Serie A: Mourinho accepts blame for Roma’s ‘ugly’ defeat by Udinese

Jose Mourinho has accepted the blame after his Roma side were thrashed 4-0 away to Udinese.

Although Roma had a good chance through Paulo Dybala early on, Udinese seized control of the game and frequently caused problems for Roma.

“I told the players what I have just told you: it’s better to lose one game 4-0 than four of them 1-0.

“Tomorrow is another training session and on Thursday we have another game. We have to move on.”#ASRoma #UdineseRoma

— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) September 4, 2022

Destiny Udogie, on loan from Tottenham, put Udinese ahead, with Lazar Samardzic adding a second.

Roberto Pereyra and Sandi Lovic also scored for the hosts.

Mourinho praised Udinese for the way in which they managed the game but was frustrated with his team’s performance.

Destiny Udogie put Roma in the ascendancy in the early stages of the Serie A clash

Mourinho told DAZN: ‘It was a difficult match. It was a match you could not risk going down to begin with because they defend well, they know how to manage the tempo of the game, they’re physical.

‘If you go down against them you’re already in trouble. We had a good chance at the start with Dybala who was our best player tonight.’

‘But Udinese… every time they countered either they created a chance or they scored.’

Mourinho refused to criticise the performance of referee Fabio Maresca after the game.

He said: ‘The referee? When you lose 4-0 you don’t talk about the referee. I prefer to lose a game 4-0 rather than four games 1-0. This was ugly, both for us and the fans. But it’s life, and we move on.’

Read Also: Serie A: Roma slump to surprise thrashing by Udinese

Mourinho was particularly frustrated with the mistakes that his team made, with defender Rick Karsdorp and goalkeeper Rui Patricio among those at fault.

He said: ‘We made mistakes at the worst times of the game. When we got close to 1-1, they practically closed it. They tried everything not to let us play. Now let’s move on, we have 10 points. We are all there, we make our own path.’

Despite the defeat Roma are in fifth place in Serie A and are just one point behind Serie A leaders Napoli.

Roma’s next game sees them face Ludogorets away in the Europa League on Thursday before they return to league action four days later away to Empoli.