Sun 15 December 2019, 17:44
Tottenham HotspurJose Mourinho pinpointed how the players coped ‘with the difficult moments’ as key to a big win at Wolves on Sunday.
In an intense encounter played in pouring rain at Molineux, we started brightly and were rewarded when Lucas Moura thrashed home the opener on eight minutes. Eric Dier struck the post at 1-0 but Wolves slowly started to grow in the game and equalised through Adama Traore on 67 minutes.
Where would the game go from here? We had to stand tall to waves of pressure from the home team and Paulo Gazzaniga saved brilliantly from Romain Saiss with six minutes left. As the game ticked into injury time, Christian Eriksen swung in a corner and Jan Vertonghen stooped superbly to head home the winner – one that takes us up to fifth, now just three points behind Chelsea, who we face at home next weekend.
We put ourselves in the situation where we could win the game because the game was open, players were tired and it was a bit broken. We knew we could win it
Jose told us: “It’s a fantastic win, fantastic match, fantastic players, fantastic fans, fantastic referees, fantastic Nuno and his staff and I’m not saying fantastic Jose, because I cannot say!
“Everything was really big, a big match against a very difficult opponent. Tactically they are very strong. They’ve worked with Nuno for more than three years and the way they play, the way they project the wing-backs, the occupation of inside, the speed of Traore and Jota, the intensity they put into the game is always intense, intense, intense, destroy the opponents, destroy the concentration of the opponents.
“The good thing was that in our difficult period and when they scored the goal we managed to stay in the game, stay focussed in the game, didn’t make more mistakes and then we put ourselves in the situation where we could win the game because the game was open, players were tired and the game was a bit broken. We knew we could win the game.”
Jose spoke further about how we managed to turn the momentum around after Wolves equalised.
“The reality is, and I always say to the players, it’s very important to cope with the difficult moments in the game,” he added. “To play in the easy moments, I can still play five minutes, but to cope with the difficult moments of the game, not losing concentration, don’t make mistakes, don’t put yourselves 2-1 down, keep stability.
“You could see at the last corner where we scored, what I did was to change Vertonghen with Sissoko and let Vertonghen go to the box. We had that feeling, but we didn’t say Vertonghen and Sissoko, so we kept our balance until the end knowing that we could perfectly win the game.
“I think Nuno has to be disappointed, he has to say it’s unfair for his boys, that’s normal to have that feeling after they played so well but I have to say exactly the opposite, I have to say that the way my boys worked hard, the way so many of our fans in the cold in the rain, with the team until the last seconds, I cannot ask for more.
“The only thing I can ask now is that next weekend we are there waiting for them...”
