Tottenham Hotspur take on Burnley this weekend in the Premier League, just a few days after the team put in a monumental effort against Norwich City in the FA Cup.
Spurs lost the fifth-round match on penalties on Wednesday in North London, but fought hard for 120 minutes plus the shootout.
Jose Mourinho revealed after the game that the likes of Dele Alli, Lucas Moura, and Steven Bergwijn had to be taken off simply because they had nothing more in their legs (Football London).
He went on to say that he would give the board an ultimatum regarding whether they wanted to prioritise the Burnley match or the RB Leipzig Champions League game.
Spurs play Burnley on Saturday and then Leipzig just three days later, a match in which they are already an away goal down after the first leg.
Mourinho was asked today whether he would be prioritising the Premier League or Champions League, to which he replied (Football London):
“We are in a situation where I think it is very hard to prioritise. But as I was saying after the match it was a discussion to have internally and especially the players’ feelings and the communication with the players is always the most important thing.
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“We analyse data and we have hard work in relation to the control of sessions, effort in matches and sport science level. We have all of that but some players over the last 120 minutes they have run more than 15km.
“We know that we are going to play against players who have had a week preparing for the match. We have decisions to make. Of course, we want to win tomorrow and the tie on Tuesday but we have to find a way where we give some players a better chance to perform. With the problems we have, the players we have for some positions are not much but somehow we have to manage to give players something and that means giving some players a rest.
“Again, lots of communication internally and the players are very honest in the way they participate in these discussions. I love the player who says: ‘I am available for everything you want and everything you need’. But there comes a ‘but’ and after the but comes: ‘I need a rest’. We have to analyse the but. But it is fantastic for me. I am so happy to be here since November and not July because from November to July I am learning so much about my players, it is fantastic to work with boys like them.”
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