José Mourinho reveals Paulo Dybala and Tammy Abraham will likely remain out of action for the next two games and admits the Giallorossi are not clinical enough: ‘We don’t have Erling Haaland…’
Roma faced a 1-0 loss away at Feyenoord in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday. Abraham and Dybala sustained injuries, while Lorenzo Pellegrini was subbed off during the break after missing a penalty in the first half.
When asked about the extent of Dybala and Abraham’s injuries, Mourinho replied: “I don’t know, but what happens on the pitch is enough. I didn’t have time to ask questions during the game and didn’t speak to the medical team or the medical staff after the game.”
As for Pellegrini’s substitution, the Special One claimed: “It was my choice and it had nothing to do with the penalty. If a player misses a penalty it’s like we’ve missed it all. It’s never a problem.
“We don’t have Haaland in attack. This is who we are, we always try to give our best,” continued Mourinho, talking about Roma’s issues up front.
“The lads put in dignity and strength, we had the chance to bring a result at home, but it didn’t happen and we lost.”
The Giallorossi host Udinese at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday night and will face Feyenoord again next week in the quarter-finals second leg.
“We struggle, we have a difficult game on Sunday and then on Thursday again, we don’t have so many players to rotate,” argued Mourinho.
“We’ll probably lose Dybala and Abraham for the next two. It’s us plus the Olimpico [in the return leg] which never makes mistakes.
“We could have killed off the game against Torino on Saturday and we didn’t do it. We are not a team that scores many goals. If you remember the game against Salzburg, we had many chances, but in the end they scored. We have this problem, we don’t have many offensive players.”
Lastly, Sky Sport Italia asked Mourinho whether he feels Roma can qualify for the Europa League semis by beating the Dutch side next week.
“I am optimistic, but also worried ahead of Sunday. We’ll have fewer options, even if all players are important.
“We always give our best, we feel it’s not a deserved result, but underserved doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. Unfortunately, we don’t play Feyenoord on Sunday, but Udinese so we have to focus.”
Roma have three wins and two defeats in the last five Serie A games and sit third in the table, two points above fifth-placed Inter.