“ I want to fight but I don’t think I can, ” says Jose Mourinho: He said he introduced the Carabao Cup because of Tottenham’s hard schedule …
- Jose Mourinho admitted he would need to make sweeping changes to the Chelsea match
- The Tottenham coach has said he must abandon the cup and prioritize the European League
- Tuesday’s match with Chelsea is the third game for Tottenham in a series of five in just 11 days
- When he was told his team had a good chance, Mourinho said: “Are you kidding?”
Tottenham coach Jose Mourinho has said he has given up on the Carabao Cup due to his tough fixture schedule. Tottenham faces rivals Chelsea in the fourth round on Tuesday evening – their third game in a series of five matches in 11 days.
Mourinho insists UEFA has given him no choice but to make sweeping changes because Tottenham should prioritize Thursday’s match with Maccabi Haifa in the most profitable European League.
“I would like to fight for Carabao, but I don’t think I can,” he said. We have Thursday’s match that doesn’t give us as much money as the Champions League, but the group stage of the European League gives us a certain amount which is very important for a club like us.
Jose Mourinho bemoans the list of Tottenham Hotspur matches and says that means he must abandon the UEFA Cup
“It’s a competition with a potential group stage that gives us a good chance to move on to the next knockout stage, so this Thursday match is very important to us.”
On the possibility of his team rotating, Mourinho added: “You can imagine that with Thursday’s match something very important for us was decided upon, I think the Premier League made the decision for us. They didn’t create a problem for us, they took the decision on our behalf.
Mourinho was full of praise for his team’s performance against Newcastle on Sunday – despite a controversial handball decision that cost his team a win in injury time.
Tottenham face Chelsea on Tuesday – just two days after the Premier League match with Newcastle
Meanwhile, Chelsea had to drop 3-0 to save a point from newly promoted West Brom. Mourinho, however, did not accept the suggestion that his team had a good chance of winning on Tuesday evening.
Are you kidding or serious? He said. “Chelsea played on Saturday, they have Sunday and Monday. Then they played on Tuesday and then played again at the weekend. So (with) their great team – if manager (Frank Lampard) decides not to take turns, he can play perfectly with the players he wants.
Tottenham will miss Son Heung-min, who injured his hamstring in front of Newcastle, and Mourinho expects “more (injuries) to come.” He said everyone was in a competition to play – even Dele Alli, who was eliminated from his last two Premier League squads.
Tottenham’s star Son Heung-min will not play any role after suffering an injury in Sunday’s toll
Tottenham reached the fourth round with permission from Goodbye after the mass Corona virus outbreak in former rival Leyton Orient.
League Two wanted to rearrange the winning draw, only for EFL to knock them out of the competition.
I think (Al-Mashreq) must be very upset. “I think they should, and I have full sympathy for them,” Mourinho said. “I don’t think they made any mistake – they were tested, and I think they deserve to play against us, no doubt about that.”
