Jose Mourinho evaluates his first league match

In the first week of the Trendyol Süper League, Fenerbahçe defeated Adana Demirspor 1-0 at home. Fenerbahçe manager Jose Mourinho made statements at the post-match press conference.

Starting his remarks by sharing his views on the campaign launched by the club for students, Mourinho said, "It is a Fenerbahçe campaign, and I am proud of it. As the manager of the A-team, I see it as a task I must be a part of. I want to do my best. I want to do something for the children in this country. This country will be my home for two years."

Regarding his first match in the Super League, the Portuguese manager said, "Two matches have been played in the league. Yesterday was the Galatasaray-Hatayspor match. We played this evening. I can say this: I have learned a lot. The data provided to me was great information. But now I understand better."

"IT COULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT"

Touching upon the fact that they started with high energy against Adana Demirspor, Mourinho said the following:

"I have never lost my first match. I have never lost my first league match. So, nothing has changed in 24 years. I only dropped points in two matches, and those were the seasons I won the Champions League trophy. It could have been fine if we had drawn today; jokes aside, winning was important. That was the positive thing about today. Everyone saw how we started the match with high energy. We tried to put the game away early. At halftime, I told my players that our opponent would try to keep the game at 1-0 and look for a lucky moment in the final stretch. I made substitutions so we could keep the energy up. Maximin is not in a condition to play 90 minutes. After a certain point, I wanted to secure the result. The score could have been much different. I congratulate my colleague; it takes courage to play a 15-year-old goalkeeper. I also congratulate the goalkeeper. Playing in this stadium for 90 minutes requires experience; I congratulate him for the performance he showed."

"THE YELLOW CARD WAS A FAIR DECISION"

Sharing his thoughts on the match referee, Mourinho said, "At the end of the match, I shared my thoughts with the referee. A manager will change everything to get a result. I cannot blame him. Teams with lower potential will waste time, fake injuries, and do whatever it takes to get a result when they play against big teams; they are earning their salaries to get results."

They need to earn points to stay in the league, they need to stay in the league. But the referees need to protect the game.

If you give a yellow card in the first 20 minutes, the game takes on a different character. You can see this everywhere in the world; a goalkeeper can receive a yellow card in the 89th or 90th minute for time-wasting. If people accept my opinion, looking at my 25 years of experience, this is my opinion. The yellow card the referee gave me was a fair decision. I have no problem with that. Since we are the strongest team in the league, the opposing teams that come here will play defensively. Everyone wants to get points," he said.

"WE NEED TIME"

Underlining that the team is not at a high level right now, Jose Mourinho said, "We need time, but not just defensively or offensively. We need time for everything. It has been 2 months since I arrived here. It has been two weeks since we started working as a full squad. There were players who returned from the European Championship. The team is currently far from being in a good state.

Looking at the level, we had a more positive level. Especially in the first 30 minutes and the first 10 minutes of the second half, we pressed high. When you play like this, you need energy. There is a reason why we did not start the Champions League qualifying matches with high pressure. The team is not in a position to play at a high level right now.

The game we played required a very different score. The results we have achieved are worse than the performance we have shown," he stated.

HE EXPLAINED HIS GOALS

In response to a question about whether any work is being done to support the players psychologically, Mourinho replied, "It will depend on my experience, my feelings, and the empathy we have established with the players. Culturally, I like to listen to people's opinions. We didn't have a training camp yesterday. The players slept at their homes. But now we are going to a camp. We will close our doors. We will start thinking about the Lille match. We will try to shake off the fatigue. Our goal is to try to win the Süper Lig. We will do our best in the Lille match on Tuesday."