Roma coach Jose Mourinho refused to turn on his players after their 4-0 defeat at Udinese.
Destiny Udogie, Lazar Samardzic, Roberto Pereyra and Sandi Lovric struck the goals for the Zebrette.
“My explanation is it was a difficult game, a difficult opponent that knows how to play this type of game. You cannot go behind in these matches, otherwise they defend really well, go on the counter, can control the tempo, make tactical fouls, so if you go behind against them, you are already in trouble,” Mourinho told DAZN.
“We had a great chance early with Paulo Dybala, who aside from the result in my view was the best player on the pitch, but after that we were in their hands. Every time Udinese went on the counter, we conceded.
“Our chances were a header off the woodwork and a potential penalty that might’ve been offside anyway, but when you lose 4-0, you cannot talk about the referee. That is my rule.
“I will say that I prefer to lose one match 4-0 than four matches 1-0, because ultimately we only dropped three points rather than 12.
“It’s tough for us and the fans to swallow, but this is life, we have another game on Thursday and we go forward.”
Mourinho also told reporters: “I’m sorry, but I have to go. This is the kind of day where the players need me. I told them what I told you, it is better to lose once 4-0 than four times 1-0.
“When you lose 4-0, you cannot talk about the referee, but when we heard this was the referee for the game, we realised he was the perfect official for a team like Udinese to play at home. The first yellow card went to the artist of the match, that says it all.
“We were trailing here and managed to get back a draw at the 90th, we knew then that it would be a problem, that out of 45 minutes only 20 are played. It’s a great school of fair play, I wish I had ball-boys like that in our stadium…
“Really, congratulations to them, this is how they play, we do it differently, we will meet again later this season.”
