Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HIT ‘N’ SISS
Spurs star admits they must do better but will fight until end
MOUSSA SISSOKO says Tottenham will have to fight for everything they want to achieve this season after the 2-2 draw at Everton made it three Premier League games without a win.
Friday’s result followed a single point from struggling Newcastle a fortnight ago then last week’s home defeat by Manchester United.
The France midfielder knows that sort of form won’t be good enough if Spurs want to qualify for the Champions League or Europa League.
And he knows they must start to put that right at home to Southampton on Wednesday.
Sissoko said: “I’m disappointed with the draw because we came to get three points.
“We knew Everton and us were very tight in the table, we are both playing for European competitions next year – so we needed those three points.
“But at least we didn’t lose, so we’re going to stick together and fight and be ready for the next game.
“Southampton is going to be massive again and hopefully we will get a better result.
“But I’m sure we could do it better. It has been some tough weeks for us because of different things – but we will never give up and we showed character when we were losing 2-1 and came back into it.
“We need to stick together until the end. So we have to fight together. We are going to win together and there are still plenty of games before the end of the season and a lot of things to achieve.
“Let’s all work in the same direction and hopefully get what we want in the end.”
Team-mate Eric Dier was happier with the outcome at Goodison Park, but critical of some of the Spurs defending.
He said: “We did well to come back from 2-1 down. We’re happy with that but disappointed with the goals we conceded.
“We have to do better with two cutbacks on the edge of our box and we all need to do better with that on the collective.
“The second one, I need to do better on the side to try to stop the cross.
“Collectively, we need to do better defensively.
“We started the second half well, we were on the front foot well but they got into the game and got the goal and then we upped it again.
“We need to do better at keeping a higher level more consistently because we didn’t do that.
“We showed character at times... and at times we need to show more on the ball and defensively be a bit braver. We need to keep working on those things and finish the season as strongly as possible.”