JOSE: I WILL SORT IT DROUGHT

Mourinho backs stars to step up and strike in Kane’s absence

JOSE MOURINHO plans to solve his Tottenham puzzle to help his out-of-form side start scoring goals again.

Spurs have fired blanks so far this year in the Premier League.

It’s now over six hours since they found the net in open play after a sixgame winless league run. Harry Kane’s absence has been sorely felt since the

England skipper picked up his serious hamstring injury in their New Year’s Day loss at Southampton

(above, right).

Mourinho insists he has the pieces to fill the hole left by the lack of a proper striker – now all he has to do is stop his players falling apart whenever they get near the box.

“It is one thing to try to create a puzzle where there are some missing pieces without quality players,” said Spurs boss

Mourinho. “Another thing is to do it with quality players and when I look to Heung-min Son, to Lucas Moura, to Dele Alli, Erik Lamela, we are speaking about quality players.

“We try and I believe we are going to improve.”

Over the last three seasons, Tottenham have only won without Kane when Fernando Llorente has been there as a main striker in his place.

With Llorente departed and no fit senior striker available, Mourinho admits Spurs are up against it.

“We don’t have that killer that guarantees you a certain amount of goals,” he said. “We are playing without that guy that is great in the box, that holds the ball under pressure, that is good in the air. We don’t have that profile of player.

“The stats, they always show something, and of course it’s more difficult.

“But to do something in the market, you have to do something that is good for our future too, not just good for tomorrow. We are trying to see if any good opportunities arise.”

Danny Rose was left out of the squad for the draw with Watford and is set to miss out against Norwich.

But Mourinho said: “Disagreement between me and Danny? No.

“My relationship with my players is good and I love to work with my group. And that’s it.

“On the Thursday before Watford, late evening, I got a call from my medical staff saying that Danny was calling them with a problem in his back and he wouldn’t train the next day.

“So Friday, the day before the game, it was a bit of surprise that he was ready to train.

“It was not a big problem but even so I decided then to play with Japhet Tanganga and have Ryan Sessegnon on the bench. That’s the situation.”