José Mourinho Insists Spurs Have Climbed to 'Where They Belong' Since Restart

Tottenham Hotspur manager José Mourinho has praised his side for proving they deserve to be higher in the table with their post-lockdown form.

After the Premier League resumed, Spurs lost just one of their ten fixtures (the 3-1 loss to Sheffield United), picking up five wins and four draws. Their last result, the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, saw Spurs leapfrog Wolves into the final Europa League spot.

Mourinho and his backroom staff were seen celebrating the achievement, which had seemed out of reach for the first half of the season, but the boss was more focused on the fact that Spurs boasted the fourth-best record in the league after lockdown.

"When all the players are available, we showed in this last period where we belong," Mourinho said (via BBC Sport). "I don't know, maybe in this period, after lockdown, we finished third or fourth in the table. So that's where we belong.

"I want to have my team, my players, not a medical room full of players. I want a pitch full of players.
Of course as a squad, the main thing is to keep our very good players and after that improve the squad.

"Are we going to buy 10 players? No. Are we going to buy players for £100m? No. We are going to improve."

Spurs were undoubtedly boosted by the availability of Harry Kane, Steven Bergwijn, Moussa Sissoko and Son Heung-min, all of whom were supposed to miss the rest of Spurs' season before lockdown pushed things back a few months.

Back at close to full strength, Mourinho praised Spurs for showcasing the composure and maturity needed to pick up such a crucial result on the final day of the season.

“It’s very difficult to play the last game when you play everything in one game,” he said (via the club's official website). “It doesn’t matter what you play for – relegation, promotion, Europe, to be champions – the last match is always hard.

“I played one game with Inter, the last game of the season, to be champion, and it’s dramatic, so the players never perform the same – huge pressure, it’s never easy.

“Today was not easy and when Palace scored, it was the time for me to want to know what was going on at Stamford Bridge and when I was told [Chelsea were beating Wolves] 2-0, I thought that’s the moment, also I didn’t feel the team was really strong to attack the victory.

“I made a decision then that we needed to control the game in a different way, to get the point, qualify, and goodbye season. Goodbye season and we go to the Europa League draw.”

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