JOSE MOURINHO has told his Spurs players to stop feeling sorry for themselves – and start showing anger.
Mourinho’s winning start in North London came to a sudden stop with Wednesday’s sub-par defeat at old club Manchester United.
Jose Mourinho has told his players to unleash their inner rageCredit: Getty – Contributor
Mourinho looked relaxed kitted out in sliders as he watched Spurs’ Under-23sCredit: Alamy Live News
The boss got down to business on the training ground earlierCredit: Getty – Contributor
Defeat dropped Tottenham to ninth place, nine points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea.
And Mourinho suggested he was not impressed with his players’ reaction.
Mourinho said: “I’m hoping for a reaction. That’s what we think.
“One of the things I said to the players was that I saw a sad dressing room, a sad place – and that’s not what I like after a defeat.
“After a defeat you cannot be sad. You have to be more than that. You have to be raging, angry, not sad.
“Being sad will not resolve your problems. You need that mentality.
“It’s obvious we have problems, that’s no doubt. We have players with quality, a great human dressing room.
“But we have to change the feeling of feeling sorry for mistakes and sadness for bad results. We need to be more than that.”
Spurs have conceded two in each of their first four games under the Portuguese, who agreed: “You are right. We are conceding too much, some cheap goals and have to try to stop it.
“The best way to do that is to work and we didn’t have time to work on the training pitch this week.
“But we have to sort out the defence without losing what we have in attack.
“We’ve conceded two in each game but scored in all of them and could’ve scored even more than we did.”
One of the stand-outs for Mourinho so far has been Dele Alli, who has scored four goals in the last three matches.
The Spurs boss added: “It’s more about him than me.
“There was the natural frustration of a fantastic player who knows he was under-performing. Of course you sometimes need external sources of motivation but that’s not enough. It must also come from yourself.
“He’s now doing it. He’s working well and playing well and I’m really happy.”
He found time to crack a joke with the playersCredit: Getty – Contributor
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk