Furious Conte tells Mourinho to think about his own team
Antonio Conte has hit back at Jose Mourinho’s claim that other managers moan and cry about injuries by telling the Portuguese to concentrate on Manchester United and not Chelsea.
The Chelsea head coach bemoaned his injury list ahead of their Champions League draw against Roma and revealed that David Luiz and Tiemoue Bakayoko had also suffered fitness problems against the Italian club.
Following Manchester United’s Champions League victory over Benfica, Mourinho said: “I never speak about injuries. Other managers,
they cry, they cry, they cry when a player is injured. If I wanted to moan I could cry like the others for five minutes; Ibrahimovic, Fellaini, Pogba, Rojo [injured].”
Asked about Mourinho’s comments, a visibly angry Conte said: “But do you think it was for me? If he is speaking about me, I think he has to think about his team and start looking at himself, not others. I think that a lot of time Mourinho has to see what happened at Chelsea. A lot of time, also last season. He has to think about his team.”
Conte and Mourinho were involved in a bust-up during Chelsea’s victory over Manchester United at Stamford Bridge last season, when Mourinho accused the Italian of trying to humiliate him in front of his old fans.
It seems the bad blood has carried into this season, with Conte and Mourinho set to meet again when Chelsea entertain United on Nov 5.
Rather than trying to blame injuries for Chelsea throwing away a two-goal lead to trail against Roma before securing a 3-3 draw, Conte insisted the below-par performance was his responsibility.
Conte moved Luiz into midfield and sacrificed one of his forwards, but the 48-year-old said: “I like to be honest and, for sure, I didn’t like the type of football that we did for a long part of the game. But it’s right to take the responsibility for this
because I tried, on the one hand, to protect my team and make us more solid, and to move Luiz into central midfield.
“But, on the other hand, we lost totally our knowledge and style of football. I didn’t like this. At the end I think the result was fair but, in the first half, we were 2-0 up. But we weren’t in control of the game.
“It’s right to take the responsibility for this, but I repeat, sometimes, you have to find the right solution to try to protect your team. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. But you know very well our situation. It was good to draw because Roma deserved this result.
“I have to praise my players because they showed me big effort,
big commitment tonight, otherwise we’d have lost the game.”
On the decision to take off Luiz in the second half, Conte added: “After the first half, the doctor told me that Luiz had a pain in his calf and the same for Bakayoko in his groin. I think it was a good decision to try to protect him. Also because, I repeat, in this moment it’s very important to protect the players. Then I changed the system and I preferred to change.”
Captain Gary Cahill ended the game with a bandage wrapped around his head, but Conte insisted the defender’s injury was not serious. Eden Hazard netted twice after David Luiz had opened the scoring, while former Manchester
City duo Edin Dzeko (two) and Aleksandar Kolarov were on target for Roma.
The draw means Chelsea are still top of Group C, ahead of Roma, after Atletico Madrid were held to a surprise draw by Qarabag.
“We know Roma are a strong team, but we gave them too much tonight in terms of ball possession and much more,” said Conte. “Their performance was very strong, so credit them, but we must do better than this.
“I have to take responsibility for this. I will go home tonight unhappy. I know you can lose games, but you always have to try and perform and give everything if you don’t get the result you want.”