Mourinho on Dybala
“Dybala is fine and playing. The difficulty is to play against a quality team, with a clear identity, a great coach and a philosophy of its own that you see when he plays. Real Betis have won the King’s Cup and it is not easy to do so if you are not one of the top three teams, they have experienced players and they go with the national teams. It will be difficult for us and for them, eleven against eleven plus 60,000 and we hope they do theirs, their fans will do a lot next week. Their stadium supports them a lot, they are fantastic. I trust the owners, the benches and our fans ”.
Mourinho on Zalewski
“He can play more roles, he can also play on the wing as you have seen. He has turned into this type of player, he also plays with Poland which is of a high level and plays in that position. We feel good about his characteristics, if he is on the bench or on the pitch, nothing changes, it is very important for us ”.
Rome: Mourinho’s statements
“Good players can play together, it’s never a problem. Coaches have to find a way to make good players play together, for example it is not that I want to change your question, at the beginning for many of you and especially for the phenomena that speak on the radio and never come here, it seemed impossible that Dybala, Zaniolo, Pellegrini, Abraham could never play together, unfortunately a few times I had them available and they did well. Belotti and Abraham are two good players, we coaches have to understand and find a way to do it, for a team to play against a good Roma with Abraham and Belotti is not easy. Every match is an opportunity, I don’t want to say who will play tomorrow, especially when there is no doubt about the opposing team. Betis is a team that has a lot of solutions, we don’t know if they will make any changes regarding the last game, I don’t know if Iglesias or William José will play, or Canales or Fekir, I don’t know. My colleague Pellegrini will say nothing and I will say nothing. I’m just saying it will be a difficult match, eleven against eleven plus 60,000 ”.
Mourinho on Zaniolo
“The opponents always worry about Zaniolo, he is a footballer who is not selfish, his way of playing makes him make individual decisions, to take the ball and attack the defenders, but he never thinks about himself. Zaniolo gives everything for his team, he is so important in the defensive phase for us, he works a lot and it is normal for him not to score 20 goals in a season. He is a really important player for us and for us if he scores less or more it is not a dramatic situation. He has scored more in Europe than in Serie A… I don’t know, maybe in Serie A the teams have a higher level than teams in the Conference League or Europa League. Betis or Leicester are of a very high level, but we have played with weaker teams in Europe ”.
Mourinho on Pellegrini’s conditions
“Pilgrims see, sometimes you know more than me, we have to train and feel him too. He knows that the game is fundamental for us, I know him well and I know perfectly well and if he says no it’s no because he has no chance, if he says he will be available I trust him. Confidence is very high and I wait for what he will tell me, I trust his words “.
