Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho says that his team will be feared in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Spurs lost 3 – 1 away at Bayern Munich in their final group game. Jose Mourinho fielded a rotated team against Bayern, a luxury afforded to him by the fact Tottenham were already qualified.
While they have up the potential advantages of finishing first in the group, Jose Mourinho insisted it was a positive night. Still moulding Spurs into his image, Jose will have learned a lot about his squad on Wednesday night.
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Juan Foyth was one player who struggled during the game, but Mourinho was seen embracing him at full time. He knows he will need all of his players in good condition for the remainder of the season.
“The negative I won’t tell you,” said Mourinho.
“It would be unfair to speak about conclusions. No conclusions, just information and that is very important for me.
“Some of the players played their first minutes with me. Some of the players like Foyth was the first time he played. It was important to collect some information, information you normally collect in the season or in pre-season. I just arrived and I need information.
“The fact that we qualified against Olympiacos gave us this possibility and the fact that we played so well in the last match and we won 5-0, we were in a positive, which allowed me to come here and risk what happened.
“I am happy with the decisions I made, I hope our supporters understand what I did. Internally we all agreed that was the best option for the players that are playing every minute and also the best option for the players that are not playing and for the young players that need to develop.”
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“I am happy with the information I take back. I take lots of information on players that is going to influence my decisions in the future. This team is not what I call a team. What I call a team is when you prepare together, you work together, you develop principles together. This team that we played tonight is a team that is not a perfect puzzle.
“We just tried to organise a team so that we could rest some players and give conditions for the more experienced people to perform and have some security. So Foyth, Alderweireld, Lo Celso, Sessegnon, Eriksen, Dier, we tried to build something to give them some security and give us some options to fight for a result.”
“My wish is that we can be back and if we can be back it has to be for the quarter or semi-final, because we cannot play them in the next round. So my wish is to be back for a proper match, for a match that we all like,” he added.
“Of all the teams finishing second, I think we are one of the strongest so the other teams will not want to play us.”
