The sight of Tottenham Hotspur team mates Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-min clashing at halftime during their 1-0 victory over Everton on Monday was “beautiful” and a sign that the team are growing up, manager Jose Mourinho has said, reports Reuters.
Goalkeeper Lloris and forward Son had to be held apart by team mates shortly after Everton’s Richarlison had gone close to an equaliser, with Lloris clearly angry at Son for not tracking back in the build-up to the chance.
Mourinho said his players were fired up by his criticism of their limp performance in Thursday’s 3-1 defeat by Sheffield United and said the incident showed they were demanding more of each other.
“It’s beautiful,” Mourinho, whose side moved up to eighth in the table, nine points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, said.
“It’s probably as a consequence of our meetings. If you want to blame someone for that it’s me. I was critical of my boys — they were not critical enough with themselves.
“I asked them to be more demanding of each other. Son is an amazing kid, everybody likes Son but the captain told him you have to do more and give more to the team.”
Expanding on the mentality he expects from his players, Mourinho, a three-time Premier League winner during two spells as Chelsea boss, said he encouraged a frank exchange of views between players, if not in full view of the TV cameras.
“A team of good boys and nice boys the only thing they want to win at the end of the season is the fair play cup and I’ve never been interested in winning that,” he said.
“I don’t like a team that doesn’t have a critical sense. What happened at halftime shouldn’t have happened there, it should have happened just inside the dressing room.
“But I can promise you my winning teams had big fights.”
The victory was Mourinho’s 200th in the Premier League.