Mourinho Pre-Barça Press Conference (in Spanish but English translation found here)
Highlights:
on why he chose to travel the day of the game -
The last three or four times we have gone we have left on the same day as the match. The team likes it and I also like to be in Madrid. We are traveling the same day but we have plenty of time even though the match is early. We arrive, we rest a little in the afternoon and we’re ready to play. These matches are easy to be prepared for psychologically, you don’t need big motivational or tactical talks. It’s just enough to arrive on time and both teams are more than prepared to play. I think the referees also must be very motivated for these types of matches.
on how he’d evaluate a loss tomorrow -
Let me play the match first. Don’t be such a pessimist, or such an optimist, let us play.
on the importance of this match since the team has recovered its form -
For me it’s a match within that positive evolution to which we hope to continue. I’m not talking about results. I’m talking about organization, tactical discipline, ambition, compromise, team play, good individual performances, this is my concern. We’re in the beginning, there are lots of months left of competition. As I said before our concern is to reach the level we reached the last year. We all knew it was very difficult to maintain it month after month but we lost that level of play and our concern is to recover it little by little as we are doing in this match would be important in that sense. We want to leave this match with the feeling that we’ve performed well and continue to improve.
on whethere a tie would be a satisfactory result -
I don’t know. It depends on the match. If you get there and you played great and you have many scoring chances and you deserve to win but you tie than the tie is a really bad result. On the other hand if you do a poor match, you don’t make scoring chances and the one chance you get you score a goal and you tie 1-1 with amazing luck than the result would be wonderful. It depends on how the game unfolds.
on Özil’s form -
I just don’t think we should make a drama a big deal out of the situation whenever a player is on the bench. 24-11 is 13 who don’t play. 13 sit on the bench. Whenever a player sits on the bench we have a big ordeal. What else can I tell you. They pay me to make the team selection. I try to do it the best that I can. Some players don’t play and that’s it. The other day in Amsterdam someone asked me the same question about Özil and as it turns out it was the journalist who responded to his own question. So I don’t have much more to say.
on the reasons behind the team’s improvement -
The team has improved because of the players understanding that it was necessary to change, that it was necessary to be more motivated, more focused and more involved. They understood the situation the team was in, that it would only lead to a poor end of the season. They changed their mind set. By changing their mind set only good things can happen.
(RM)
