AS Roma coach Jose Mourinho on Paulo Dybala: “He’s something else, he’s on another level”

By
Roy Nemer
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48

AS Roma coach Jose Mourinho was full of praise when speaking about Paulo Dybala after the team’s 1-0 win vs. Genoa.

Jose Mourinho has coached many Argentine players and Paulo Dybala is the latest. Having joined the team from Juventus in the summer, the Argentine went on to win the World Cup with Argentina and scored the goal which took the team to the quarter finals of the Coppa Italia.

Mourinho spoke to Sportmediaset after the 1-0 win. Here is what he had to say:

“Tonight I wanted to avoid extra time at all costs. I could have had some of the younger players come in, Volpato or Tahirovic. But I chose Paulo. Paulo is the kind of player that makes the coach look good. He’s something else, he’s on another level.”

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48 Comments

  1. It’s great to see dybala shinning again. Having played only 18 minutes in the entire world cup, he is expected to be physically fit. Any recurring injury problems will be annoying. I think that’s where the problem lies after having wasted 3 good years at Juventus with injuries and playing second fiddle to Cr7.

  3. Dybala had a productive short cameo, his vital clearance in our own box and his penalty in the final. I bet he’s not complaining much himself after playing a small but a significant part in our victory.

    • But he hasn’t that special feature to be included in the scaloni system. Rest of all the players especially attackers shows their contribution in other areas. Julian played with four lungs in the wc matches. Messi as always there with his divine presence. Di maria the only winger who can take 1 on 1 with defenders in our current squad. And our midfielders again played with 4 lungs. All different styles and plays. Molina, a great full back we got which made our 5 3 2 formation looks more threatening in attack. Tag and Acuna shows they can rise to the occasion. And our great defense plus the great emi. I don’t think dybala has that killer instinct and even a 40 year old Messi can play better than prime dybala.

    • Dybala is coming of age as a player. If he leads Roma to some glory, we can weave our dreams around him for 2026. He has the dribble, he has the setpiece, he is showing hunger this year. Though his penalty in the final made my heart leap out of my throat (it was so bad that it chased Lloris rather than letting Lloris chase the ball), he made some crucial on field cameos. Would love to see him getting paired up more with Lautaro and Julian.

      • Dybala actually said that he was planning on kicking to the side Lloris ended up diving but Dibu has told him that after an opposition’s kicker fails (Coman) that the keeper always dives far to a side, so as a result it was best to kick to the middle. It may have been an ugly looking penalty to the middle but I prefer that over a saved penalty to the right

  4. With due respect papu,J Correa, A correa,pezzela, armani time with Argentina is over. After next friendly no need to called ota, gudio,Rulli too..
    Btw Nico pazz is best Argentine young talent right now

    • Without options it wont happen instantly. Only first club team regulars can play in NT. Maybe only Garnacho will be an exception due to his nationality question. Imo Papu, Armani and Pezzella are the obvious players who wont be there in Copa24. (1,5 years). Others only with better options.
      Atm Musso, Medina, Perez, Balerdi, Nico Dominguez and Garnacho are realistic options, the others are only kids wo experience. (Perrone, Buonanotte, Nico Paz, Soule, Luka Romero etc.) Time will tell who could grow into NT level.

      • Time for Scaloni to start keeping a distant eye on 2026. We need an injection of youth and a balance of veterans. Garnacho, Buonanotte, Soule have to be brought in by Scaloni in same method as Alvarez. We have the opportunity to have a very young team in 2026. Gain NT experience gradually. I think the way Alavarez developed in the NT was perfect, he was ready when the call came. Most important, we have to bring up Garnacho and not lose him to Spain.

  5. Tbh… dybala deserved being a world champion. His talents paid of even though he didn’t had much to do in this world cup. But he did his job in the final.

  6. To All,
    Yes Dybala is an unbelievable talent….no doubt about it. But the objective is to win the Copa, Finalissima, World Cup….which we won all three and nobody is talking about the fact that I don’t think many teams if any have done that in recent memory other than us..In order to achieve what we did, you need to play the best team, not the individual best 11 players. We tried that shit already with Messi, Tevez, Aguero, Higuain, DiMaria. You can’t play 5 forwards, a defensive midfielder in Mascherano, and think you gonna win anything because the team is unbalance. It just doesn’t work. It didn’t even work for Brazil this WC with all that attacking talent.
    Bottom line, there are 11 spots and when you play for a team like Argentina, many players don’t get to play. As you all know this is a storied team that win or lose is always in the mix, and playing time is hard to come by. Shit, Lautaro lost his spot due to one bad game, and it was the right call! And for a guy like Dybala, not only is he playing for a country that can field 4 world cup teams at the moment with all our talent, he happens to play the same position as the best player in the history of the game…hard break but shit happens sometimes. He will go down as a legend though for his penalty kick, stepping in at the right time, and there are less than 750 players in the history of the world that have won a world cup, and he is one of them.

      • Maybe he can play in multiple positions, but he cannot be “tested” in a tournament like the World Cup in other positions rather than the one that suits him best. We had vacancy on the left wing, can he play left wing with as much output? No.
        Can he play central striker? Yes but no coach would put him on as the primary central striker in the presence of someone like Julian whose position itself is the central striker in a tournament like the World Cup.
        Maybe Joyita could’ve sealed the striker role in the Scaloneta but his injuries kept him away from the team and it was just a little too late to secure a prominent role in the team.
        Can he be tested now going further for 2024 Copa and 2026? Absolutely.

      • It does mean something. It means we have the best fans and the worst fans in the world. The best ones support the team unconditionally. The worst ones, even when we win everything, we didn’t win with the players of their liking. SMH.

        • Exactly, and I’m a little surprised to see the comments under this article. Do I wish Dybala had a bigger role in winning the World Cup?? yes but I don’t care that he didn’t, what was more important was to win the cup and we did it with every player doing the best with whatever role they got and that includes Dybala.

          • Yet this is an article about Dybala, not about the World Cup. I am a little surprised to see comments under this article making this about the world cup, which was only a short couple of months in the 10 or so years Dybala has been overlooked by the national team.

        • we have the luxury of hindsight right now and Toro should not have touched the pitch after the 2nd opportunity. He missed few sitters and could have cost us the entire cup unless Emi and our pen takers did their magic. Toro played well first game but TANKED after that. I remember seeing Toro jog around the pitch not pressing after being subbed on. From that moment onward, Dybala should have been Alvarez sub 100%.

          • Caring how we win…get off your fucking high horse bro and quit smoking shit. I will take an ugly win over your stupid fucking PlayStation dream line up any day of the week. You don’t need to be passive aggressive here. Some fan you are that you give a shit about style more than result. Go watch some fucking tiki taka and follow Spain as they get undressed by Japan.

        • Couldn’t agree more. This team has given us more joy and happiness than any other team ever. With players who come from lesser clubs than have donned the blue and whites before, this team has done it all. Instead of complaining, we should be thankful to the think tank that they put together the greatest “team” and not just a bunch of high profile players together.

  7. dybala will feature more if messi has a rest/retired from NT

    lautaro and Alvarez are there
    J. Correa as 6 ft 2, thats why good alternative

    nico will replace di maria more on the left.
    we have lots of options still, dare i say it, ICARDI too

  8. Post 2015 debut, to have played 35matches & just 1460 minutes in NT jersey & already at 29 years, thats an unbelievable wastage of talent. It virtually looks like Dybala will forever be the backup & maybe some of the new youngsters like Garnacho, Bucannotte,Almada takes over post Messi era.
    My everlasting memory of Dybala in 2022 World Cup is the bliss in his face during the national anthem in final match. Not to forget he kicking out the ball from Mbappe in last minute.

    • May be if scaloni preferred a 4 2 3 1 like Brazil or France then dybala would have been used way more than the past with Messi in the center and dybala on the right wing or the other way around. But thankfully scaloni is not tite. If tite was our coach he would have definitely used both Messi and dybala and added garnacho in the left wing and lautaro as lone striker with Enzo and macallister as double pivot and the defense. An Argentine star team like the Brazil with attack is the primary option.

      • Messi, Dybala, Di Maria – all three can play on the left, right or center. Dybala has scored and assisted many times down the left, and he is an excellent crosser. Dybala and Messi could have easily played together in a 4-3-3 or even a 4-4-1-1.

        When he first showed his explosive ability with Palermo, he should have been made a permanent fixture of the national team, and adapted to a 4-3-3 system with Di Maria, Messi, Dybala. Argentina would have won many more trophies as Messi has always been most successful playing beside playmaking forwards (Ronaldinho, Villa, Neymar, Suarez etc) rather than strikers.

    • Indeed. The sheer stupidity of benching someone because “oh but he is too similar to Messi” is mind boggling.

      My personal suspicion based on some comments from Argentinians, both here and elsewhere, is that Dybala’s omission has less to do with any system or his ability or managers and more to do with his ethnicity.

      And Dybala himself is not faultless. He sometimes does not put in effort. And he should have tried harder to ingratiate himself with Argentina players esp Messi. He seems to have made good friends with Paredes, Romero and Messi now, including calling Messi “idolo” on instagram, but too late. And he should have left Juventus much sooner instead of wasting two years helping penaldo stat-pad at the cost of his own career.

      • I don’t really get the “ethnicity” thing at all. He’s part Polish, but he’s also part Italian (I think even more Italian than Polish) like many Argentinians are. Even if he was full Polish I don’t think that has anything to do with it, we’ve had several players in the past with Northern European ancestry, Mac Allister to name one now. I don’t understand why his ethnicity is mentioned so often on this site and the ethnicity of no other player is mentioned. If that was the case then why did we destroy Italy in the finalissima, with a large proportion of our players having Italian roots? Is Foyth also not a mainstay because of his Polish ancestry? Plus, it’s not that bizarre to have Polish ancestry as an Argentine, they were one of the main immigration groups after Italians, Spaniards, and Germans. There are many Argentines in the local league with polish last names.

  9. It’s time for la Joya to step up and play more regular for Argentina, in my opinion he is bigger than Rome, he should be playing a team that challenges to win uefa champions league. man City are desperately need a back up for Rodri, Kalvin Phillips miles off at the moment, let’s hope man city officially sign Perrone so he will have chance to impress pep Guardiola at city training ground and you never know what may happen after that.

  10. He deserves more minutes for Argentina. In the World Cup among the 3 upfronts, Scaloni only gave major minutes to Messi, Alvarez, Di Maria, and Lautaro. 4 players for 3 positions. Scaloni needs at least 1 more back up as Messi always plays 90 minutes (need no back up). Dybala is the man.

    But in the near future the top 4 spots should be safe. The 5th spot should be intense. It is one of: Nico Gonzales, Dybala, J Correa (Scaloni fave), and Garnacho. A Correa sadly is nothing in Scaloni’s eyes.

    • I really hope once and for all Joaquin Correa is fazed out. I’ve become really disillusioned with him over the past year and I don’t think he offers much of anything. I even saw comments from Inter fans saying that we won the World Cup because we removed Correa, something like “No Correa = trophy”, and I’ve seen him make some horrible misses for them this year. If Scaloni can get passed his favoritism for Correa and use Dybala and Garnacho, significantly better players in all dimensions, it’ll be a good sign.

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