The surprising spat between Tottenham players Son Heing-Min and Hugo Lloris during their Premier League against Everton on Monday was “beautiful”, according to their manager Jose Mourinho. The duo engaging with each other at the half time became the highlight of Spurs’ 1-0 victory on Monday.
Reportedly, Lloris was angered by Son’s failure to close down a loose ball during the opening half’s play and, thus, confronted the Korean while going inside the tunnel at the half-time’s break.
Even though he is known for his calm and placid behaviour on and off the field, Son reacted angrily to Lloris and the spat went on the verge of a serious escalation before the pair was divided by teammates. However, the issue got allayed as both the players hugged each other after the match.
“That’s beautiful. It’s probably as a consequence of our meetings, so if you want to blame someone blame me,” Mourinho said as quoted by AFP (accessed via PTI).
“I asked them to demand more from each other and put colleagues under pressure. It was the situation of the first half where an amazing kid, a team boy like Sonny, that the captain thought ‘you have to do more’.
“A team of nice boys, the only thing they can win at the end of the season is the Fair Play Cup. Something I have never won and have no interest in winning.
“What happened should not happen on the pitch, it should happen inside the dressing room, but I promise you my winning teams we had big fights in the team,” he added.
Meanwhile, on Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Everton, which came with a stroke of luck, Mourinho said that he was pleased to win the much-needed points. Everton defender Michael Keane scored a first-half own goal to hand his team a defeat in what was almost an evenly-balanced contest.
“I feel very happy with the team’s reaction after such a bad performance that we had against Sheffield United. It’s not an artistic performance, not a performance of incredible talent, incredible quality, but it’s a team performance against a very good team. It’s not easy to play after bad defeats, it’s not easy to play after bad performances,” the Portuguese manager said as quoted on the official website of Tottenham Hotspur.
“Sometimes the team is not able to react, sometimes the team stays in the sadness, sometimes stays in the frustration. I think today the boys showed how committed they were to try to finish in the best possible position for us and at least to wash our faces after the bad performance we had the other day. Everybody gave what they could give, we had a very solid performance, we were never in trouble, we were always in control,” he added.