Here’s everything the Tottenham Hotspur manager said following Thursday’s 2-1 Premier League loss to West Ham United.
The first half appeared to be good, while the second half appeared to be poor?
No, I don’t believe so. I believe it’s another game where we dominated but didn’t transform our dominance into something more tangible and kept the opponents in the game. Tonight, I thought we were absolutely awful in both boxes – both with our finishing and with the goals we conceded.
We had some incredible chances – for us, it’s just another game, like the Villa game and others earlier this year, and I mentioned last week that our attacking performance has a long way to go. We have a long way to go in general, and tonight was proof of that.
We are 3-0 up because we are good. It’s not about us playing good football; it’s about us winning football games. That’s what I’ve said from the beginning. I coach teams to win games, and 1-0 at halftime was not a good showing from us. A good performance would have resulted in a 3-0 or 4-0 lead, like it did against Villa. And if you don’t, and instead give up ambitions you shouldn’t enjoy today, you’ll receive what you deserve.
It’s just not having that conviction in front of goal to finish teams off, as simple as that. If we weren’t creating chances, if we were out on feet, those kinds of things could factor into it, but I don’t see that. Because all of our chances, especially in the first half, have nothing to do with fatigue. It’s to do with lacking conviction, and right now we’re just going through this spell where we’re supposed to be playing good football, but I don’t see that.
All I see is us not being completely convinced of what we’re doing. It’s almost as if we expect the ball to fall into the net on its own, but it won’t. You must be determined to do so, just as you must be determined to keep the ball out of your net at the opposite end.
Is Son ok, he looked to be limping when he came off?
I don’t know. I’m not sure.
The players looked annoyed with the referee at the end, what was that about?
I don’t know. I don’t think it was because of the ref that we lost today.
How can you turnaround this little spell?
There’s no alternative. That’s the game we’re in. There’s no point in feeling sorry for ourselves, looking for a cuddle anywhere. There’s only one way to change our circumstances and that is to come here on Sunday and put in a performance, not just play good football but go out there and show some conviction about ourselves as a team.
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