Tottenham head coach Jose Mourinho has once again lamented the defensive mistakes that his players have committed in recent away games.
Although Tottenham find themselves third in the form table since Mourinho arrived at the club (talkSPORT), some of the displays from his new side have been inconsistent.
While the Lilywhites managed to secure a gritty victory against Wolves a fortnight ago, they
Mourinho admitted that the most frustrating part of his reign at Tottenham so far has been seeing the team struggle to capitalise on their good performances and instead, throwing points away by giving up cheap goals.
Spurs were held to a 2-2 draw at Norwich last time out with both of the Canaries goals coming from mistakes from Mourinho’s defence.
When asked if he was happy about the team’s away form, the Spurs boss told Football.London: “Four matches away, we won two, we drew one and we lost one. Is that better than before? Yes. Is it perfect? No. If we came to Norwich and we cannot create and Norwich dominate us, we have to defend well, we resist, we draw 0-0, maybe you have to admit a positive result.
“The problem is the way we concede the goals and the way we play. We go to United and the goal is a bad goal to concede. We react, we equalise, we go to half-time at 1-1, the second half starts, we concede a ridiculous goal, that is the problem. We play so well, we create so much.
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“In the beginning, we were conceding lots of goals on corners, we stopped that. We conceded the other day against Brighton from a free-kick but there are things in football that are very difficult to control and when I am small and you are taller than me 15cm there are things in football that are impossible.
“The only solution is when you select players and you make squads you select a majority of tall players to cope with the physicality of top football, either in the Premier League or in European competitions. But we have to improve, we concede too many goals and it is very frustrating.
“If I was one of my attacking players I would be very frustrated that behind we are not able to stop it.”
However, the 56-year-old was full of praise of the way the team kept going in search of the winner until the final whistle at Carrow Road on Saturday.
Mourinho added, “It is frustrating, but it is also a great feeling to know that the team never gives up, it is also a great feeling to know that even in the most difficult circumstances we go and we go and we go.
“I want to praise that fantastic spirit. People who accumulate 180 minutes in two games were fantastic and the other people that are not playing too much and came from injuries, Lamela, Ndombele, I also want to praise them.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The one major problem in the past month and a half both home and away has been the team’s tendency to start the game slowly. We need to start the first half with the same intensity that we display after the interval. It seems like we sometimes need a setback to be able to marshal a response.
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