Jose Mourinho has made it very clear that he wants his Tottenham Hotspur side to attack as they prepare to face Brentford in the Carabao Cup semi-final. Spurs have come under criticism in recent weeks for their playing style, particularly in the matches against Leicester and Wolves when they struggled to create many attacking opportunities. Speaking ahead of the semi-final, Mourinho made it clear that he wants his team to go for the jugular in every match and pointed to the positioning of his two central midfielders in the 3-0 victory against Leeds United on Saturday.
Jose Mourinho said “I promise you, this is what we want. When I said after Wolves to ask the players what we said at half-time, you know what I mean, That is what we want to do. It depends on tactical conditions but more important than that, it depends on mental, physical and also the opponents. Against Leeds at 1-0 I felt the players really went for it. I felt they were really comfortable, of course Leeds United can be very dangerous but we coped with the danger they created. I saw players comfortable on the pitch, I saw Hojbjerg and Winks pressing much higher, I saw Hojbjerg arriving in shooting positions, I saw the wingers feeling confident to interact more with the striker. This is what we want to do. We managed to do that against Leeds, of course the players had a good feeling as we finished the game always comfortable. Yes, I think so. In the perspective of the club chasing silverware for many years, I would say so, Of course, we always have important matches, last season we had a match at Palace that would give us participation in this season’s Europa League or not. The match against Leeds was very important as we went a few games without a victory in the Premier League but I would say a semi-final is always a very important match. The only one more important is a final.”
