Questions have been asked of the experienced manager in recent days, but the England international is enjoying their time together
Jose Mourinho knows ‘how to light the fire’ inside his players, according to Tottenham’s Eric Dier.
Spurs returned from the coronavirus break with a draw and a win, but their 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United last week left questions about their tactics and application.
Mourinho said his side’s apparent lack of desire was “something that destroys me a little bit on the inside” – a clear challenge to his players to give more in their upcoming games.
“For me, personally, he knows how to light the fire inside you,” Dier said of Mourinho to BeIN Sports.
“I want to win for him, I want to do everything to succeed, to try and win for him. He builds that within you.
“He’s extremely motivated and extremely passionate about the game, about winning.
“His energy is very high every day on the training ground, on the training pitch. He’s always pushing. I’m really enjoying working under him.
“The way he speaks to you, the way he speaks to the team before games and during games, he knows how to get a reaction out of different people in different ways.
“It’s something that destroys me a little bit on the inside.”
— Goal (@goal) July 4, 2020
“I think he’s very strong in that sense and he knows how to touch each person in the right way to get the best out of them.”
While they were well beaten at Bramall Lane, Spurs also considered themselves unlucky to walk away with nothing as Harry Kane put the ball in the net four times – only to see three disallowed.
Mourinho made his feelings about VAR quite clear after the game, but Dier says he and his team-mates accept they weren’t good enough.
“I think as players we have to be able to look at ourselves and be self-critical and accept when a manager with the trophies and the games and the wins behind him that he has… when he talks, we need to listen,” Dier said.
“When he criticises us, we need to accept it and try to improve. For me, that’s what we have to do.
“We have to be humble and accept that we weren’t good enough. It’s very frustrating because I believe that we have a lot of quality.
“In the Sheffield United game, we didn’t show enough in other areas for our quality to then be the difference and that’s very disappointing.”
