Jose Mourinho disappointed with Tottenham's failure to 'kill off' Fulham

14 January 2021 12:31

Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho was left hugely frustrated after seeing his side held to a 1-1 draw by Fulham and miss the chance to climb up to third in the Premier League.

Spurs took the lead midway through the first half as Harry Kane headed home a wonderful cross from Sergio Reguilon, but some sloppy finishing (and a fantastic showing from Fulham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola) kept the visitors alive.

Spurs' profligacy was punished late on as Ivan Cavaleiro responded with a header of his own, and Mourinho was left to field questions about Spurs' failure to push on and see off yet another opponent.

"Not good enough, but good enough to win," Mourinho said of Spurs' performance (via football.london).

"Not good enough because I think we have to play better in a more consistent way, but good enough to create four or five big chances, good enough to give Hugo in a very quiet evening.
Good enough to win the game but not good enough because we have to play better than we did.

"I understand that in the first half we had chances to kill the game. Some of them are Areola's responsibility. In the second half we had the biggest chance to kill the game but when you don't do it you cannot concede goals the way we did do it.

Mourinho was not happy with the performance | GLYN KIRK/Getty Images

"This is the same story basically since the beginning of the season. We can talk about not killing the game yes, we can speak about that, and today was a clear situation where we could and should have killed the game in the first half but then you go back to the goals that we concede and it's not also easy to assimilate that.

"I think there are things [to do with the goals Spurs have conceded] that have to be with the characteristics of players. There are things that are difficult too. There are some things they have to do with organisation of the team, but other things they have to do with individual skills, individual ability, and its as simple as that."

It was a performance which also left midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg frustrated, with the Dane questioning Spurs' lack of bravery yet again.

"Very disappointing," said Hojbjerg (via the Daily Mail). "We have to do better in a couple of aspects of the game. More bravery, more focus in terms of organising the team and being solid as a team.

Hojbjerg was not happy | Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images

"That doesn't mean you have to stand in your own box and defend, it means the team is compact, the team is close to each other. I had a chance, I had to score. There are many details we have to do better.

"I'm happy there is a game in three days again so we can show a reaction, show we are better than this. We are ready to go again, and of course heads are high.

"There's a long way to go. We're still very ambitious. We're still very solid and very hungry as a team. We'll keep going."


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Source: 90min