JOSE MOURINHO admits the lack of desire shown by his Spurs flops is something that “disturbs and destroys” him. The Tottenham boss slammed VAR Michael Oliver’s display after their 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United on Thursday. And now he has revealed he was not impressed by his players’ performance either as their first restart loss […]
JOSE MOURINHO admits the lack of desire shown by his Spurs flops is something that “disturbs and destroys” him.
The Tottenham boss slammed VAR Michael Oliver’s display after their 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United on Thursday.
And now he has revealed he was not impressed by his players’ performance either as their first restart loss left their Euro hopes hanging by a thread.
He said: “I was really happy with many things in the games vs Manchester United and West Ham, but the game against Sheffield was disappointing for me.
“I refuse to speak again about the extraordinary situation that happened in the game and one of the reasons I refuse to speak more about it is because I was not happy with what I saw.
“There was a lot on the game. There was a possibility of shortening distances to Champions League positions and there was the possibility of being more stable for the Europa League positions fight.
“I believed in the evolution of this team but from a desire point of view, Sheffield United put in more than us. That disturbs me.
“It’s something that destroys me a little bit on the inside because I think the last thing you want in football is when you have the feeling you could, you should do more.
“I always say it’s not a problem for me to lose because my opponent is better. It’s not a problem for me to lose because my goalkeeper made a big mistake. It’s not a problem for me to lose because my striker missed two chances with an open goal, or a guy missed a penalty in the last minute.
“But it is a problem when my feeling is we could do much more.”
Mourinho was furious with VAR Oliver for controversially chalking off Harry Kane’s first-half goal for Spurs — which would have made it 1-1 at Bramall Lane.
The video ref ruled the ball had hit Lucas Moura’s arm in the build-up, even though the Brazilian was falling to the ground at the time having clearly been fouled by two Blades defenders. Former Spurs star Jamie Redknapp, covering the game for TV, said it was one of the worst decisions he had ever seen.
But Mourinho was disappointed with how his players failed to deal with the injustice as they went 3-0 down in the second half before Kane snatched a late consolation.
The Special One said: “I cannot coach Michael Oliver, I can only coach my players.
“My job is to coach my players and it was a frustration for me to realise that we could and should do better than what we did.
“Again, it would be very comfortable for me to be here, smashing and smashing the decision.
“I don’t want to say that. Before that we should play better than we did and after that we should play better than what we did.
“That’s why after the game I had no problem praising our opponent because they deserved more than us.”
