Spurs boss Jose Mourinho heaped praise on his players despite a fifth Premier League defeat in six games at West Ham on Sunday, insisting the north London club are not going through a crisis and that there is no reason to question his coaching methods.
Tottenham were 2-0 down early in the second half after goals from Michail Antonio and Jesse Lingard, and failed to find an equaliser following Lucas Moura’s well-taken header just after the hour mark.
But Mourinho played down the extent of his side’s struggles and said his players deserved more against the Hammers given the number of chances created.
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“I don’t know what you mean by crisis,” he said. “If crisis is frustration and sadness in the dressing room, I’d say so because nobody is happy and we all showed that in this game. When a team fights the way the team did until the last second, trying to get a different result, it’s never a group crisis, because groups are in crisis when you’re not together in the search for better results than you have. So I wouldn’t say crisis, I would say a bad, a really bad run of results. That is obvious. We’re losing too many matches.
“The result should be a different one. We played special in the second half, that’s my feeling and a bit of deja vu because their defensive line was brilliant. They did everything and gave us a very difficult match for all our dominance, especially in the second half.”
Mourinho also declared that he had no reason to question his coaching methods despite Spurs’ dismal run, saying: “No, not at all. Not at all. Zero.
“Because sometimes the results are the consequence of multiple situations in football and mine and my coaching staff’s methods are second to nobody in the world.”
The Portuguese also gave his verdict on a promising 45-minute cameo from Gareth Bale, who provided the assist for Lucas’ goal with an accurate corner and was denied a wonder goal when a sweetly-struck half-volley hit the crossbar.
“I know his quality – I don’t want to say everything to you, I shouldn’t,” the Spurs manager said. “As a coach I don’t have to speak too much about the situation, but with Gareth Bale completely fit and ready to play, then of course he would.
“We are trying everything we can with him to recover him to be at that level, but for example, to play 65 minutes like he did on Thursday [against Wolfsberger in the Europa League], today he couldn’t start the game. He wouldn’t have 90 minutes to give us, so that’s the situation. But I’m happy, because he brings us what we know he brings – quality – and he was very unlucky with his shot.”
Photo Credit: Getty
