Mourinho bans players from watching Bayern humiliation
JOSE MOURINHO has forbidden his players from watching a replay of their humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich before his appointment, with the Tottenham manager using tonight’s return match to provide a further glimpse into the future.
The 7-2 defeat to the German champions played a part in Mauricio Pochettino’s downfall and Mourinho’s staff have picked through the wreckage of that defeat. But his squad have been spared another viewing, underlining the change of atmosphere and results in three weeks at the club.
“I forbid any image about it,” Mourinho said. “I watched it a couple of times with my staff and the analysts, trying to go through every detail but not one single image for the boys, not at all.
Focused
“We are going to focus on us, more than Bayern, to develop our model of play with different faces and different bodies but there is a certain way we try to develop and we are totally focused on us.”
Victory over Olympiacos in Mourinho’s second game means the result at the Allianz Arena will not affect Spurs’ second-place finish in the group.
Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Serge Aurier and Jan Vertonghen have been given a breather in London and Son Heung-min is likely to be on the bench.
Mourinho is set to play youngsters Ryan Sessegnon, Kyle Walker-Peters and Juan Foyth, with 17-year-old Dubliner Troy Parrott also in contention to make his Champions League debut. But there will be experience in his line-up; Lucas Moura is expected to lead the visitors’ attack.
Mourinho believes the squad he has inherited are benefiting from his arrival.
“The players are very coachable,” Mourinho said. “I feel them in need of my experience. In need of my support and I enjoy it because I always say a player that doesn’t like to be coached, you lose the concept of the team.
“I arrive mid-season without pre-season, without four, five, six weeks to work and know the players and develop, so we have to do everything while we are running.”
Sessegnon is a player Mourinho tried to sign while at Manchester United, with the Spurs boss making it clear what he thought about criticism levelled at him for failing to develop youth.
“Scott McTominay, only the best player at Manchester United. Rafael Varane is one of the best players in the world. It’s fair criticism, yeah,” he said.
Mourinho also revealed that learning German this summer was not because he wanted a job in Bundesliga, although the Bayern job is available as Niko Kovac was dismissed a month ago.
“The motivation was to learn,” he said. “I try to learn all the time and was not working for a few months. Curiosity and culture.
“I would love to be able to answer in German which I cannot at this moment. (© Daily Telegraph, London) Bayern Munich v Tottenham Live, VM Sport/BT Sport 2, 8.0