Venezia 3-2 Roma
José Mourinho’s Roma are going through a difficult moment. After a strong start to the season, the Giallorossi have seen a dip in results and Sunday afternoon’s defeat to relegation-battlers Venezia was their second straight defeat in Serie A.
Mourinho’s side led at half time at the Stadio Pierluigi Penzo but were ultimately beaten and have now taken just four points from their last five league matches. Roma have also struggled recently in the Europa Conference League, suffering an embarrassing 6-1 defeat to Bodo-Glimt in Norway and only managing a 2-2 draw in the return fixture at home.
Sunday’s trip to Venice got off to the worst possible start with a goal conceded inside three minutes, as Mattia Caldara converted from Mattia Aramu’s free-kick delivery. Roma stunned the home crowd by scoring twice in the space of a few minutes just before half time, but the hosts turned the game again in the second half with Aramu’s penalty – harshly given by many accounts – and a winner by David Okereke after the visiting defence was cut open by a long ball.
With just one victory in their last seven matches in all competitions, scrutiny is building on a Roma side leaking goals and seeing their early season promise disappear. Mourinho took aim at the officiating after the midweek draw against Bodo-Glimt, but after the Venezia defeat some of the Roma players were included in his critical appraisal of the match.
“We created many opportunities, many half-chances and when you get into dangerous positions and don’t make the right final ball, that is frustrating,” Mourinho told Sky Sport Italia.
“We did it about 20 times, with attacking players like Veretout and Pellegrini near the forwards, but we didn’t make the pass. How is it possible to create so much and then not score?”
“We conceded the first goal on a set play that we had practiced yesterday and still got the defending wrong. Another important part of the story is Venezia’s second goal. I have to protect myself here and keep my feelings to myself over what is happening.
“I could’ve talked about the players who should’ve got yellow cards for tactical fouls, those are small details. I could say we had many chances to go 3-1 up, above all with El Shaarawy and it’s difficult to miss, but the truth is we were 2-1 up and in control. What happened, for me… I don’t want to say anything else.
“I prefer to just say it was a very, very important moment of the match. That is all.”
Squad not stronger - Mou
The issue of refereeing was inevitably raised after Venezia’s seemingly soft penalty award, and Mourinho was careful when speaking on the subject. “Maybe one day I will understand why certain incidents happen. There are things that stay hidden for years and one day I will understand them…”
Journalists asked Mourinho if his side, who finished 6th last season, maintain a realistic ambition of finishing in the top four places and a Champions League place. The Portuguese has often dampened expectations in the capital, even after a winning start to the season, and Mourinho suggests progress will take time
“You have your opinion, I have mine,” he said. “As a coach, I have to give some motivation and ambition to the players and myself. It’s one thing to say we are worthy of fourth place, another to say we want to go for fourth place.
“Until it becomes mathematically impossible, I want to keep saying fourth place is the target. Roma finished sixth or seventh the last few seasons, the club made an effort over the summer, but it was more reactive transfer activity than building.
“I don’t think this squad is stronger than last season. We lost a lot of experience, we had to bring in players to replace those who left, many of them lack experience at this level. We have lost in terms of experience and in terms of numbers: for example, today on the bench as full-backs I had Reynolds and Tripi available - the latter is a youth player and the former has played 2 or 3 matches in Serie A. Bruno Peres would have been useful, as would Juan Jesus "
“As a coach with a three-year contract, this season can be a painful one for body and soul, but still a very, very important one for me to understand something I couldn’t have understood before I arrived. I already know more than I did two months ago.”
By Sean Gillen
