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‘Lot of acceleration’: Mourinho says Tottenham’s £23m player is actually so fast

Photo by ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images
Photo by ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images
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Photo by ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images

Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho has talked up Lucas Moura’s speed in an interview with Sky Sports, after his side beat Crystal Palace at the weekend.

Tottenham ran out 4-1 winners over Palace, with Lucas deployed as an attacking midfielder for the contest.

In his central role, Lucas has performed well in recent weeks – and while he didn’t claim many headlines on Sunday, he still contributed a great deal.

The Brazilian’s pressing helped earn Tottenham their first goal of the night, as he forced a mistake from Luka Milovojevic.

And Mourinho feels that Lucas offers Tottenham a great outlet against well structured teams due to his ability to speed past opposition players.

“I believe some of the guys had a very, very good match and Lucas in this position gives us a lot of acceleration, a change of speed,” he said.

“He’s very good under pressure and is good against teams like Palace, who are very compact in two lines of four.

Photo by Chloe Knott – Danehouse/Getty Images

“He can turn, he can dribble, he can beat people and break a little bit of tight organisations. I’m happy with him.”

Lucas may not be the most prolific scorer in Tottenham’s attacking ranks, but his importance to the side is becoming clear.

Mourinho has picked the £23 million man extremely regularly recently (BBC Sport), and he is becoming one of the first names on the teamsheet.

Lucas may well be rested when Tottenham take on Dinamo Zagreb in the Europa League on Thursday, but it appears likely he will feature against Arsenal at the weekend.