Jose Mourinho has slammed a second Roma player just four days after vowing to sell a member of his squad because they "betrayed" their teammates.
The Giallorossi boss made headlines last week for outing the unnamed player, believed to be Dutch defender Rick Karsdorp, and now a different Roma star has felt his wrath. Following his side's dramatic 1-1 draw with Torino on Sunday, Mourinho claimed that someone had turned down the opportunity to take a 92nd-minute penalty when the Serie A giants were still trailing in the game.
Andrea Belotti stepped up instead but agonisingly hit the post. Fortunately for the Italian striker, his manager - who was sent off late in the game for his protests towards referee Antonio Rapuano - had no issue with his miss, especially after ex- Chelsea and Manchester United stalwart Nemanja Matic grabbed the all-important equaliser two minutes later.
"Belotti was not the designated penalty taker. I won't tell you who was," Mourinho told DAZN, via Football Italia, post-match. "This is the type of situation that can happen. The problem is when people don't give what they can, I don’t like psychological frailty. Belotti showed courage to take it and make that mistake. You cannot say he lacked courage."
'The Special One' received his second red card of the season during the hotly-contested clash at the Stadio Olimpico, as the Giallorossi failed to win a home league game on the third successive occasion. Polish midfielder Karol Linetty opened the scoring 10 minutes after half-time, as ninth-placed Torino took a shock lead through his looping header.
As Roma scrambled for an equalising goal in the dying embers, Mourinho was shown a straight red for his touchline antics - a decision which he agreed with. "It was the right decision, my words to the referee deserved a red card," the 59-year-old said in an uncharacteristic admission.
"I spoke to him after the game and apologised, but I don't want to talk about his performance. I was humble enough to apologise, but I will leave his performance and the hypothetical influence on the match to you. I don't want to talk about what we said, that was private. My words deserved a red card, but I will not judge the referee's performance."
Mourinho's side failed to win any of their final three fixtures before the World Cup and will spend the break sitting seventh in the Serie A table. A stinging derby defeat to bitter rivals Lazio last weekend was followed by a 1-1 draw away to Sassuolo on Wednesday, as former Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham scored only his third league goal of the campaign.
But in a timely boost for Mourinho, who says that his players are "performing at a very low level," Paulo Dybala is now back in action and heading to Qatar with Argentina. The ex- Juventus forward, who won Roma's late penalty by drawing a foul from Torino centre-back Koffi Djidji, changed the game for the hosts - summed up by his boss' crystal-clear comments.
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"There are two games tonight, one until the 70th minute and one after. Until the 70th, Roma fans wanted to just go home, but in the final 20 minutes we created more, perhaps more than we have done in the last four or five games. Why? Easy, because Dybala came on," Mourinho declared.
"When you have a player like Paulo and he doesn't play, it's different. How many extra points would we have now if Dybala hadn't been injured? There are teams who have marvellous players all the way through the squad, we have what we have.
"I don't want to hide, there are players here who right now are performing at a very low level. The break is coming up, it will be the right moment for certain players to look at themselves and try a little self-criticism. Despite all these problems, we are a united group. A team that misses a penalty at the 92nd minute is usually dead, but not us, we kept going."
