Jose Mourinho has blamed Tottenham’s habit of throwing away leads on ‘basic’ individual errors and says an inability to ‘kill matches’ has cost his side points this season.
Spurs missed an opportunity to close the gap on the division’s leading sides after being held to 1-1 draw by Fulham in midweek, Ivan Cavaleiro’s equaliser securing a point for the visitors after Harry Kane had opened the scoring.
The draw continued a worrying trend of dropping points from winning positions for Spurs this season, with only Brighton (12) and Sheffield United (11) having dropped more from such situations than the north London side (10).
Mourinho’s side currently sit sixth in the Premier League and are six points adrift of league leaders Manchester United ahead of this weekend’s clash with Sheffield United, and the Portuguese has bemoaned his side’s inability to ‘kill’ games and the ‘basic’ mistakes which have proven costly.
“We need to score the goals that we can and we need not to make mistakes that punish us,” Mourinho told his pre-match press conference.
“If you compare [Fulham goalkeeper Alphonse] Areola’s moments to Hugo [Lloris’] moments. Areola made a couple of impossible saves that could have killed the match. Also the post, then a defensive mistake and a goal.
“It looks complicated but it is really simple, a basic analysis of the game. I’m the first one that digs very deep to understand what my team has to improve.
“But going to the basics: you score goals you kill matches, you don’t score goals, if you don’t make mistakes you win. If you make defensive mistakes, you can be punished.”
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