Jose Mourinho explains why Spurs star was ‘very clever’ against Brentford

Jose Mourinho has admitted that he was pleased with Tottenham’s defensive display against Brentford and claimed that Davinson Sanchez was very clever to pull away from a challenge inside his own penalty area during the second half.

Spurs took the lead early in the match through a well-placed header from Moussa Sissoko and the home side were in cruise control for the majority of the first half.

However, Brentford came into the game at the start of the second half and even had an equaliser chalked off, with VAR ruling the goal offside.

The Tottenham defence faced another scare at the start of the second period after Bryan Mbeumo raced on to a long ball and went past Davinson Sanchez with ease.

However, the Colombian decided against challenging the Frenchman in the box and the resulting shot from Ivan Toney was superbly blocked by Serge Aurier.

Mourinho praised the awareness Sanchez showed by not challenging the Brentford winger from behind.

Speaking about his side’s defensive display, the Tottenham boss told Football.London: “Defensively was good. We were always in control.

“The disallowed goal was a throw-in, impossible to stop a ball that goes in the air then first ball, second ball, and they had one penetration through the right side when Davinson Sanchez was very clever not to touch him and he was very honest for not to dive like some players would do.

“Apart from that, we were always in control. With the ball we scored two goals, we could have scored a couple more.”

However, the Tottenham boss admitted that he was not pleased with Spurs’ display in possession and that his players could have been more incisive with the ball.

He added: “But I’m not happy. I think we have to play better. sometimes bad decisions, sometimes technical mistakes.

“Many times recovering the ball and not being vertical in playing backwards. I think we have to do better but great respect for the opponent, for the game, for the responsibility, for the ambition. but job done, we are in the final.”

Spurs Web Opinion

While Sanchez had a decent game, I do not think he covered himself in glory in that instant. Not only did he allow Mbeumo to go past him too easily but he also leaned into him from behind and I believe the away side would have been handed a penalty if the Frenchman had gone down.

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