Mon 22 February 2021, 10:51
Tottenham HotspurJose Mourinho paid tribute to Lucas Moura, the ‘team player’, after his efforts in Sunday’s 2-1 loss at West Ham.
The Brazilian speedster brought us back into the game at 2-1 with a clinical near-post header from Gareth Bale’s corner on 64 minutes as we laid siege to the hosts’ goal in the second half.
We created chance after chance, struck the woodwork twice through Gareth and Heung-Min Son and had so many ‘nearly’ situations, but it wasn’t to be as the Hammers held on despite a shot count of 20-4 in our favour. In the end, early goals in each half from Michail Antonio and Jesse Lingard were enough.
Lucas has featured in 35 of our 40 matches so far this term and his header made it goals in successive games after his solo effort against Wolfsberger in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.
“Lucas is a team player, that’s what teams need and many times people in general don’t give the right value to these types of player,” reflected Jose at the London Stadium.
“He’s always there for the team, playing amazing or not so amazing, but always there, always fighting for the team and today, I thought he was brilliant. He played 65 minutes two days ago and he was amazing in his effort for the team.”
Jose also has praise for Ben Davies, who was rested on Sergio Reguilon’s return from injury having played 480 minutes in five matches in the space of 14 days.
He said: “I’m so happy with Ben, but since Reguilon was injured Ben played every single minute of every single match, and that’s too much. We were desperately waiting for Reguilon, not just because of what he can add to the team, but especially because what Ben is doing is not normal – 120 minutes against Everton, 90 against City, goes to Europa League, another 90, non-stop.
“That’s why you have to think about the players and their condition. We thought about resting Ben and at the same time, Sergio is a more offensive player, he gets in attacking positions much more than a very stable Ben, and he did that immediately in the first half.”
