Thu 04 March 2021, 10:25
Tottenham HotspurJose Mourinho's exclusive preview as we look ahead to this evening's Premier League clash against Fulham at Craven Cottage (6pm).
1 - Team news
Jose had great news ahead of Burnley that the full squad is training - was that still the case?
Jose: "Gio is not yet ready to play, but definitely training with the team and possibly (available) next week. We've no new injuries, just the normal problems after a Premier League game, nothing major."
2 - Squad gains
With such a tough schedule this season - this is game 43 - how important was it for Jose to have everyone available?
Jose: “We have to look to the games arriving and forget the ones we’ve already played. Obviously, March is going to be very hard and it’s going to end with national team matches, which are completely out of our control. But let’s go, step by step, match after match and a week with three Premier League matches is a week with lots of points to play for, both for us and for our opponents, but let’s go for this Fulham one.”
3 - Fulham
Jose recognised before we played Fulham in January that Scott Parker had tweaked his team's style and it was working. It looks like it’s still working with Fulham five unbeaten...
Jose: “They are a good team, good players and they know how to play. They are getting results and they are fighting for a big objective, to get out of the danger zone. It’s a difficult match.”
4 - ‘Everybody fights’
It’s often said that it’s tougher to take on teams fighting for survival than those at the top of the table at this time of the season. Did Jose go along with that theory?
Jose: “Everybody fights for objectives, different objectives, but objectives. It could be champions, top four, top six, top half of the table, trying to avoid relegation. I would say the Premier League is a league where ethical values are very present, and even when you arrive in the last couple of matches of the season, if a team doesn’t need anything, they have their pride and their ethical principles and everybody fights and everybody plays, so it’s always difficult.”
5 - A good place?
With a run of good performances - if not results – and back-to-back 4-0 wins, it feels like the team is in a good place at the moment. Did Jose agree?
Jose: “We won two matches (Wolfsberger AC, Burnley) and we can say, of course, Wolfsberg is not Premier League level, but to win 4-0 you have to play well. The match before was West Ham, where the feeling was, ‘result bad, performance very positive’. I believe we are going in the right direction, but we need to transform that into results.”
