Jose Mourinho was fuming with some of his Roma players on Thursday night (Picture: Getty Images)
Roma manager Jose Mourinho hit out at some of his players for their poor attitude during a 1-1 draw at Servette on Thursday, singling out Houssem Aouar for criticism.
Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring but Chris Bedia earned the Swiss side a point in the second half, leaving Roma second in their Europa League group with one game to go.
Two points behind Slavia Prague, Roma now face the possibility of a play-off to make it into the last 16 and Mourinho is not happy with a lackadaisical attitude from some of his players, specifically Aouar.
‘We had important opportunities, but the start of the second half was something that happens too often to us,’ Mourinho told Sky Sport Italia.
‘It’s a pity that you don’t have a camera in our locker room at half-time, because every time I make it clear to them that the opponents playing at home who are a goal down will come out fighting. That is a natural reaction, it is something we expect.
‘Yet again we were superficial in our attitude, in our interpretation of this moment of the match. There are players who once again missed an opportunity to prove themselves, for example Aouar.
‘There are several who are on the bench and come on in Serie A with a great attitude, then in the Europa League they come on with this sluggish attitude, like they are not accustomed to being on the bench and then do not improve the game.’
Houssem Aouar did not impress his boss in Switzerland (Picture: Getty Images)
The former Chelsea and Manchester United boss didn’t stop there, continuing to slam the attitude of his players when not turning out in Serie A.
‘I don’t want to make a drama out of going into the play-off,’ he said. ‘The drama if anything is that we had the wrong attitude from these players and those who come out for the second half like that, repeatedly. I honestly do not understand it. I coached 150 Champions League games, which are much tougher, and yet it seems like there are people who don’t have a great history in Europe and play these fixtures with the bare minimum.
Mourinho did not have a good evening out in Geneva (Picture: Getty Images)
‘There are those who give their all for 90 minutes and those who seem to turn their noses up at this competition. There are people who feel comfortable with this superficial approach and we pay for it in results.’
The 60-year-old was asked if any players will suffer consequences for a poor display in midweek but he said he couldn’t make them pay a price even if he wanted to.
‘Nobody will pay for it. [Pep] Guardiola can do that, if he’s not happy with one, he says goodbye, kicks him out and picks someone else,’ he said. ‘I cannot do that here. I can only try to keep hammering at them every day in training to get the best out of this group.’
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