Jose Mourinho, Manager of Roma, has urged his players to begin diving after being dismissed after his team’s 1-0 loss to Atalanta.
Roma was not given a penalty after an incident involving Nicolo Zaniolo, and Mourinho was furious.
Atalanta’s Caleb Okoli and Zaniolo got into a fight, but Zaniolo avoided the box.
Daniele Chiffi, the referee, received harsh criticism from Mourinho, who also suggested that his players must dive to earn penalties.
“There was a very clear penalty,” Jose Mourinho said as quoted by Football Italia. “After the game, I questioned the referee’s decision and pleaded with him to be very clear that Zaniolo had not been injured.
“So therefore I have to change my advice to my players, I have to tell them don’t try to stay on your feet, don’t play the ball, be a clown the way many who dive like they’re in a swimming pool do in this league, because that is evidently how you get penalties.”
Giorgio Scalvini scored the game’s lone goal for Roma, who are now sixth in Serie A as a result of their defeat.
Before the game, Paulo Dybala’s injury during warmups dealt a setback to Mourinho’s team, forcing him to make way for Nemanja Matic in the starting lineup.
Mourinho said after the game that he thought Roma played well enough to win.
He stated: ‘It went badly because we lost a game that we should’ve won easily, considering the way we played.
‘If we can imagine this domination we had in the final third, with many chances created, we can speculate that with Paulo on the field it might’ve been different.
‘Nonetheless, those who played did well enough to win the game, easily, but unfortunately we did not score and that is why we lost.
‘It is not pleasant to leave empty-handed, but it was a good performance, good spirit. We didn’t dominate Monza or Cremonese here for 90 minutes the way we did Atalanta.’
Tammy Abraham, an English attacker, missed a golden opportunity in the first half, but Mourinho still stood by him.
He said: ‘Tammy is an extraordinary lad who wants to do well and suffers when he doesn’t do well. He had a slight injury, games that didn’t go well, it’s not a good moment for him. Strikers are like that, they go through these periods.’
‘But zero criticism, he continues to be a good lad and a great professional, he is not here on vacation, he wants to learn and improve. He’ll get there.’
What did Jose Mourinho do?
During his team’s Serie A match against Atalanta, Jose Mourinho was dismissed for sprinting onto the field.
The Portuguese coach was furious in the 56th minute after the referee turned down the Roma players’ plea for a penalty.
Mourinho and his group claim that Caleb Okoli of Atalanta pulled Nicolo Zaniolo to the ground.
When the on-field referee and the VAR officials disagreed that the challenge warranted a penalty kick, Mourinho was clearly driven over the edge.
The enraged Portuguese stormed onto the pitch to shout at the officials and raise his arms in the air as he attacked the referee.
To be fair, the decision to deny Roma a penalty seemed to be supported by replays.
Roma was behind the game after Giorgio Scalvini gave the visitors the lead after 35 minutes.
Roma is attempting to build on their success in the Europa Conference League from the previous season, but they have had a challenging 22/23 Serie A season thus far. Roma are currently ranked sixth in Serie A with four wins, one tie, and two losses in their first seven games.
In Europe, they were defeated by Ludogorets Razgrad in their opening Europa League match, but they bounced back on Thursday with a resounding 3-0 win over HJK Helsinki.
