Hearing Jose Mourinho blaming his players for defeat is nothing new, and is unlikely to have made the mood at White Hart Lane any better.
Although Tottenham were the victims of a terrible VAR decision against Sheffield United, they didn’t play well, and rather than seek to protect his players as some managers prefer to do, the Portuguese laid the blame squarely on the team.
“There was a lot in the game, there was a possibility of shortening distances to Champions League positions, there was the possibility of being more stable for the Europa League positions fight,” he said in his pre-match press conference before the Everton game, cited by the Daily Mail.
“I believed in the evolution of the team and I thought that by a desire point of view, they put more in than us. That’s something that disturbs me.
“It’s something that I feel, I don’t know, that’s my way of being – it’s something that destroys me a little bit on the inside because I think the last thing in football is when you have the feeling you could, you should do more.”
Currently floundering in ninth position in the table, Tottenham need a victory over the Toffees in order to give themselves hope of qualification to next seasons Europa League competition.
If they were to lose and Burnley were to get a point against the Blades, not only would Everton leapfrog them but the Clarets would too, meaning that the north Londoners would end this round of fixtures in the bottom half of the table.
Perhaps if Mourinho could find it in his psyche to praise his players now and again, he might get the reaction that he’s looking for.