Mueez Ajao
– Roma boss Jose Mourinho said his players should dive to win more penalties after his side were denied a spot-kick in their 1-0 defeat to Atalanta on Sunday.
– Mourinho was sent off for dissent after referee Daniele Chiffi waved away calls for a penalty following a coming-together between Roma’s Nicolo Zaniolo and Atalanta’s Caleb Okoli.
– Roma were unable to find a reply to Giorgio Scalvini’s 35th-minute goal, and afterwards Mourinho suggested they would have had better luck had Zaniolo not tried to stay on his feet.
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– “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.”
– Defeat at the Stadio Olimpico left Roma sixth in the Serie A table, with 13 points from their opening seven games.
– Paulo Dybala pulled out of the warm-up with injury, and Mourinho said his side missed the Argentina international’s incisive play.
– “It went badly because we lost a game that we should’ve won easily, considering the way we played,” Mourinho 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.”
