DBasia.news – Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho insisted there was no direct link between Gareth Bale’s second debut and the painful draw that his team won against West Ham United.
Spurs look like they will win easily at home to West Ham on Sunday (18/10), already winning 3-0 when the game was only 16 minutes old. Son Heung-min’s goals and Harry Kane’s brace gave the Spurs the upper hand.
Bale was then deployed in the final 20 minutes to mark his comeback with the Spurs. However, West Ham bounced in an extraordinary manner ten minutes from time. Fabian Balbuena reduced the score, Davinson Sanchez scored an own goal, before Manuel Lanzini’s torrential shot in injury time forced a 3-3 draw.
Bale, who has been on loan for a season from Real Madrid, made a golden opportunity when the Spurs took a 3-2 lead, but his shot was off the mark. However, Mourinho denied that Bale had a negative impact on Spurs’ performance.
“I don’t think so. The decision not to start him was the right decision,” said Mourinho after the match.
“It was a decision to show that he doesn’t need the throne in this team. A message that in this team every player must fight for position.”
“He is very welcome here. Everyone likes him and I’m sure he likes it too. So everything looks positive, but the focus is not on him, but on the game.”
“It’s a shame he couldn’t score the team’s fourth goal, which would be very beautiful and would kill the match. But this is football,” he explained.
Regarding the failure of Spurs who had to be willing to throw away the victory in plain sight, Mourinho explained that his team had lost focus and were not mentally strong.
“We were severely punished [by West Ham] and we deserved it. The team’s performance suddenly declined,” continued Mourinho.
“When we looked like we were going to control the game, we conceded the first goal and that boosted the opponent’s confidence. Our players were not strong enough psychologically to face this situation. In the final seconds of the match, we ended up losing two points,” he regretted.