Real Madrid coach José Mourinho didn’t hide his anger after a 4-3 win over AS Roma, answering a journalist’s question in his press conference by saying: “You are the journalist, but may I ask you a question? Is it normal for a player to find out two hours before the match that he’s facing a four-match ban? You don’t need to answer me. Is it normal? Couldn’t they have announced it now, or tomorrow morning? Did they have to do it whilst we were on our way to the stadium? In Portuguese, they say: ‘A
cat in hiding with its tail sticking out’. It seems to me that now the cat is no longer hidden. The cat’s running wild; things are being done without a shred of shame. It’s running wild. Two hours before a match, a player from a Spanish team that has earned three points for the prestige of Spanish football – that doesn’t seem normal to me. But now it does seem normal, because the cat is out of the bag.”
Mourinho on the game
“The opposition were tough; they play a different style of football to what we’re used to. It’s very difficult for them too to maintain that pace and intensity for 90 minutes. They deserved to take the lead, although I wasn’t happy with a couple of the goals. And then we turned it around with a lot of courage, courage that the players showed. A draw was a positive result that we were aiming for. It’s a hugely important victory, six points against two very tough opponents. We’ve put ourselves in a good position.”
Mourinho on Valverde saying Real Madrid hadn’t read the game well
“I don’t agree with Fede. They approached the match differently to any they’d played before and to what we’d analysed. They attacked us with three players down the right flank…”
Mourinho on half-time adjustments
“Partly, but we couldn’t do what we’d planned. And they scored from a counter-attack. After that, it was an organised, emotional fightback, within a tactical framework I was familiar with. I spent many years in Italy and I know Gasperini. He caught us off guard, but there are no miracles in football. It’s not possible to maintain that intensity for 90 minutes.”
Mourinho on responsibility
“The bad first half is the manager’s fault; the good second half is the players’ fault.”
Mourinho on what he can take from the game
“In my mind, as a matter of principle, I always aim to do good; I never want to do wrong. I always think in terms of meritocracy. But football is a 90-minute game, a strategic one. The opposition count for something; they play their part, and today’s opponents were extremely strong. They’re a formidable side. I knew we were running out of steam. It’s impossible to play 90 minutes at that pace, the way they play. I made the changes I thought I should make. But in the first half, they absolutely thrashed us. They caught us off guard with Soulé playing wide, which made it difficult for Cucurella to get past Wesley. There were lots of two-on-one situations against Cucurella. When we reorganised in the second half, we were already playing with greater stability, but we conceded a goal we really shouldn’t have. If they’d scored four or five, people would say I’m mad; if we’d won, they’d say I got it wrong in the first half. But Inter and Roma, the top two in Italy, and six points.”
Mourinho on Vinícius’ performance
“The first half is my fault. Or Gasperini’s fault. He put Soulé in there and Wesley really ran rings round us with lots of two-on-one situations. Tough for Vini. In the second half, I gave him the freedom to play on the other flank. Wesley was neutralised by Diomande. Vini lost a ball he shouldn’t have lost. But that’s it, I make mistakes too. It’s a shame that just when he was coming into his own, being happy again, this happened.”
Mourinho on two wins in two
“La Liga is La Liga and the Champions League is the Champions League. That’s six points from two matches. It’s not over yet, but it’s very important for us. There are six matches left and we’ve already played two top-level opponents.”
Mourinho on Vini saying he didn’t understand the substitution
“It’s normal that he’s not happy. If he does what so many others do, throwing the bottle, I don’t like that. Frustration is normal. But after the match he was very happy with the win.”
Mourinho on if he spoke to Vini before the match
“Players try to block out their emotions. I had to do the same to play here at my home stadium, in front of people I love. A player must also have this ability, and he did quite well. The first half was down to Gasperini’s positive approach. It wasn’t Vinícius’ fault, but Gasperini’s.”
Mourinho on the substitutions
“If we’d started the match with the same 11 who finished it, they’d have scored five against us. It would have been impossible to hold off such an intense side. There are moments and moments. Sometimes the manager’s an idiot because he makes the wrong decisions, and other times he’s brilliant because he makes the right ones. I’m not going to tell you that I’d planned everything to switch from a 3-1 to a 3-4 formation. But I did think that in the final minutes we needed to make changes. I told them it’s very difficult for a player like Mancini to hold out, man-to-man, for the whole match on a yellow card. The way they play creates a lot of tricky situations. When Hermoso ran out of steam, Endrick came on. Give me some credit. I must have done something right.”
Mourinho on what he means about the cat being out of the bag
“At the very least, it shows a lack of respect. Playing in Athens on Wednesday night, arriving in Madrid at 5 am and then playing in Valencia on Saturday, in the week leading up to the international break, that doesn’t strike me as innocent. I don’t buy the usual excuses about it being down to the TV broadcast; I just don’t buy it. I’m too old for this. And this business with Vinicius two hours beforehand, knowing he’d served a four-match ban… It’s not worth commenting on. Real Madrid fans aren’t stupid.”
Mourinho on Carlos Espí
“He’s coming through. I must say that when the possibility arose of Gonzalo leaving, whom I liked a lot and who was a great deal for Real Madrid, they put three names on the table for me. One of them was Espí, and they did a very good job. For a forward, being in the same squad as Kylian isn’t easy. It’s not easy to rotate a player like him, given his quality. Now, against Sevilla, Kylian isn’t playing… I won’t be either. But opportunities come along, and when he’s had them, he’s always risen to the occasion.”
