It must be said that football feels a bit more entertaining when Jose Mourinho is not jobless. At his new destination in AS Roma, Mourinho has spent just over one year but has already become the fan’s favorite for his aggressive, no-holds-barred demeanor.
On Sunday evening during Roma’s clash against Atalanta, Mourinho once again lost his cool and stormed onto the pitch to register his protest to the match referee. He was shown the red card and had to walk down the tunnel.
The incident happened in the 56th minute, when Mourinho felt his player Nicolo Zaniolo was dragged down in the box by Atalanta’s Caleb Okoli. The former Manchester United boss lost his temper, and breached the prohibited area. The replay, however, confirmed that Zaniolo went to the ground too easily.
AS Roma couldn’t level the deficit as they suffered their second defeat of the season. They have won four out of the first seven games, and are positioned seventh in the points table. Roma missed the service of Paulo Dybala, who has had a prolific start to the Roma career and was benched due to injury concerns.
“The squad is in the best shape possible. We were fortunate really to play against 10 men for almost the whole game on Thursday, as that requires less intensity, pressing, and running,” Mourinho told DAZN pre-match.
Atalanta, meanwhile, is now tied with the table-toppers Napoli at 17 points each. Mourinho will now miss the next game against Inter Milan. Earlier this year, he was slapped with a two-game ban for confronting the match referee and kicking the ball into the stands.
The Italian Football Federation noted that Mourinho entered the pitch with a “threatening attitude”, and brought the game into disrepute with his demeaning gesture. It was later learned that Mourinho’s phone call gesture was a reference to the referee’s father, who was charged for match-fixing in 2006.
“We also need to improve in building from the back. We have this difficulty, I try to hide it. We have super talented players up front, but we have to play meaner. We have to be mean when it comes to the attack,” stated Roma, after they registered their first victory in Europa League last week.
Lead Image: AS Roma/Twitter
