Roma coach Mourinho: I must apologise to Renato Sanches

Roma coach Jose Mourinho publicly apologised to Renato Sanches after their 2-0 defeat at Bologna.

Sanches was a halftime substitute, but was hooked 18 minutes into the second-half.

“I want to publicly apologise to Renato, because what I felt that I had to do was very harsh, but it is harsher even on a coach. I think in 3-4 times in my career I have done this and I apologise," Mourinho told DAZN.

“Without Paulo, there is no quality in this squad. Without Romelu, there is no physicality in this squad. Without either of them, I knew it would be tough for us.

“I could tell obviously the players wanted to do better, but if we had no tactical problems – when they scored the first goal, it was a very balanced match – we did have huge difficulties on a physical level. Bologna have players with intensity, engine and legs, whereas we do not have those characteristics.

“As an example, Kristiansen has limitations technically, but he has physicality. After that, the game became more complicated.

“We had our chances to get a goal for 1-1 or 2-1, we didn't convert them, and it became difficult."

He added: "I know the dimensions of this team, when everyone is available, we have sufficient quality to fight it out. We didn't finish fourth last season because we reached a European Final and were too stretched out. Without fundamental players, obviously it is difficult."