Dive to win penalties, Mourinho tells Roma players

Flamboyant AS Roma tactician, 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 last 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.

“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.

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“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.

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“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.”