Press Conference: Jose Mourinho on Eric Dier, Hugo Lloris, Bergwijn, Lucas and more

Tottenham are going to play their next Premier League fixture against Burnley on Saturday. The Spurs have faced four defeats lately, including the losses in the Premier League, in the Champions League last 16 first leg and the FA Cup exit. And now the club will travel to Turf Moor, with the hope of celebrating a win after a hard period. Ahead of the clash the club boss Jose Mouirnho has met the reporters. He has confirmed Eric Dier will feature for Burnley match, saying: "He played two fantastic matches, showed me things that I couldn’t imagine. I know what he can do in this position. What happened was clear, it was almost nothing happened, he’s ready and I think he has to play tomorrow." Speaking on Hugo Lloris starting tomorrow, the Spurs boss told the reporters: "Decision to be made after training. Training is at three, decision to be made after. If you ask whether I am expecting him to play I say yes but I cannot confirm." Mourinho also talked on whether he will prioritise games, saying: "We are in a situation where I think it is very hard to prioritise. But as I was saying after the match it was a discussion to have internally and especially the players feelings and the communication with the players is always the most important thing. We analyse data and we have hard work in relation to the control of sessions, effort in matches and sport science level. We have all of that but some players over the last 120 minutes they have run more than 15km. We know that we are going to play against players who have had a week preparing for the match. We have decisions to make. Of course we want to win tomorrow and the tie on Tuesday but we have to find a way where we give some players a better chance to perform. With the problems we have, the players we have for some positions are not much but somehow we have to manage to give players something and that means giving some players a rest. Again, lots of communication internally and the players are very honest in the way they participate these discussions. I love the player who says: ‘I am available for everything you want and everything you need’. But there comes a ‘but’ and after the but comes: ‘I need a rest’. We have to analyse the but. But it is fantastic for me. I am so happy to be here since November and not July because from November to July I am learning so much about my players, it is fantastic to work with boys like them." Speaking about Bergwijn and Lucas' fitness, the Portuguese manager said: "They are players with a but. Steven comes from Holland, one match per week, completely different league, completely different intensity. You can imagine that to play, play, play here is a different world. Lucas I think he’s never played as much in his life, or in Paris or here in Mauricio’s period he was never like a first choice player. When he was playing, he was playing 20 minutes, he was in one game and didn’t play the second. From the perspective of rotation when you have lots of players in the same positions, it happened in Paris. It happened here at Tottenham with Lucas, Lamela, Kane, Llorente, Son, lots of options. In the past three months he’s found himself in a position where he’s got to play every minute. Even in positions that are not originally his positions. So he’s being absolutely incredible for me. So yes there are buts behind them, but they have to play. They have to play. If not we are throwing away our chances of winning matches. So we have to go with them. We have to analyse how, we have to analyse if both at the same time and go with everything we have from the beginning, keep them on the bench and the game plan is to try to go later or split minutes between them. We had to try to find the best strategy to try to win matches, but also to give the players the best chance to perform." On his players, he said: "I would prefer to be in an amazing moment of results, but i am learning so much about my players’ qualities as players, my players’ qualities as men, the way they can cope with a difficult situation. The player that is in ultra-fatigue and tells me ‘until my last inch of energy, i am ready to do everything you need me to do’, so I am learning so so much. So that’s good." Mourinho also talked about the atmosphere at Spurs on Wednesday night, saying: "I think the atmosphere on Wednesday was fantastic. It was an example of what football has to be and should be. 9,000 away fans that normally in Championship away matches they don’t have as many minutes. Fantastic. I think independent of their happiness at the result they came to enjoy and it was great. Great respect from the Tottenham fans to them. I don’t know one single incident that happened. Tottenham fans supporting the team from minute one until the last penalty we missed. Fantastic support from our fans. I didn’t see any negativity. If somebody had a little incident in the end I prefer to focus on the beautiful things in the game and to praise fans from both clubs for such a fantastic support. Wednesday night, cold rainy night but a huge completely full stadium, great atmosphere, big fight but no incidents between players. Two or three yellow cards by normal actions. Great relations between the two benches. We have a fantastic relationship between the staffs. Good referees and the only thing apart from that incident I didn’t like was that in the penalty shoot-out, the assistant on the line and the VAR they were sleeping. They were sleeping because if they were not then every penalty that Krul saved should be repeated. So they were a bit tired, it was too late and they were sleeping."

Source: Football London

Press Conference: Lampard provides injury updates on Kovacic, Willian, Abraham, Hudson-Odoi and Pulisic ahead of Everton clash