Tottenham News: Mourinho Backs Under-Fire Player After Upset Loss To Leicester City

Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho insists not only one player played a terrible game against Leicester City.

Things took a major turn in Tottenham’s hot streak this season as Leicester shocked the Spurs with a 2-0 stunner on Sunday. The defeat was already demoralizing, but it was Serge Aurier’s mindless tackle on Wesley Fofana inside the box, just before half-time, that put Mourinho’s squad on the spot.

Weighing in on the incident, English Premier League legend and pundit Roy Keane lambasted Aurier, claiming the Ivorian right back’s play was a total “madness.”

“Utter madness,” Keane exclaimed of Aurier’s tackle on Fofana. “There is no danger, he’s not in on goal, he’s not looking at the ball, an experienced player, madness. He doesn’t think, this lad doesn’t think.”

To his player’s defense, Mourinho shut down all the criticisms, insisting no player should be held solely accountable for Tottenham’s loss. Instead, the renowned manager admitted that there were a lot of things that he “did not like” during the game, including his players’ “attitude.”

“It was a mistake, not a moment of madness,” Mourinho told Sky Sports . “I know my players’ qualities. Serge [Aurier] was phenomenal against Liverpool–probably our best player–and today, he made this mistake. It’s not fair to say if it cost us the three points. There were other players who showed an attitude that I did not like.”

Further assessing his team’s performance, Mourinho reflected on Tottenham’s “bad” start. The Portuguese coach, however, acknowledged that they managed to get the upper hand at some possessions but weren’t able to capitalize.

“We started bad,” the coach examined. “The first 20 minutes was a poor performance, some empty spots in terms of pressing, attitude, recovering the ball. I didn’t like [it] at all. The fact we didn’t start well is not because I didn’t tell them to start well. I didn’t tell them: ‘Don’t be proactive or be reactive.’ But I admit we did start bad.”

“We changed during the first half, adapting the positions in midfield. We improved a lot, had a period of domination and then the penalty,” he added. “The penalty is not a penalty created, it’s a penalty that we commit. For me, it was out of context to the game at that moment because it was our best period. Aurier made a mistake. But before his mistake we had other players making mistakes in other areas of the pitch. I can’t blame a player for a mistake.”