During his pre-match press conference ahead of Everton on Friday night, Jose Mourinho was asked about his lack of a settled centre-back pairing at Spurs this season.
In the past, Spurs fans have been used to watching a settled first-choice duo of Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen, a partnership that proved to be very effective for so many years.
However, this season, Mourinho has opted to rotate, handing opportunities at centre-back to Alderweireld, Joe Rodon, Eric Dier, Davinson Sanchez, Japhet Tanganga and even Ben Davies.
That has made for a lot of partnerships at the back, without one real consistent pairing. However, when asked about the defensive situation, Mourinho implied that you cannot win with the media.
He said that, if a manager sticks with a first-choice centre-back partnership, the media ask why certain players are not being given chances. However, if a manager rotates at the back, the media then ask why there is no settled duo.
He said (Football London): “Because one of the things that you – the media generally – and always for players in general, the perception is that everybody wants to play, everybody wants opportunities.
“When they don’t do it you always ask the players not playing and why not. You can look at it in a different perspective. You can always play the same two or say that kind of rotation which gives opportunities equally to everyone.”
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