UEFA Europa LeagueOn the field in the 6th week of Athletic Bilbaolost 2-0 to Fenerbahcecoach at Jose Mourinhosaying that they played well after conceding a goal in the first half, said: “1-0 was not a fair result anyway, 2-0 was like a knife blow to our chest.” he said. Mourinho, who made a statement at the press conference held after the match played at Ülker Stadium, started his speech by talking about the reaction shown to his players Samet Akaydin.
Stating that there was a strong reaction every time Samet received the ball after the mistake he made at the beginning of the match, the Portuguese coach said, “The team played a good game in the first half. I do not think that the reaction to Samet affected the team. We played well after conceding the goal in the first half. We created positions. 1-0 was not a fair result anyway, 2-0 was like a knife blow to our chest. But I don’t think the reactions affected the team, because Samet is one of us. “I don’t criticize because they are this club. Samet didn’t make the mistake, we did it,” he said.
“The fans are sad, but they are not sadder than us”
Stating that the reactions of the stands are related to the results and that the most important thing in football is the result, Jose Mourinho continued: “In a period when you always win, the results may not seem very important. But when you have 2 defeats like this, you see that the results are important. I agree with this. We had bad results in 2 important matches. Sometimes, there are no such atmospheres. I will not try to change this culture. It is easier when we are in a good atmosphere. The next match we play will be at home. We have to make sure they support us. They supported us until the moment we were down to 10 players. We turned to a double centre-forward, we played against a good opponent. The fans are sad but they are not sadder than us. We may be upset but we have to be balanced. And we need to stay calm.”
“I can’t throw my players under the bus”
Stating that the injuries in the squad negatively affected the team, Mourinho stated that İrfan Can Kahveci has not been fully included in the team for a long time. Explaining that he likes to play with defenders who can make plays and that is why he preferred Samet instead of Becao, Mourinho said: “Becao is a different defender in this sense. I am happy with my players. I cannot throw my players under the bus. ‘I want better players.’ Don’t expect me to say that. I would like Jayden, Kostic and Oğuz Aydın to be in this match. You see what a difficult situation we were in. Mert Hakan played in 2 matches, I don’t know a few words of Turkish. Does the club give you enough information? I wish all my players were there. Mert Müldür will be suspended in the Lyon match. Who will play at left back? Maybe the commentators on television will help in this regard. “We will have a chance to change the list. We will be able to remove Jayden from the list and write Kostic. Oğuz Aydın will be on the list. We will be stronger in the second half. Maybe we can match with Billbao again after the tour.”
Mourinho said the following about their only accurate shot against Athletic Bilbao: “Sometimes the shots on target do not reflect the match. The positions I call half chances are sometimes clear. Those types of positions are not counted in the statistics, just like the pass Tadic gave to En-Nesyri. Today We created enough chances to score. In fact, the Bilbao defender was scoring an own goal under pressure. I said in the hut, ‘If the same situation had happened to us, we would have scored it ourselves.’ Bilbao took the lead 1-0 when they didn’t understand at all. Then it became 2-0 when they didn’t understand. We had the ball more today. Fred, Kostic and Oğuz Aydın will be back from suspension, so I have to protect him. I will not play. I have to protect Samet, I have to protect the team and the atmosphere in the home game. So, compared to today, I know Başakşehir well, if I can sleep tomorrow. “If I can’t sleep, I’ll start thinking about the next match tonight.”
Source: AA
