Lineker and Ferdinand praise Spurs star for saying what Mourinho failed to

Gary Lineker and Rio Ferdinand have praised Tottenham midfielder, Dele Alli, for his candid interview after the 3-0 defeat to Leipzig on Tuesday in which he admitted that the players had to have done better.

Spurs travelled to Leipzig with a mountain to climb after getting turned over 1-0 in the first leg as they were without several key players for the clash.

Any hopes the Lilywhites had of progressing to the next round was dispensed with early on, as the home side raced into 2-0 lead through a brace from Marcel Sabitzer.

Emile Fosberg then got another late goal to put the icing on the cake for Julain Nagglesman’s side.

Jose Mourinho predictable blamed the team’s injury problems for their poor showing (Football.London) but Alli was much more brutal in the assessment of the away side’s performance on his post-match interview with BT Sport.

He insisted that Spurs had the players to do better than they did despite their injury problems, and apologised to the travelling fans for the poor display.

Responding to Alli’s words, Lineker said during BT Sport’s live Champions League coverage on BT Sport HD2 (11/2/20) at 22:15: “I thought he spoke very candidly, honestly and wisely. There was a point that he made that even if we have injuries we have quality. He’s saying the things that perhaps Mourinho hasn’t.”

Ferdinand also agreed with Lineker’s assessment of the 23-year-old’s interview. The former Manchester United defender said: “He (Alli) is saying the things that Spurs fans want to hear from their manager.

“He needs to build them up and give them confidence. Talking about going to a gunfight without bullets, what does that do to the confidence of Dele and Moura and the attacking players who want to have an arm around their shoulders?

“But that hasn’t been forthcoming from Jose and you can see that in the performance today.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Jose’s defeatist statements about the club’s injury situation leading up to the match certainly didn’t seem to help the players’ confidence. While there is no doubt that Jose has been ridiculously unlucky with injuries since taking over at Spurs, it is clear that he has handled the situation poorly.

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