Thu 04 March 2021, 20:50
Tottenham HotspurJose Mourinho pointed to a ‘team performance’ as we showed both sides of our character to beat Fulham 1-0 in a tough encounter at Craven Cottage on Thursday evening.
We were on the front foot in the first half with the front four of Harry Kane, Heung-Min Son, Gareth Bale and Dele impressing together for the first time.
Dele steered the all-important goal home off Tosin Adarabioyo on 34 minutes, initially sweeping the ball wide to Sonny before darting into the box and guiding Sonny’s cross in off the defender from the near post. Sonny also delivered a cross that Harry headed straight at Alphonse Areola and the South Korean was then on the end of another cross, this time from Dele, but headed wide.
Jose said he expected a reaction from the home side and it came in the second half. Josh Maja had a goal ruled out by VAR for handball and Hugo Lloris saved well from Joachim Andersen and Adarabioyo. We defended well, Lucas Moura, Moussa Sissoko and Erik Lamela all contributed off the bench and a second-successive clean sheet saw us home.
We knew the second half would always be hard, but when they had their reaction, we were solid... We did it as a team
“Three important points, we should, we could, we played enough to kill the game, especially in the first half, but we didn’t,” reflected Jose at the Cottage. “Then we knew the second half would always be hard, but when they had their reaction, we were solid.
“Then, I believe, the three changes brought the energy and the qualities the team needed at that time. Lucas controlled Bryan well, Lamela playing with Harry through the middle and bringing the ball to zones and also creating, and getting free-kicks through his intensity, Moussa gave us that strength we needed at that time too.
“It was a team performance, we did it as a team. We changed three players, I would like to change 11 because they all deserved to play, but I changed three and I believe at this moment, with the way the squad is working, the next game I will change another three, because we need that as a team. The squad, as a squad, deserves that too.
“The clean sheet was also important, two saves, two important saves, good concentration, good focus, good control of a team that is an attacking team, they project so many players into attacking areas. So, yes, as a team, the boys did well.”
