Jose Mourinho told Football London ‘I don’t know why’ there were rumours that Hugo Lloris was going to potentially miss Tottenham’s clash in the North London derby.
The Spurs boss admitted that leading up to Sunday’s game, he had ‘doubts’ with ‘many players’, including Lloris, as Joe Hart was ready to step in if an issue occurred.
Tottenham ended up securing a clean sheet on the day, and even though Arsenal had a lot of the ball on the night, they didn’t really test the Frenchman as much as they would have liked.
Nonetheless, Mourinho was asked about the situation with Lloris, as he shared that nothing was said from his end about the 33-year-old shot-stopper.
“I don’t know why you thought that Hugo was not playing the game on Sunday,” said Mourinho. “We didn’t say anything. In my press conference, I was not even asked specifically, if I’m not wrong.
“We had doubts with many players. We had players with problems – To be honest Hugo and then Serge Aurier had a little issue too
“We had problems that I didn’t want to bring them all to this table because I didn’t want to give the idea of we were a little bit in doubt with so many players.
“So we had a little problem with a lot of people but we never told that Hugo was not ready to play. Joe Hart was ready to play in case Hugo couldn’t, but we were always expecting him to be ready to play.”
Well, Lloris will be rested for Tottenham’s Thursday showdown against Royal Antwerp, with Hart set to deputise.
This time last season, Lloris was making a number of mistakes in goal, one of which led to him suffering an injury away at Brighton.
But since returning from that shoulder problem, and especially this season under Mourinho, he has looked a different player and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the settled defence in front of him is a playing a part in that.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to supporters that Mourinho has improved this previously declining defence and midfield, which has currently helped Spurs sit loud and proud at the top of the Premier League table.
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