Jose Mourinho criticised some of his players after a 2-2 draw with Bodo/Glimt, explaining his decisions, but above all blamed the referee. ‘The two penalties were clear as day. How many points have we lost to refereeing errors?’
The Giallorossi kept squad rotation to a minimum after the 6-1 defeat in Norway, but still fell behind twice at the Olimpico before clawing back a 2-2 draw with Stephan El Shaarawy and Roger Ibanez.
Mourinho had been furious at refereeing decisions in Serie A, but there is no VAR in the Europa Conference League and they were denied two clear penalties for handling offences.
“I think the result is harsh on us. It wasn’t a great performance, we made a lot of technical errors, especially in the first half when playing out from the back. Every time it went to Veretout or Darboe, we lost the ball,” Mourinho told Sky Sport Italia.
“The reality of the game is 2-2, but the two penalties were clear as day. Clear as day. You can talk about whatever you want, but the reality is 2-2, they had two shots on target and two goals. We scored two goals and had two clear penalties denied.
“I don’t know if they get referees who are poor and starting their careers for the Conference League. I didn’t say anything about the referee in Norway, because we lost 6-1, but here the two penalties were clear.”
Mourinho was asked if he will make tactical adjustments to give Roma greater balance, as they seem to be caught out on the counter, and again went to blame the lack of strength in depth at his disposal.
“Balance comes from the players at our disposal. Matias Vina was injured, so I had to choose a left-back. Solbakken had a fantastic first leg, tonight Ibanez put him in his pocket, he only had one touch and scored a fantastic goal.
“I had to protect Kumbulla, because he did badly in the first game and this was not the right match for him. So I had to put Cristante in defence. So who do I put in midfield? I had to put Darboe.
“People talk about tactical balance, but sometimes it’s also about balancing the characteristics of the players. Milan were struggling against us, they introduced Bakayoko and Tonali. We cannot do that.
“This was a game where I didn’t feel problems there, we were in control, Pellegrino and Solbakken didn’t create problems this time. I didn’t have a full-back who could attack, I think the problem if anything was upfront, Zaniolo, Tammy Abraham and Mkhitaryan made a lot of mistakes in their passes, decisions and lacked finesse.
“We struggle to score goals when we have the chances, but once again, the referee was absolutely decisive. The players respected the shirt to the end.
“We have seven points, it’s not entirely up to us if we get the top spot now, but we are in control of second.”
Roma have only won one of their last seven competitive matches, is the main problem the lack of goals from the strikers?
“It’s true, Zaniolo and Abraham are not in good shape. Only El Shaarawy is doing well in attack at the moment, Shomurodov did fairly well off the bench. We can look at those pragmatic statistics, but how many points did we lose because of refereeing errors? Look at the games with Juventus, Milan and Bodo/Glimt.”
Moaning about the ref again! 😂 this guy is a true clown 🤡 full of excuses every game! Just understand Roma are a very poor side
Eden Dezko would have put a few goals away in this stretch. But they sold him only strengthening their rival.
Roma´s second goal was offside
its true Morinho, I dont know why most of seriea refs are not like as roma all the time, show some italian teams selfish caused poorly parformance in europian competition.
Dzeko lvoed roma for some reason they tried to get rid of him the last three years. When was the last time roma had a striker who won capo? Or scored more than 20 goals even outside of him.
Roma needs players Not 4 coach
Jose Mourinho isn’t bad
We have to give chances n new players