Jose Mourinho admitted that Tottenham were guilty of complacency as he suffered defeat on his return to Manchester United after Dele Alli accused his teammates of ‘arrogance.’
Mourinho told his players not to be fooled by United’s poor form after his old club failed to beat Bournemouth, Sheffield United and Aston Villa in recent weeks.
But after scoring in a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford, Alli admitted they failed to heed their manager’s warning.
“We know what we had to do,” said Alli. “We had to match their energy. We lost the game not by them outplaying us – just attitude.
“We weren’t hungry enough and we were slow to every second ball, losing 50-50s.
“Maybe, it was a little bit of arrogance and overconfidence. You have to have confidence and arrogance in games like this, but have to use it in the right way.
“You want to win for the new manager at his old place. We have to learn from this.”
Told about the England midfielder’s comments Mourinho confirmed that he had warned his players what to expect, drawing on his experience of United playing better against the bigger teams because they can counter-attack.
“I tried to fight exactly that state of mind,” he said.
“I tried to tell them exactly the way United approach these matches at home – against Liverpool, against Chelsea, always the strong start with people running, pressing, trying to lift the morale of the supporters.
“Normally they come from bad results against smaller teams so when they face the big teams people think it’s going to be more difficult for them. It’s not more difficult for them because the responsibilities change and they feel comfortable in this style of play.
“We have to blame ourselves. I think United must obviously be happy with the points, and overall they deserved it.” – MailOnline
