Tottenham Players Are Lazy, They Are Not Fit – Jose Mourinho

Forum 3 years ago

Tottenham Players Are Lazy, They Are Not Fit – Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho criticised his Tottenham players for “lazy pressing” in the defeat to Everton and questioned their fitness.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s superb second-half header gave Everton an impressive opening away win against Tottenham on Super Sunday.

Mourinho’s Tottenham were “lifeless, flat” and “walking around the pitch sulking” for large chunks of the second half, said Sky Sports’ Gary Neville on commentary, with Spurs registering just nine tackles to Everton’s 18, and Harry Kane touching the ball only twice in the Everton box.

Mourinho could not hide his frustration with the performance, highlighting his team’s lack of intensity without the ball in the final third as a key component in the defeat.

He told Sky Sports:

“The struggle started in the way we pressed or, I will say, in the way we didn’t press because our pressure up was very poor.

“I would say it was lazy pressure and when you have lazy pressure, you don’t press and you let opponents build from the back and then they have players with incredible quality, which is not just Everton, it’s almost everybody in the Premier League. When you let them play from the back then they are comfortable with the ball.”

He added: “Lazy pressure. Lazy pressure up front, that is what I am saying, and that creates unbalanced situations for the rest of the team.

“I could also feel that some of my players are not fit. Matt [Doherty] was struggling to play the way he plays and the way you want him to play, as an example.

“We also had other players that were a little bit in trouble from a physical point of view. Two very strange pre-seasons for some and in other cases not even a pre-season, but congratulations to my dear friend Carlo and the Everton boys.”