Pundit Jamie Carragher has told The Mirror that he thinks Jose Mourinho’s actions over the course of lockdown have been ‘typical Mourinho’.
Tottenham’s last game was a defeat away at RB Leipzig in the Champions League, with football suspended just days later due to the global pandemic.
Spurs now haven’t played for three months, but Mourinho and a number of Spurs players have still been in the news during lockdown in England.
Mourinho was seen breaking lockdown rules by training his players in a local park, as he was seen coaching Tanguy Ndombele when nationwide regulations prohibited such actions.
Ryan Sessegnon and Davinson Sanchez were spotting training together too, whilst Serge Aurier has been accused of breaking lockdown on a number of occasions.
Mourinho later admitted that he had disobeyed lockdown guidelines, and apologised for his actions – but Carragher thinks it was all just ‘typical Mourinho’.
Carragher thinks Mourinho pushed the barriers as far as he could because he was trying to gain an advantage over other teams in the race for European places, even if that meant bending rules.
Carragher noted that Tottenham simply must beat Manchester United in their first game back from the lockdown, and thinks Mourinho’s actions were all to try and get Spurs fit and firing for the return.
“It is typical Mourinho. He has been pushing the lockdown barriers to the extreme – and it was right that Spurs got their knuckles rapped when they were seen training in a park,” said Carragher. “But he is a manager who is always thinking about where he can gain an advantage. If that means bending the rules as far as he can, then he will do it. But I think it shows that he will have been looking at the lockdown and thinking the top-four race is still on.”
“Tottenham’s last Premier League game was against Burnley – and they were awful. They were just as bad against Norwich in the FA Cup and RB Leipzig in the Champions League. But Jose has a nine-game season now and he will be thinking that it is still possible to finish in the top four. That is why he was pushing the boundaries during lockdown, because he knows that if Spurs come out firing in the first game then they will be just a point behind United. But Spurs have to win that game. If United win then it will be very tough for them to qualify for the Champions League,” he added.
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