It was a night to forget in the Europa League for Jose Mourinho and his Tottenham side on Thursday as they fell to a disappointing 1-0 defeat away at Royal Antwerp.
Making a total of nine alterations for the game in Belgium, Spurs were way off their best in the first half and duly fell behind when Lior Refaelov rifled the ball home from just inside the area after Dieumerci Mbokani capitalised on a Ben Davies error.
Mourinho had clearly seen enough in the opening 45 minutes and made four changes at the break as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Erik Lamela, Lucas Moura and Son Heung-min all came on, with Harry Kane introduced not long after.
The changes didn't have the desired effect as Antwerp held strong to win the game and many people claimed the amount of changes Mourinho made for the group match had an impact on his side's rhythm.
With Brighton & Hove Albion to come on Sunday evening at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Mourinho was asked if we would revert to the team that won 1-0 at Burnley earlier in the week and gave a very blunt reply.
"Well do you want me to start with the same team I started with tonight? You are an intelligent guy, you know my answer," he said.
Mourinho did take a very strong squad with him for the game in Belgium on Thursday but Eric Dier and Tanguy Ndombele were left out of the travelling party.
The former remained at home after only just returning at Burnley from the muscular injury he sustained on international duty, with the latter given a rest after feeling a little bit of fatigue.
Admitting that his side really did miss the Frenchman against Antwerp due to his speed, ability to think fast and get the ball moving forward, the head coach is hopeful that both will be fit to take on the Seagulls.
"Hope so, hope so," said Mourinho when quizzed if the pair would feature at the weekend. "Dier had a little, no quite an important injury in the national team, couldn't play a couple of matches for us. Played against Burnley, would be a risk to play tonight [Antwerp], but I expect him to be fine for the next one.
"And Tanguy felt just a little sign of fatigue in a muscular area and he was also protected.
"Normally tomorrow he is training normal and is ready to play Sunday, and to be honest we missed him - because he gives speed to the team. Thinking quick, thinking fast moving the ball quick and fast, we missed him."
One player who did take part in the Europa League game was Gareth Bale after failing to feature on Monday in the win at Turf Moor.
Despite raving about the 31-year-old ahead of the European fixture after making a huge impression on the training pitch, the Wales international just didn't have an impact on proceedings and was substituted off on 58 minutes.
Clearly still working his way back to full fitness after a tough couple of years at Real Madrid, Mourinho stressed that the attacker is improving and that he will be back to a better level soon enough.
"I repeat the same - seven years is a long, long, long gap," stated Mourinho. "So which player in the world is the same as he was seven years ago. Sometimes they're not better or worse, they're just different players.
"For example you look to Ronaldo and Messi, and compare them with seven years ago. They play in different areas, different positions. They transform their qualities to try and explore their qualities in other responsibilities in the tactical system of their teams.
"I think it happens with the majority of the players, so for sure he is a different player.
"Every word that I told yesterday I believe in them because he is working very, very hard. He is improving. He doesn't have one single injury since he came back from the last one. He didn't miss one single training session.
"To play 90 minutes is still hard, to play high intensity is still difficult, but he is improving. He is improving, and hopefully he will be back to a better level soon."
