Jose Mourinho has 'never been a great coach' and 'doesn't know how to set up a team'

Jose Mourinho has "never been a great coach" and has delivered "disaster upon disaster" at Serie A side AS Roma.

That's according to former Italy international Antonio Cassano, who delivered a scathing assessment of Mourinho's abilities after The Giallorossi were knocked out of the Coppa Italia by giant-killers Cremonese on Wednesday.

During a recent appearance on Christian Vieiri’s BoboTV podcast, former Real Madrid and AC Milan forward Cassano did not hold back.

“Mourinho has never been a great coach, he just knew how to play the media and was a great communicator," the 40-year-old said.

"He is good at dealing with strong players, not ones who aren’t very good. It’s too easy to just be friendly with great players."

Cassano went on to criticise Mourinho's activity in the transfer market.

"It is just a disaster upon a disaster at Roma, he got them to spend money on Nemanja Matic and Rui Patricio, they were his decisions," he added.

"The other day, that performance made me want to vomit. He doesn’t know how to set out a team. Even with your second-string squad, you need to beat Cremonese.”

It didn't stop there, either. Cassano blasted Mourinho's treatment of Roma defender Rick Karsdorp and Nicolo Zaniolo, two players that have been left out in the cold of late.

Back in November, Jose Mourinho told Karsdorp to leave the club for having an "unprofessional attitude" in one of his most brutal press conferences to date.

He also said that it was 'unfortunate' that Nicolo Zaniolo would remain at Roma after a transfer failed to materialise in January.

“It was Mourinho’s disaster with Karsdorp, putting him in the stocks, disintegrating and insulting him in front of everyone," Cassano said. "Now Karsdorp is coming back, who knows why? So that was one mess.

"As for Zaniolo, he gets to talk about that and not why his Roma team plays like cr*p. It’s been a year-and-a-half that this Roma side hasn’t played proper football.”

It was reported earlier this week that Zaniolo rejected the chance to sign for Premier League club Bournemouth, and refused to take part in negotiations after the two clubs agreed a fee in the region of £26 million.

Mourinho responded to the news, saying: "Zaniolo has been saying for a month that he wants to leave. Unfortunately, it looks like I was right.

“I say unfortunately, because the player has been saying for a month that he wants to leave.

“If a player tells everyone he no longer wants to wear the Roma jersey, I have to say unfortunately.

“When a player tells you, the club and his team-mates: ‘I don’t want to wear the Roma jersey, I don’t want to play, I don’t want to go back to training…’ I have to say unfortunately.”

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