Sacked in the morning: Coppa Italia defeat proves Jose Mourinho is running out of time at Roma

Roma lost 2-0 to Inter Milan at the San Siro in the Coppa Italia quarterfinal which signalled an end to their hopes of a first trophy since 2008.

Roma manager, Jose Mourinho was making his first-ever San Siro appearance as an opposition manager against Inter Milan, the team whom he coached to Italian football’s only European treble in 2010.

The home fans expressed their gratitude for that feat over a decade ago by giving Mourinho a rousing and emotional welcome that would have made their current manager, Simone Inzaghi jealous.

That moment before the game would turn out to be Mourinho’s biggest highlight as his Roma team were outplayed and well beaten by a far superior opposition, not for the first time this season.

In fact, that result was Roma’s 11th defeat of the season in all competitions, an alarmingly high figure considering there are still over three months left in the current season.

In the latest of those defeats, Mourinho cut a despondent and hopeless figure on the touchline, a far cry from the passionate and energetic manager Inter fans remember from 2008 to 2010.

Even the staunchest of Mourinho supporters can see that the man is no longer what he used to be, and all that remains now is for the Roma hierarchy to see it too. 

It has been over four years since Mourinho won a trophy of any kind, almost seven years since he won a league title and that 2010 triumph with Inter Milan remains his last Champions League crown.

The worst part of Mourinho’s Giallorossi reign is how cowardly his team have performed in the big games so far this season, that 2-0 loss against Inter has been preceded by many tame performances against high-ranking Italian teams. 

Mourinho’s Roma have lost both Serie A games to Juventus and AC Milan, lost one league game and one cup game to Inter Milan and fell to archrivals Lazio in the first Derby Della Capitale of the season.

In the seven games listed above, Roma scored seven goals and conceded 18 which somehow still does not fully capture how terrible they have been in big games this season.

Their only favourable big game results came in 4-1 destruction of Atalanta and a goalless draw against Napoli. They still have to face Atalanta and Lazio at home and make away trips to Napoli and Inter Milan in the Serie A return fixtures.

The funny thing is this is one of the reasons Roma hired Jose Mourinho in the first place but he has not offered much of an improvement from Paulo Fonseca last season.

Fonseca’s Roma lost 12 games in the Serie A last season which was deemed a travesty and a sackable offence. Roma have already lost nine games in the league this season with 14 games still to play this season which means there is a lot of time to either match or surpass that tally.

Roma are also seventh in the league which is where they finished last season while making a run to the Europa League semi-final as opposed to the inferior Conference League in which they are participating this season.

So how exactly has Jose Mourinho improved this team? The answer is none, and the earlier Roma realise they made a mistake and cut their losses, the better their chances of turning things around and achieving higher than a seventh-place finish.