Mourinho happy being back with Roma players for Portugal camp

Roma coach Jose Mourinho is happy to be back with his players for their midseason training camp.

Roma are to fly out to Portugal for a series of friendly tests.

“I'm really happy with things. The players were keep to get down to work, and come back from the break full of motivation and focus," Mourinho told Roma TV.

“That's a huge plus. It's never easy to come back to action, especially to hit the ground running in the way that we do and stick to our philosophy of applying intensity to our approach, as well as a high level of focus.

“I'm delighted with how the players have responded in the last three days."

Serie A will resume on January 4 and Roma are heading to the Algarve for a warm weather training camp.

They will play three friendly games against Cadiz, Portuguese side Casa Pia and Dutch outfit RKC.

“There were so many teams over there, so there were many options available to us," continued Mourinho when asked why he had organised those particular matches.

“That being said, it's not easy to find the right opponents. The idea we had was to face teams who were in better shape than us. Cadiz haven't had a break, they've been playing games and training throughout this period, facing big teams like Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers. They are in Southern Spain on the way to Portugal, you can see in their games they have been playing at full throttle.

“The Portuguese team are fifth in the league, but what's more significant is that they were playing competitively only two days ago. While the league in Portugal took a break for the World Cup, the Portuguese League Cup continued and Casa Pia were involved in the group stage with three other teams. Games came thick and fast for them, so they've got an edge over us in terms of their competitive level right now.

“The Dutch side we are playing are back in league action earlier than we are, so that's why we picked those opponents. We want the players to get some game time.

“After three days of training, in our first game back I'll avoid giving players more than 45 or 60 minutes of action. Unfortunately, we don't have 22 players available, so some of them will have to play more.

“What's more important than getting a result, and obviously these games don't count anyway, is to play, train well and recapture the intensity level. I think the players are in the right mindset to train well."

On the midseason break, Mourinho admits it's all new ground for him.

“Nobody has gone through this before," noted Mourinho. “The situation is unprecedented. I think all of us involved in the game, coaches, staff and players, have tried to be as professional as possible, creating a plan which will see us go back into the season in good shape.

“Prior to this upcoming training camp in Portugal, the club of course with my consent had arranged a tour of Japan mainly for commercial and branding purposes. As we were going there right after the break, we tried to take some proper time off."