Jose Mourinho is very direct in his analysis of the game lost against Atalanta from his Roma: “I think that with our limits we had a great matchyou can’t remove the episodes from the race because they decide but today it was like this, they decided the episodesin the first half we were in control without creating much, their first goal is an episode because we lose the ball – he says – In the first half there was no difference despite the many substitutions, the second half was ours too and after the 2-1 c ‘it was time to play and again one episode decided the race, but I’m happy with my players. The injuries? If I have to play on Saturday, I playthis team is united, in difficulties it is united, the fans are proud of the team, we finished in 9 and with 9 we hit the post and we tried until the end”. Mourinho does not feel like attributing anything to his players: “It’s hard to be critical with this teamDespite the limitations, today’s result is not to say that it is unfair but it is the result of the episodes. Those who played and those who entered did well and I’m satisfied. Hitting the posts still means creating goal situations, we’ve hit 30 of them this year, then it can be bad luck or not very effective. As for injuries, they are part of the game, today we tried to protect those who were more tired after the Europa League, we tried to protect Dybala but those who played had a very positive game and then when we were in the match we conceded the third goal, everyone, not just Rui Patricio”.
“Sad about the result but satisfied with the boys”
Two more injuries (Llorente and Dybala) in addition to those of Smalling and Zapata, with Mancini’s conditions to be evaluated: “When someone is missing, it’s always a problemfor someone it’s a small problem, for us it is a big problemSmalling is Smalling, Llorente was adjusting very well and now he’s out and it’s going to be tough for us, maybe a defeat against Feyenoord would have been better to fight to the end. I’m sad about the result but satisfied with the boys”. A message to the fans, including Francesco Totti who praised the team: “We can’t do miracles but there is a miracle which is the empathy between the team and all the fanspeople understand this team whether they play well or badly, we always go all the way, for Saturday could have helped but maybe I needed Aldair more.”