Sun 20 December 2020, 17:49
Tottenham HotspurWhile accepting key moments went against us, Jose Mourinho pointed to a disappointing start as Leicester City came away with the spoils at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.
Jamie Vardy converted from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time and then saw his header deflect home off Toby Alderweireld on the hour. That’s how it stayed.
So, a penalty right at the end of the first half, an own goal, Jose brought on Gareth Bale for Tanguy Ndombele at half-time only for Giovani Lo Celso to pick up an injury four minutes into the second half and when Kasper Schmeichel brilliantly turned away Heung-Min Son’s point-blank effort on 71 minutes, you kind of felt it was 'one of those days'.
“A bit unlucky, but also a bit of our own responsibility, I would say that,” reflected Jose. “We didn’t start well at all. There were empty spots on the pitch where the attitude, the pressing, the intensity was not there, and the team was suffering that.
A bit unlucky, but also a bit of our own responsibility, I would say that
“We managed to hide these empty spots and improve a lot from the first 15, 20 minutes to the second 15, 20 minutes and it’s when we were creating chances and having our chances to score that they had the penalty.
“From there, of course, the game is different. Despite that, we were trying in the second half, we were dominating, we didn’t have any problems in behind, but the own goal, 2-0, the game was not dead, the reaction was positive again, we had a big chance from Sonny, but Schmeichel made a brilliant save, so we couldn’t even reduce it to 2-1 to keep the game alive.
“It was quite complicated. The decision to take Tanguy off at half-time, I think was an obvious decision, but then we need Gio in that position to give that dynamic to the game and to the team, but we lose Gio. Later, I felt that, and I decided to go with Winks, even through he’s not an attacking midfielder, he’s a guy who can move the ball better than we were doing and we improved.”
