Mourinho suggests he will make changes for Wednesday's game against Bayern Munich
Friday 6 December 2019 22:39, UK
Jose Mourinho has warned his Tottenham players that he does not like "sad people" in his squad after a defeat.
Mourinho slept over at Tottenham's training ground on Wednesday night after the 2-1 loss at Manchester United so he could get up early on Thursday to prepare for Saturday's visit of Burnley.
"The thing I want from my squad and I hope they understand my message is that I don't like 'sad' people, in this sense of the word. I don't like the sad people after the game," said Mourinho ahead of the Premier League fixture.
"I want the people that, after a defeat, would love a match the next morning - not sad.
"Sad is not the kind of reaction that I like and I think these players need this kind of message, this kind of 'OK, I don't accept defeat - defeat is something that doesn't belong to my culture, I don't accept defeat' but don't be sad. Let's go, the next day, the next match.
"Sad is grief, it's death, when you lose somebody. You have to be sad, you have to be grieving, you have to be crying - there is no solution against that, you lost that person.
"In a football match you lose one, tomorrow there is another one. You replace one game with another game. You don't replace people, you replace matches. I finish this one, I have another one.
"Keep moving and going and learn from the mistake. Don't accept the defeat as an empty word, accept defeat has a learning process, the next game - work the next day."
Asked if his squad have this attitude yet, Mourinho continued: "That's my job - I'm here to help them. They are fantastic players. The most difficult thing is the talent, the other things I am here to help them."
Spurs face a trip to German champions Bayern Munich on Wednesday in their final Champions League Group B game.
It will be an opportunity for Mourinho to have a look at some of the players on the fringes of his squad with Spurs already through to the last 16 and unable to finish higher than second.
Mourinho suggested Kyle Walker-Peters, Oliver Skipp, Ryan Sessegnon and Troy Parrot would be among those to get a run out at the Allianz Arena.
"Not meaningless for me or Tottenham," said Mourinho of Wednesday's match in Bavaria.
"We are going to finish second it doesn't matter the result but it will be very important for the players that are going to play and for me to get to know them better.
"I'm going to play some of the players that have not played for me yet. Great opportunity for the younger players and their development.
"There is also the prestige of the club involved. We will try to go with a team that gives us some guarantees to try to fight for a result that we don't need but we want.
"We know Burnley will be the fifth game in a row, we know after Bayern we go to Wolves, one of the teams that is in front of us in the table. So I think we have to look ahead to Bayern with all these things in mind."
