Beauty in bust-up
Mourinho says Lloris, Heung-min bust-up was ‘beautiful’
IT seemed a pretty ugly situation for Tottenham as teammates Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-min clashed at half-time in their match against Everton. But manager Jose Mourinho chose to see the incident as ‘beautiful’ and a sign that the team are growing up.
The sight of Tottenham Hotspur teammates Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-min clashing at half-time during their 1-0 victory over Everton was “beautiful” and a sign that the team are growing up, said manager Jose Mourinho.
Goalkeeper Lloris and and the South Korean forward had to be held apart shortly after Everton’s Richarlison had gone close to an equaliser, with Lloris clearly angry at Heung-min for not tracking back in the build-up to the chance.
Mourinho said his players were fired up by his criticism of their limp performance in Thursday’s 3-1 defeat by Sheffield United and said the incident showed they were demanding more of each other.
“It’s beautiful,” the Portuguese added. “If you want to blame somebody for that, it’s me, because I was critical of my boys, because they are not critical enough with themselves, with each other.
“It’s something very important for the team to grow and for that you need to demand from each other and be strong personalities.
“A team of nice boys, the only thing they can win is the Fair Play Cup, which is something that I never won and I am not interested in.”
The victory was Mourinho’s 200th in the Premier League and moved Spurs up to eighth.
Meanwhile, Lloris insisted he had made peace with Heung-min.
“I think to concede a chance a few seconds before half-time because we didn’t make a press annoyed me. But yeah, that’s football,” Lloris said.
The pair looked to have buried the hatchet when they hugged at the final whistle.
“It just belongs to the changing room. Outside you can say whatever you want. What happened is just part of football sometimes,” the Frenchman said.
“Let’s be honest, we are in a situation we are not happy with so we have to fight, to make sure we all go in the same direction.
“Most important is to stay focused on the team. We can only do it as a team.
“When you play a season like this one it’s very easy to fall apart but we showed we are still together.
“There is no problem at all. You could see after the game we were fine.”
Tottenham sealed the points thanks to a first half own goal from Everton defender Michael Keane. — Agencies