Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho 'disturbed' by players' lack of desire after Sheffield United defeat
Jose Mourinho admitted he was left "disturbed" by his Tottenham players' lack of desire during their demoralising 3-1 defeat against Sheffield United on Thursday.
Tottenham - who started the game looking upwards at the Champions League places - looked to attack from the off, with a quartet of Harry Kane, Heung-min Son, Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura taking to the field simultaneously for the first time.
The north London side were dealt an unfortunate hand after falling behind, however, with a highly controversial VAR decision ruling out Kane's equaliser.
Nevertheless, Tottenham were comprehensively outplayed in the second half, and with results going against them since, they could be outside the top 10 by the time they face Everton on Monday.
Mourinho - who insists he can accept a defeat due to a mistake - or simply if the opponent is better on the day - was instead bemused by his players' lack of heart.
“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,” Mourinho told a press conference on Saturday.
“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.
“I always say it’s not a problem for me to lose because my opponent is better, it’s not a problem for me to lose because my goalkeeper made a big mistake, it’s not a problem for me to lose because my striker missed two chances with an open goal or a guy missed a penalty in the last minute.
"It’s not a problem for me to cope with mistakes and defeats. It’s a problem when my feeling was we could do much more.”
Mourinho was appointed manager back in November with Tottenham sat in 14th place. Former manager Mauricio Pochettino talked of the need for a painful rebuild.
And Mourinho now insists there is just one thing he needs to turn things around. "Time. Only time."
His words suggest otherwise, however. The three-time Premier League winner inists it's his players' mindsets that must change.
"One of the most difficult things in football is exactly that, to change mentalitie," he added. "It's to change state of mind. It's to change the team's soul. It's one of the most difficult things in football.
"Sometimes you have incredible luck to have a majority of players adapted to these needs and some other times you have incredible players but the psychological profile is different or was built in a different direction. So only time can do it."
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