José Mourinho, the Portuguese experienced coach of AS Roma, spoke in a press conference to the media in view of the match against AC Milan.
Here are his words:
"We are facing a team that is playing for the title... Obviously, it seems that the points gap between them and Juventus and Inter is not an easy one to bridge, but it's that team, which has lost some key players to injuries in the defensive zone. In midfield and attack, they are there; at the back, they lost 2-3 players but brought in 2 to try to find a solution. They acquired Terracciano and brought back Gabbia. It's a team that definitely wants to win after the loss in the Cup, which was a target for them. They will put everything into this game; they know our difficulties, it seems like everyone knows. Perhaps not every journalist or commentator knows, but everyone knows our difficulties", as relayed via Milan News.
Mourinho added:
"I've spoken with some players about the attitude, and I have no problem because I have great respect and loyalty in dealing with them. There's nothing that anyone could or would say to my players that I haven't said. For me, it's very clear; there's a difference between difficulties and using real difficulties as an excuse for something we can do better. On this, I don't hold back; I might hold back in front of you. I know how it works in football, I know perfectly well that in the end, if a player makes a mistake, the direction is always one, the overall result, the responsibility is the coach's. From my relationship with the players, I don't spare anything."
Mourinho continued:
"The better the relationship, the easier it is not to spare anything. Yesterday's meeting was tough, especially for some individuals. Collectively and defensively, the team was perfect; it concedes a goal as it did, starting from our throw-in. We can't even manage to make a positive throw-in, and we turned it into a corner. And then, a penalty from an 18-year-old with 55 minutes of Serie A play. I've never said it wasn't a penalty; I said it's a penalty of modern times, and modern times in refereeing are less protective of the game than 20 years ago. In yesterday's meeting, I spared nothing... It's difficult to work on the field and try to improve things; the message remained there. Some people must give more, obligatorily, from an individual point of view."
On Paulo Dybala, Mourinho said:
"Paulo will not be there. Finding solutions to play without Dybala is not the same as finding the solution to play without Haaland for Guardiola, because he has Alvarez. If Sterling doesn't play for Pochettino, Mudryk plays; for Klopp, if Diaz doesn't play, Jota plays, and if he doesn't play, Nunez plays - it's not the same thing. Roma is experiencing a situation from the perspective of the settlement agreement, so it has significant limitations, and this is evident on the field. During the season, when some kind of problem occurs, there is no way to hide it. Roma made an economic effort to have Smalling, but he's not available, and they can't have another one. Roma made an economic effort to have Renato Sanches, and he's not there, and we can't have two Renato Sanches because the constraints don't allow you to have another player in the same position that is available. Dybala is a truly special player who, in recent years, has played in a team with other special players. When he didn't play, another player did; sometimes he was on the bench and sometimes he came in. We don't have another player with his characteristics. The match against Fiorentina seemed like a 3-0 after 20 minutes. When he left, we lost that connection, which neither Belotti, nor El Shaarawy, nor Joao Costa, who will be called up tomorrow, can provide. If someone doesn't want to understand that Roma without Paulo Dybala is a different Roma, I can't say much more."
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