Mourinho, Hojbjerg impressed with ‘positive’ Tottenham pre-season opener
Jose Mourinho says he “saw some really good things” as Tottenham began their pre-season preparations with a 3-0 win over Ipswich Town.
Mourinho is overseeing his first summer in charge of the club, and will be looking to carry on the momentum that saw him guide them to Europa League qualification last season.
In these early days of pre-season, though, the main focus was for players to get back in action without getting injured. And with only Toby Alderweireld, Ryan Sessegnon and Gedson Fernandes completing 90 minutes, Mourinho was pleased that that was the case.
“We have no injuries, which is important, and we saw some really good things,” Mourinho said after the game.
“We managed to save the players from playing 90 minutes, which would have been premature this early in pre-season.
“Ipswich are League One but have been training for a few weeks. They played two different teams in the halves but kept some intensity in the game, which was good and that helped us.
“We started well and put into practice some of things we worked on during the week. Half of our squad was not here but it was good and positive with some really good things.
“All three goalkeepers (Hugo Lloris, Joe Hart and Paulo Gazzaniga) kept clean sheets, which was good.”
HOJBJERG REFLECTS ON DEBUT
The game gave Mourinho an opportunity to give debuts to Tottenham’s two summer recruits, Hart and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
The latter, who joined from Southampton, had a role in Spurs’ second goal. And the midfielder thinks the performance was the first sign he made the right choice to move.
“The guys are good, the coaching staff fantastic,” he said after the game. “The whole surrounding around the team, everything is well set up, so it’s really good.
“There is an environment where everybody wants to be better, everybody wants to have no excuses.
“As a human being, but also as a sportsman, as a football player, it’s a great place to be.
“I came [to the stadium] a couple of hours before the game, with the whole squad. It’s just fantastic to be here and again it’s confirmation that yeah, I’m in the right place.
“The game was okay, I think we did some good steps forward.
“We still have a lot to do, but what we tried to do in the week, what the coach wanted us to do, we tried to work on today and I think we had some moments where we did it well and some moments where we need to do it better.
“But luckily this is what friendly matches are for.”
