Roma boss Jose Mourinho has suggested that his players should start diving after he was sent off for a penalty complaint during his team’s 1-0 loss to Atalanta.
Nicolo Zaniolo was involved in a tussle with Atalanta’s Caleb Okoli but didn’t go down in the box. Mourinho stormed into the pitch in protest after the referee refused to award his side a penalty for what he deemed a foul on Zaniolo.
The former Chelsea boss was subsequently sent off for his actions. After the match, Mourinho was very critical of the referee and said he’d advise his players to dive more.
“There was a very clear penalty,” Mourinho said. “I asked the referee afterwards why, and asked him to be clear with me that it was because Zaniolo did not go down.
“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.”
Roma are currently in sixth place in Serie A following their defeat. Giorgio Scalvini scored the only goal of the game which took his side to the top of the Serie A standings.
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Speaking on the game, Mourinho stated that he felt Roma played well enough to win the game.
“It went badly because we lost a game that we should’ve won easily, considering the way we played,” he said.
“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.”
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