Jose Mourinho could barely keep a straight face as he announced the loss of another forward to injury on the eve of Tottenham’s Champions League last-16 second leg at RB Leipzig tonight.
The Spurs manager does not expect Steven Bergwijn to play again this season after the winger suffered a sprained ankle at Burnley on Saturday and, struggling to suppress laughter, he delivered the news with the maniacal quality of a man with nothing left to lose.
It may have been gallows humour, but Mourinho’s laughter in the face of adversity set a defiant tone as he prepares his side for an almighty fight in the Red Bull Arena.
After composing himself, the Portuguese piled the pressure on his upstart opponents, backed his remaining players and promised that Tottenham would not be the first trophy-less club of his storied career.
“I believe in me, in the players, in the club and I believe that during my contract I am going to help the club to [win silverware],” he said.
Mourinho’s default setting has been negativity and he has previously wallowed in self-pity after losing Harry Kane and Heung-min Son to injury. Such downbeat rhetoric, which has included wishing the season would end, has not inspired his broken squad and Spurs start tonight without a win in their past five matches.
Mourinho’s change of tune was therefore notable, and perhaps influenced by Dele Alli, who spoke before his manager and said “this isn’t a time to get our violins out”.
Three key battles!
Alli vs Upamecano
Left as one of Tottenham’s only hopes going forward, Dele Alli says he must step up and deliver in an unfamiliar role in the absence of a main striker. He faces quite a tussle with Dayot Upamecano if he is to turn the tie around. The defender is valued at £70million by the Germans and can go a long way to living up to that price tonight.
Sanchez vs Werner
Leipzig striker Timo Werner has been tormenting defenders all season, notching 27 goals in all competitions. Davinson Sanchez will have to shackle his ferocious pace as Spurs look to restore balance at the back and keep a clean sheet for the first time in more than a month. Jose Mourinho needs a solid defence to have any hope of advancing.
Sessegnon vs Klostermann
Mourinho has hailed this evening as Ryan Sessegnon’s big chance to finally make a mark as a Spurs player and what a stage he has. Mourinho needs his wing-backs to go press forward but Sessegnon will have a tough task against German international Lukas Klostermann.
The show of defiance was a welcome contrast to Spurs’s meek performance in the first leg last month, when Mourinho’s conservative tactics came to nothing as Timo Werner’s second-half penalty earned Leipzig a deserved 1-0 win. Mourinho’s newfound bullishness even extended to describing it as “the best defeat” possible.
As well as Bergwijn, Spurs are also missing Kane, Son, Moussa Sissoko and Ben Davies, while Mourinho raised the possibility that Erik Lamela may not be fit enough to start for the second time in four days after completing 78 minutes at Turf Moor.
It would be remiss to expect a gung-ho approach from the visitors, but if Leipzig were hoping to find Mourinho cowed and in retreat, they were to be disappointed.
“I read it every day, it is written everywhere in the training ground,” Mourinho said of Tottenham’s club motto, ‘To Dare is to Do’. “Now is the time to give everything. We either win or leave everything that we have on the pitch.”
Spurs are likely to line up with five defenders and Alli as a false No9 with support from Lucas Moura and either Lamela or Ryan Sessegnon.
In such circumstances, character is the most potent weapon Spurs have against such an impressive opponent and if they are to progress this evening, it will surely come down to an effort of will.
“The mental side is very, very important,” Mourinho said. “Sometimes you win on quality, you win on options, you win on a phenomenal bench.
“In this moment that is not our case, we have a very small group of players, giving everything they can for each other. If we can make it, it will be based on the fantastic empathy in our group.
“It is easy to have good groups when the situation is easy, it is more difficult to have a good group when the situation is hard. I am with the boys, I believe in them."
Mourinho’s defiance may ultimately come from the sense that he has nothing to lose. Given his rich history of upsetting the odds in this competition with Porto and Inter Milan, progress to the quarter-finals tonight would undoubtedly be hailed as another ‘Mourinho masterclass’ but no one would blame the 57-year-old for a defeat in the circumstances, even considering his questionable tactics in the first leg.
The same cannot be said of his opposite number Julian Nagelsmann. The more Spurs’s circumstances are reduced, the bigger the favourites the Germans become and Mourinho initiated the mind games with the 32-year-old by claiming Leipzig were “feeling the pressure”.
Like their manager, many of the Spurs squad know what it takes to upset the odds after last starring in last season’s dreamlike run to the Champions League Final, but they have looked ill-equipped to repeat such miracles of late, especially since Son’sabsence through injury.
The hope is that Mourinho’s switch from a tone of helplessness to defiant will spark a similar reaction in his players tonight.
