In the early hours of tomorrow morning, Roma will face Sampdoria away in Serie A, and before the start of the match, Roma boss Jose Mourinho held a regular pre-match press conference. At the press conference, Mourinho answered eight questions from reporters, and was also asked by reporters about the current situation of Italian football, without saying much to look at the content:
Can you tell us about the health of the team? Can all of your players participate in the game? This includes players who compete in international competitions. Also, can you tell me the latest information about Zaniolo and Spinazzola?
Mourinho said: "Spinazzolla's situation is good, I know you want to know the definite time of his comeback, but I don't know. It's been months since he last trained with us and now he's going to be training with us again and we need to be patient. I can't say he'll be back next game, or he'll be back next week. We are calm about that, and the main thing is that Spinazzolla is optimistic about the progress of his recovery. As for Zaniolo, he is injured, he came back from the national team with an injury, he returned to Roma on Thursday with a muscle injury, he has not trained for the past three days, so it is clear that he will not be able to play tomorrow. Mancini returned from the national team on Monday and also participated in training on Thursday, even Bunia and Gian, who had just returned from the national team, could play. Velettus didn't train with the team this week, I can't say what I can't say, he can't play tomorrow anyway. I heard that Velettus was punished for hosting a party privately by his wife, and his wife was found positive.
How are you going to deal with Zaniolo? In the derby, he was on the bench, the national team was in the stands against North Macedonia and he played only 45 minutes against Turkey.
Mourinho said: "I know the second question will be about him, I just want to talk about us, I don't want to talk about the national team. If you have a world cup thing, I will answer some questions. Simply put, I am very sorry that Italy did not make it to the World Cup. If Italy ends up facing Portugal, I definitely want Portugal to qualify. However, I work here and I need to respect the history of the game in this country and I regret that Italy is out. When my players leave because of a national team match, I don't usually talk about what happened. With regard to Zaniolo, I just want to say that it is normal for a lot of players to regularly sit on the bench at their club. Zagnolo was on the bench against Lazio because we needed different tactics, our goal was to win the game and we did. Then he left the club and went to the national team, and I won't comment on what happened next. On Thursday morning, he came back to Rome with an injury and we can't control what happens to the national team, I can say anything, but I don't want to say it. He didn't train for three days, he couldn't play in the game, there was no other story in it. I don't see anyone asking Allegri why Berdenaski didn't play, or why Inzagydzeko was on the bench. If you really want to know anything, you can call Zaniolo and I hope they tell you the truth. 】
Can you tell us why Italian football is struggling right now?
Mourinho said: "I have my opinion, but I don't want to say it. This is based on my experience working here for two different periods, as well as working in England and Spain. But I don't want to say it. If someone in an institutional role in Italy asks me privately, I'll be happy to share my opinion with him because I've been here for a few years and I'm happy here. So I'm willing to give my opinion, but I'm not going to say anything in public. 】
This season Roma often get a draw after winning, and you just won, are you worried about that? What have you done in this regard?
Mourinho said: "Sometimes a draw is not necessarily a disaster, sometimes your opponent only wants 1 point, which is the kind of draw. But I agree with you that sometimes your team really wants to win something, but your mentality doesn't meet that demand, or you're not focused enough on the pitch, then you can't achieve your goals in the end. Yesterday we talked about some things about that, the derby is over, our next derby next season, we're going to focus on the game against Samp now, what we need to talk about is what kind of stadium they have, have a really good manager, how we're going to face a difficult game, they still need points to finish relegation. So, if we want to win, we have to come up with the best level. 】
Judging from derby's performance, will the two behind Abraham become permanent partners? Will you continue to use the three-back lineup next season?
Mourinho said: "After I heard your speech on the radio yesterday, I was expecting a harsher, more radical question. I didn't expect your question to be so direct, it seems that your remarks on the radio are more aggressive, but here you seem to be afraid to ask your questions. 】
I'm here, no problem, we can talk about radio.
Mourinho said: "No, it's okay. Three-backs will make us more stable and very suitable for some of our players, such as Sharawi and Zalevsky, who are not full-backs, but they can play as full-backs in this system. Tomorrow, yes, we'll play like this, I don't know what's going on next season because it depends on a lot of things. It's not that Tammy will definitely play with the two players behind him, it's a dynamic thing that will change depending on our opponents and the way we play. In the derby, we analyzed the opponents and I decided to let Oliveira and Christante go and contain Alberto and Covic, so I decided to have Mkhitaryan and Pellegrini behind Tammy, but we also have other players to use, such as Gian, Shomu and so on, of course I haven't talked about Zaniolo yet, he can't play tomorrow, otherwise we'll have more options. 】
In order to get the fifth place, how important is it for your team to maintain morale for a long time?
Mourinho said: "I will not change my mentality and the way I work with the players. For the players, it's clear that this season we can get fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth. However, the fifth and eighth are very different. Fifth place means you can play in the Europa League, while eighth place means you don't have a European competition next season. That's why we're trying to get more points and be as high as possible in the standings. 】
There was a virtual standings with expected goals, Roma were third, and the data showed that Roma's attack was threatening, what do you think?
Mourinho said: "You said it yourself, it's a virtual standings, unfortunately it's just virtual.] But, having said that, these statistics can help you think about things differently. We know we're a team that creates chances and we can create danger in attack. And, this season we've had some different results. But, these are all virtual, football is a very simple and objective thing, if you score more points, you will win more, you will get more points. What we need is real consistency and we start putting it together, it's nine games in a row, we're unbeaten in league games and maybe we can get more points in it and turn a draw into a win. However, we still have a lot to do. 】
Well, that's all there is to it, see you tomorrow!