Mourinho: ‘I missed Italian press conferences’

Jose Mourinho reveals the differences between press conferences in Italy and England, as he prepares for Roma’s Serie A opener against Fiorentina. ‘You’re too good at the analysis!’

He’s already made his competitive debut on the Giallorossi bench, Thursday’s 2-1 away win at Trabzonspor for the UEFA Europa Conference League play-off, with the return match next Thursday.

“Wins help you to recuperate quicker,” said Mou in his press conference. “We’re ready, this is modern football and I won’t make many changes for this game.”

The coach said after that trip to Turkey that his team was “still missing something” with a few days left in the transfer window.

“I already explained our transfer strategy was one of reaction, because we lost two players that we weren’t expecting to lose – Leonardo Spinazzola and Edin Dzeko – so we had to react and didn’t therefore sign the players I thought would’ve been important to balance the squad.

“However, when the club makes such a fantastic effort dealing with problems, I don’t have the right to pressure them or make more demands. I have to work with the players in the squad, we’ve still got time to do something more.”

Mourinho returns to Serie A after a decade and is settling back into the different approaches of the media in Italy and England.

“When I was in England, I always told my staff, I really miss the press conferences in Italy, because in England they only want to talk about controversy, but now that I’m in Italy, I don’t want to talk about tactics, because you’re too good at the analysis!

“It’s true, against Trabzonspor we put in a lot of crosses and got things wrong. Football nowadays is not so tied up with the system, so it becomes more difficult for the opposition to prepare against you. There are different ways of reaching the same objective, which is to win. Sometimes we’ll push hard with both full-backs, sometimes only one at a time.

“Roma is a gigantic club of the dimensions of others I have worked at, but its project is different to Real Madrid or Inter. Today, Roma have not won in many years, they finished 29 points off the leaders last season and need time, organisation, invisible work the fans won’t see, and they will lead to results eventually.”

Fiorentina are also under a new coach, former Spezia boss Vincenzo Italiano.

“We analysed Italiano’s football philosophy and it’ll be a difficult match against a quality coach who has quality players. We’re both new to our teams this summer, but already playing well all things considered.”

New signing Tammy Abraham was not in the Roma squad against Trabzonspor, but could make his debut tomorrow.

“He should be called up, he had to train by himself due to the quarantine rules, but is ready to play.”