Surprised?
Mourinho has reason to be angry, the Italian sports court rejected Rome’s appeal, and Mourinho’s two-game ban will continue. This is a big blow to the red wolf who won two consecutive victories in the double-track event.
After winning the Europa League 2-0 in mid-week, Rome got too much applause from flowers, but they soon faced practical difficulties. The injury list of pellegrini, Ibanez, Belloti, Solbakken, llorente and Rome increased again, and Cristante, the midfielder, was suspended because of the accumulated yellow card, and could not play in the game against Sassuolo. This means that it is difficult for Mourinho to assemble a complete lineup in the remaining three games in March. Even he himself had to sit on the sidelines in the league.
The most realistic problem is that after Belloti’s right metacarpal injury, there is only one Abraham left in the center position of Rome, while only smolin, Kumbara and Mancini are healthy in the third central defender, and there is no temporary substitute. Wijnaldum, who was introduced in summer, just came back, while Solbakken and llorente, who were introduced in winter, were also injured and missed. Now that the League Cup has reached the critical stage, it is a difficult test for Mourinho to rely on a lineup to survive the Devil’s March schedule.
Good news is accompanied by bad news. Mourinho was banned here, but he received a gift there. The International Football Statistics Association analyzed the coach performance data from 1996 to 2022, and Mourinho ranked second in history after Ferguson. However, from the perspective of empathy, if the statistical year starts from the beginning of this century, Mourinho is undoubtedly the best coach in the 21st century, which is regarded as the indirect recognition of the madman by the football industry.
However, it is this best coach who is now facing what he calls "the unfairness not seen in 30 years". In the upcoming league, because Mourinho’s ban was sentenced to be maintained, the whole team in Rome expressed silent protest. Italian media reported that Rome would not be interviewed by the media before the two games with Sassuolo and Lazio, and would use silence to tell about the unfairness of Italian football. The players including Mancini, Abraham and Ma Diqi also said that they should prove Rome’s ability in adversity with practical actions, and show their performance against the royal society to win the victory for the head coach.
If we want to move forward, Rome now has to rely on newcomers. They have promoted some young people from the youth team to the competition list, such as Polish striker Mahzak, Italian strikers Claudio Cassano and cherubini, midfielder Tasillo Vichy and Fatikanti, Spanish defender Oliveira, French defender Brian Silva, etc … Although these names are not reassuring, they are better than cooking without rice.