Jose Mourinho accused his Tottenham stars of being ‘too nice’, as their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League suffered another blow yesterday.
Spurs slumped to defeat against Wolves, their second consecutive loss in the Premier League, leaving them five points adrift of Chelsea in fourth, the final guaranteed place for next season’s Champions League.
‘We were punished, not just today on the second and third goal, because we don’t have that aggression, ruthlessness,’ Mourinho said. ‘We are too good, too nice. That was the only thing that made a difference to the game. Otherwise, the team was really good. We didn’t have one single problem apart from Wolves’ individual qualities. So it’s an unfair result, totally unfair.
‘They have Raul Jimenez, a fantastic player, and they have that incredible counter-attack which is very difficult to stop, especially if you don’t have the mentality they showed. For example in the first minute of the game, Ruben Neves makes a tackle on Lucas Moura, who is going to counter-attack. In the last minute they did the same with Leander Dendoncker, which the referee gave a yellow card. That’s the way a team has to play football. That’s the way they did.’
Wolves have now moved ahead of Tottenham into sixth place in the league, three points behind Chelsea.
Spurs were again missing strikers Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, but Mourinho said: ‘We have to try to keep close until we have our power back. But it’s frustration. We recovered 11 points on Chelsea and went to within one point, but everything changed. We have to keep fighting.’
The Spurs boss, meanwhile, said he will continue to resist calls from fans to give 18-year-old Troy Parrott more opportunities, despite Tottenham’s forward crisis. The Republic of Ireland international has been prolific playing for the academy but Mourinho said: ‘He is not ready. He’s a good kid, a good talent, he’s a kid we want to help. He will have a real opportunity at the right moment.’
Parrott was included among Mourinho’s substitutes yesterday, but was only introduced in injury time at the end of the game. Parrott ‘was on the bench because Erik Lamela told me before the game he was not even ready to go on the bench’, Mourinho said.
On his team’s excellent win, Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo said: ‘We are relentless. My team believe in the way that we do things. It’s a matter of helping each other.’