Mourinho praises three ‘dominant’ Spurs stars in first-half against Sheffield United

Despite Tottenham falling to a 3-1 defeat to Sheffield United on Thursday, Jose Mourinho has praised the first-half performances of Eric Dier, Davinson Sanchez, and Moussa Sissoko.

Tottenham failed to create too many clear cut chances through the ninety minutes despite enjoying the majority of the possession, while the back four was seemingly all over the place for all three of the home side’s goals.

The Spurs boss was far from happy with the team’s performance on Thursday and insisted that the players needed to become mentally stronger to cope with the injustice of having their equaliser chalked off for handball by VAR.

Despite being critical of his team’s performance, the Tottenham head coach insisted that he was pleased with how Dier, Sanchez, and Sissoko won all the longballs that Chris Wilder’s side played in the first half.

The 57-year-old cited the team’s lack of aggressiveness in winning the second ball, as well as their failure to counter-attack with pace and precision, as the main reasons behind the defeat.

Mourinho told Football.London: “In the first half, we were very dominant in the long defensive balls.

“In all these kicks, extremely long, we were very dominant there. Dier, Sissoko, Davinson won every ball in the air.

“But then we need to win the second ball and be more aggressive there in the transition to attack.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I believe Jose’s assessment is a fair one as both our centre-halves were extremely dominant in the air all game. However, their decision making and lack of concentration really cost Spurs, particularly in the second half. There has never been a question mark about Dier’s or Sanchez’s ability to win 50-50 duals. It is their ability to maintain their concentration levels for ninety minutes that there are doubts over. I would not be surprised to see Alderweireld come in for the clash against Everton.

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