Antonio Conte has replied Jose Mourinho for the first time after Chelsea’s injury crisis increased with fresh issues for David Luiz and Tiemoue Bakayoko in Wednesday’s 3-3 draw with Roma in the Champions League.
United also endured an injury scare in their 1-0 win over Benfica as striker Marcus Rashford limped off with a knee injury, but Mourinho afterwards insisted: “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; [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, [Marouane] Fellaini, [Paul] Pogba, [Marcos] Rojo…”
Responding to Mourinho’s comments, Conte said: “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 times Mourinho has to see what happens at Chelsea. A lot of times, also last season. [He has] to think about his team.”
Conte has talked about Chelsea’s “very difficult” injury situation many times in recent weeks, but he refused to use it as an excuse for failing to beat Roma.
“I like to be honest and, for sure, I didn’t like the type of football that we played for a long part of the game,” he added. “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 at the other end we lost totally our knowledge and style of football. I didn’t like this. At the end I think the result was fair. 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 [with injuries]. It was [fair] 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.”
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