‘I cannot keep giving him opportunities’ – Mourinho lays into player

Tottenham Hotspur head coach, Jose Mourinho, has laid into the club’s record signing for his performance today against Burnley in the Premier League.

While initially refusing to name the player he was referring to, he did claim it was a midfielder while ruling out Oliver Skipp.

After some more questions from the post-match journalists, Mourinho did eventually reference Tanguy Ndombele by name.

The Special One said that Ndombele has had enough time to perform at a better level and that he has to give more than he is currently giving to the team.

The central midfielder was taken off at half-time against Burnley, despite being one of the freshest players out there having not started against Norwich in the week.

Mourinho added that he could not continue to give the Frenchman chances in the team when it was not benefitting the squad as a whole.

It appears that Ndombele has plenty of work to do to win Jose around.

He said (Football London): “My thinking in the first half was that we didn’t have a midfield. Of course, I’m not talking about Skipp as he’s 19-year-old. I’m not critical of Skipp at all. Tanguy has had enough time to be at a different level. A player with this potential and responsibility has to give us more than he is giving us.”

In an interview published on Twitter by Football Daily, Mourinho also said: “I want to say [what was wrong in the first half] but I cannot say. We had something in the first half that we did not have in the second half.”

On the mystery midfielder, he added (Football Daily): “I hope that he uses every minute on the pitch knowing what the Premier League is to improve. There are many fantastic players who, in their first seasons in new countries, for different reasons, struggle. There are many, many examples of it, so he is a player with a great talent and he has to know that he has to do much better. And he has to know that I cannot keep giving him opportunities to play because the team is more important than the players. The players must be on the pitch as a consequence of their work, as a consequence of their performances.”

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