Jose Mourinho admit Spurs have lost touch of a harmonious relationship in the dressing room after their shocking exit from the Europa League last week.
Mourinho’s men bounced back from that embarrassing defeat to Dinamo Zagreb to reignite their top-four Premier League hopes thanks to a 2-0 win at Aston Villa, as goals from Carlos Vinicius and Harry Kane earned the North London side maximum points.
The 57-year-old’s statement came in the heels of an earlier assessment from Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who claimed the locker room was divided by players that were not part of the team.
“Football nowadays is not easy in relation to that,” he told Sky Sports. “The selfishness is around, the individual interests are around, the agents are around, the connections between agents and press are around.
“And instead of developing a feeling of a team, empathy, ‘I do for you, you do for me’, ‘I win if I play 90 minutes, I win if I am in the stands’.
“This is something that you need time to develop this in a group. Nowadays you need time because society and the psychological profile of younger people is not an easy one.
“I want to be proud of my players, it does not matter the result. And during my career I was proud of my players many times after defeats.
“I was not proud last Thursday or at the Emirates. For me, more than thinking about what position we are going to finish, whether we are going to win the (Carabao Cup) final, is to try to develop this spirit that we need.
“But I cannot do it alone. I have to do it with my club. I have to do it with my players in the dressing room. But tonight I am really happy with what they did.”
Vinicius’ first Premier League goal, against the run of play, put Spurs into a half-time lead and then Kane scored his 17th league goal of the season from the spot after the break.
The result puts Spurs in sixth position going into the international break with three points adrift the top four spot.
