Jose's verdict on Reading

It was another positive pre-season day in the office for Jose Mourinho.

Just like our pre-season opener against Ipswich Town last week, we were quickly out of the traps and 3-0 up by half-time thanks to an own goal and clinical finishes from Dele and Heung-Min Son.

Our pressing particularly impressed, with Dele, Lucas and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg creating five chances between them from winning possession high up the pitch in the first half.

In the end, it was 4-1, with Erik Lamela whipping in a free-kick for 4-0 before Reading’s consolation goal via George Puscas from the penalty spot.

“It’s a pity it doesn’t give us three points!” said Jose. “Jokes apart, it wasn’t bad at all, especially in the first half when we put on the pitch things that we’ve worked on during the week, and it was very interesting.

“The second half was normal. They made a lot of changes, we made a lot of changes, you lose a little of the structure of the game and it becomes more about giving minutes to players, minutes to the kids. But I think in the first half, by the organisational point of view, that was very interesting.

“I thought Reading were very well organised. Mark Bowen did very good work with them, organised, they know how to build, how to play. It was very good for us to put on the pitch things that we are working on in training, and to have Serge back and Moussa back for a few minutes, so, step by step. Next week, they go to their international teams. Tomorrow we’ll do it all over again.”

As Jose alluded to, we take on Birmingham City back at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in our third pre-season match tomorrow - kick-off 3pm - a match you can watch live, full details via the link below!