Jose Mourinho sleeps at training ground to conquer anger after United loss

Tottenham Hotspur's Portuguese head coach Jose Mourinho. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)


Jose Mourinho said he reacted to Tottenham’s midweek defeat at Manchester United by sleeping at the club’s training ground.

Mourinho’s 100 percent record since taking over at Spurs came to an end in a 2-1 loss against his former club at Old Trafford.

However, he said he refused to wallow in pity and instead started planning for Saturday’s home game against Burnley.

“I slept in here (the training ground), I stayed here, I didn’t go home, so the next morning at eight o’clock I was here doing what? Burnley,” Mourinho explained on Friday.

“Analysing Burnley, trying to organise the training session, trying to organise the meeting, choosing the clips to show them the clearest possible way Burnley works.

“That’s the way you have to do it in football. Don’t accept in a passive way.”

Defeat to United followed successive league victories over West Ham and Bournemouth, in addition to progression to the last 16 of the Champions League.

Now, Mourinho has ordered his squad to respond to the midweek setback.

“After a defeat, you cannot be sad. You have to be more than that. You have to be raging, angry, not sad,” said the 56-year-old.

“Sad is grief. It’s death. When you lose somebody, you have to be sad, you have to be grieving, you have to be crying.

“There is no solution against that, you lost that person. A football match, you lose one, tomorrow there is another one.

“Accept defeat as a learning process, next game, work the next day.