Mourinho denies having harshly criticized Roma players in the dressing room
José Mourinho denied the content of an alleged harsh reprimand he gave in the dressing room, after the elimination of the Coppa Italia, to Roma footballers, published by the newspaper Corriere dello Sport, considering it “a total lie”.
According to Corriere dello Sport, one of the most widely circulated newspapers in Italy, after the elimination of the Coppa Italia against Inter Milan, Mourinho will have devastated his players: “Are you afraid of games like this? , where there are no full stadiums nor the pressure of always wanting to win”.
This was just an excerpt of the reprimand published by Corriere dello Sport, but Mourinho took advantage of the press conference to launch the game with Sassuolo, on matchday 25, to vehemently deny that he had criticized his players in those terms and provoked a conflict with the same.
“Many of you, surely, must have thought that I was going to show up here today with a black eye after the conversation with the players ended with the punch. It’s a big lie! The attempt to imply that there is a problem between me and the my players, I say it with all the letters, it is a total lie and a dirty blow”, said the Portuguese coach, for whom what is happening is exactly the opposite of what was published.
José Mourinho admits that the players told him that they love the way he works and that they had other coaches about whom they had a very different opinion than they have about himself.
Mou went further and added that the squad asked him not to change his way of being or training: “They told me they don’t want me to change. I replied that I wouldn’t change even if they asked me to, but they let me know that that’s what they want.”
“What many have described as an explosion in the dressing room or a criticism of the players, is part of my job. It’s what we coaches do. What I have to say, I tell them to their faces, and I give them the possibility of dialogue. When I speak, I don’t intend it to be a monologue”, concluded Mourinho.
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