspire to reach. We’re keeping things in perspective. Since the Genoa defeat we’ve won three matches in a row. It’s a shame that we’ve got the international break coming up now. Paulo will definitely be out for a spell, but hopefully when club football returns some of the four players who were missing today will be fit for action. We felt their absences and ended today’s match with [Mehmet] Celik, Bove and Pagano in midfield.

“We’ve had a hard time of it but our team spirit has been fantastic. Congratulations to the lads, I’m really happy with them.”

How do you feel about such a stance being taken by the club?

“I don't know what you're talking about. I have a contract until June 30th. I know perfectly well what I want, which is to give everything I can to Roma. There’s no issue from my side. I'm happy, Roma won. I'm here to help the lads try to get the results that the fans, the owners and all of us want, because Roma are our life.”