Jose Mourinho did a kinda weird thing during a warm-up game before the Serie A season. His team, Roma, played against Partizani Tirana. Roma won 2-1 at the Air Albania Stadium.
In the game, Stephan El Shaarawy and Andrea Belotti scored in the first half, making Roma look strong. They were like super in control that Mourinho took off Houssem Aouar, a new player he just signed, in like the 79th minute. This decision left Roma with only 10 players on the field.
Jose Mourinho took Aouar out in the middle of the match out of his own free will and ended the game with 10 men after exhausting all the subs.
— MourinhoXtraâ„¢ (@Mourinho_Xtra) August 13, 2023
Mourinho must be protecting Aouar at all cost😂pic.twitter.com/FcT8H4JCVB
Roma had already used all their swaps, so people were like confused by Mourinho’s move. Even Aouar seemed super puzzled by his manager’s choice. During the match, when Partizani had the ball, Mourinho was like waving for Aouar to come off the field. Aouar looked confused and a bit like mad. Mourinho put his arm around him, trying to say why he did this.
So then, Roma played with 10 players for the rest of the match. And during that time, the other team scored a penalty in the 85th minute, and the score was like 2-1.
So, why did Mourinho take Aouar off and leave Roma with 10 players? Aouar had like just joined Roma from Lyon, and people might have thought Mourinho would let him play more. But that’s not what went down.
Mourinho’s choice had to do with fair play. Here’s the thing: earlier in the game, the other team, Partizani, made a mistake when trying to swap a player. The referee said no, so Partizani ended up with only 10 players. So then Mourinho wanted things to be fair, so he took off Aouar. It was like a nice move by Mourinho.
Some report says Aouar was also getting picked on by the other team, so Mourinho thought it’s better to take him out to avoid issues before the new season. Aouar didn’t seem to get this decision completely.
