Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho has told Football.London that he felt West Bromwich Albion’s defenders were fixed on Carlos Vinicius as soon as he came on.
Spurs travelled to The Hawthorns on Sunday afternoon, seeking three points that would take them top of the Premier League table.
It was a battle, but Spurs did claim the win as Harry Kane nodded home Matt Doherty’s cross in the 88th minute to snatch all three points.
Leicester City ended up taking top spot from Tottenham just hours later, but Mourinho’s men are at least grinding out results on the road.
This win was reminiscent of the 1-0 win at Burnley last month, but Mourinho really went for it this time, throwing on another striker in Vinicius to try and win the game.
The Brazilian hitman is still finding his feet at Spurs following a loan move from Benfica, but gave Mourinho another attacker for the final 15 minutes.
After the game, Mourinho suggested that West Brom’s three centre backs were focused on Vinicius – who touched the ball just four times and had two shots – freeing up room for other attackers to make an impact, including Kane as he bagged the winner.
This goes to show what Vinicius can do; he’s another centre forward that defences have to deal with, possessing more of a battering ram figure than Kane, and having seen it work against West Brom, don’t be surprised to see Mourinho try it again in the future.
“In the last part of the game they were starting to drop and I felt that we needed a striker to change the dynamic and change the positions and to give them a new problem that until then they didn’t have because they were playing against our three attacking players.”
“From that moment the three centre-backs were at the same time fixed by Vinicius. The goal arrived and I think deservedly but I have to feel sorry for them because they fought so hard for the point,” he added.
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