Tottenham head coach Jose Mourinho has claimed that the team has improved considerably in defending set-pieces since he arrived at the club last month.
The Portuguese manager was understandably overjoyed at walking away with all three points from the Molineux Stadium, with the home side having dominated proceedings for large phases of the game.
Spurs had to dig deep particularly in the second half in order to resist wave after wave of attack from Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, Mourinho cited Spurs’ performance as proof that mentality was much more important than tactics in achieving some wins.
The Spurs boss told Football.London, “Sometimes football is strange because it could be exactly the same game and no goal in the last minute and now we’re talking about the draw and with the point Wolves would be one point ahead of us. We would not be as happy as we are now. The reality is that a winning team starts with the mentality.
“The tactical side of it is very important, the quality of the players is also very important but the concept of a team is the base for a team that is capable of winning. To win this match, this match is a perfect example of a match that only a team can win.”
The former Manchester United and Chelsea boss was also quite pleased with the way Spurs dealt with Wolves’ set pieces during the game.
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The Lilywhites have conceded some soft goals from set-piece situations in the past few games and have come under some criticism for their failure to see games out.
Mourinho added, “We won it as a team because the game was really difficult for us. I don’t have stats in here but they were super dominant in corners and lateral free-kicks and then we had a couple of corners and in one of them we win the game. Why? Because we coped so well with our set-pieces.
“It was something that a couple of weeks ago we were struggling, conceding goals every game in set pieces. We managed to come here and be very dominating in that area of the game too.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Some of our defending yesterday was top notch. It was not just the backline who were coming up with last-ditch blocks and putting their bodies on the line but our forward players were also more than willing to drop and help out in defence during the tough periods of the game. On the back of that performance, it is clear that Mourinho has already influenced the team’s mentality.
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