Mourinho praises Spurs players’ lockdown professionalism despite some breaking rules

It is fair to say that Jose Mourinho and the Tottenham Hotspur first-team squad endured a fairly eventful lockdown period.

Both the Spurs boss, as well as several players, were caught breaching the Government’s lockdown protocols, for which they came under severe criticism.

Mourinho and Ndombele (Sky Sports), Sessegnon and Sanchez (Express), Sissoko and Aurier (Independent), and Aurier twice more (Guardian), were all seen breaking the rules.

However, barring those transgressions, the Tottenham squad has been hard at work while training over Zoom during the lockdown period.

All members of the first-team squad trained together over video conferencing tools on a daily basis until the players were allowed to return to the training ground.

Mourinho revealed that the intention of the exercises wasn’t just to keep the players fit but also to keep their morale up by giving them a routine and a chance to converse.

The Portuguese coach was all praise for how the players conducted themselves during the lockdown but admitted that he and the squad are delighted to now be back to full training.

Speaking to Spurs TV, the 57-year-old said: “The Players have been absolutely phenomenal. I don’t have even more words to speak about their professionalism, the way they faced the period of doubt. They were absolutely fantastic.

“We managed to do the zoom sessions, that, of course, don’t involve ball work, don’t involve pure football but just general conditioning. But also by the mental point of view, to give them something every day, every morning, a certain time to wake up, a certain time to train.

“‘They were by themselves in front of an Ipad or computer but they knew that they were all together. So it was very good.

“Then we moved to individual training. It was the next step. Then again the players were doing amazingly. Then the next step to the groups of five, and now finally we are all together to train.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Not only was the players’ commitment clear during the lockdown period but it was apparent that Jose and his staff are also itching to work with the players. The fact that they chose to live together in order to analyse games shows how committed the Spurs boss is to achieve success in North London.

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