Jose Mourinho revived old habits as Roma delivered another disappointing performance in a high-stakes game. Defensively-minded Giallorossi held eternal rivals Lazio to a scoreless draw on Sunday evening, wasting a massive opportunity to reduce the distance on the Serie A top four.
Despite Mourinho’s futile attempt to make a case for Roma ‘pursuing a win’ in the famous Derby della Capitale, only those who didn’t watch the game would believe him. Except for a decent start to the match, his men played like their lives depended on a point.
It’s enough to say Roma failed to produce a shot on target since Ivan Provedel saved Rick Karsdorp’s 12th-minute attempt. It was the third consecutive Serie A meeting between Mourinho’s side and Lazio in which Giallorossi drew a blank.
But for some reason, Mourinho insists Roma wanted to win, albeit maintaining a point was better than losing.
“A flavor of a point. When you play, you do it to win. The point is better than the defeat,” the Roma boss said, as quoted by TMW. “The lads played a good game, with personality with a lot of ball. We failed to score the goal. We had a few chances, and we could have done better.“
Despite blowing hot and cold across their last three Serie A matches, Roma will spend the international break only three points adrift of fourth-placed Napoli. Mourinho’s team fired a blank twice in that sequence, meaning the upcoming pause comes at an opportune moment.
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I watched the entire game a d didn’t see what you claim. It appears you either don’t understand the game or have a personal agenda against Mourinho.
I wouldn’t be so harsh. First of all Morinho’s comments are more philosophical than being claims or insisting. Secondly, chances of getting caught on counter attacks are too high if containing the first 10 minutes style, which was done to get an early goal. The plan almost worked if it wasn’t for the two Karsdoph missed attempts, and the offside call that didn’t seem to be an issue with Latzio. Therefore, it appears the tactic was not to conceed while scoring on the other side. According to the match I watched today, Rome came to grab the 3 points, and so was Latzio, Both teams first priority was not to concede the first goal, a d be in a position to win. Substituting Debala with Sardar Azmon was for the purpose of the wining the match as happened against Lecce.