lucas Moura has explained why the Tottenham Hotspur players still believe in Jose Mourinho and has spoken about the meeting the head coach had with them this week.
Spurs‘ 2-0 victory at Aston Villa on Sunday evening brought a positive end to a horrendous week for Mourinho and his players.
Last weekend they meekly lost the north London derby at Arsenal before collapsing in Croatia to exit the Europa League with a 3-0 defeat at Dinamo Zagreb.
Mourinho questioned his players’ attitude and skipper Hugo Lloris called their performance a ‘disgrace’, said it was a reflection of what was happening at the club right now and claimed that some players who were in and out of the starting XI needed to support the team rather than complain.
Lucas, who has been a rare positive in recent weeks for Spurs with his form, said the players are behind their head coach.
“We are all together. We’re in the same boat. We lose together, we win together. What happened in Croatia was our fault. Everyone in included,” he said.
“When we’re on the pitch, we just want to win. We know there are a lot of fans behind the TV supporting us. We play for our family, we play for pride and we’re all together.
“We believe in the coach. We believe in the coach because we know his history. We just want to be successful
Lucas explained that as usual the team went over the match in Croatia with a debrief meeting and Mourinho made his feelings clear.
“We talked about that game. The manager told us a lot of things but it’s more particular, the kind of things we need to keep between us,” he said.
“He has a lot of experience and he tried to motivate us, and it was very good for the game of today. Let’s go. With luck. We have nine games to play, we have a final, let’s finish the season well.
“Yes, it’s been a very bad week for us. The last two games were very bad, the feeling was very bad. [At Aston Villa] we showed our nature, we showed attitude.
“The good thing about football is you don’t have time to cry. You have a lot of games to play and in each game you can do differently. We did differently [at Villa], we deserved that win and I’m very happy for that.”
Lucas was asked about his opinion on Lloris’ stinging public rebuke for the players and the club and the lack of togetherness.
“In the game against Dinamo, there was a lack of a lot of things. A lack of intensity, a lack of aggression,” he said.
“It’s difficult to explain of course and after the game we regret a lot of things, ut [at Villa], like I said, we had another opportunity and we did well.
“Very good result, very good performance against a strong opposition, and that’s what we need to do, every game. We cannot change this mentality.”
Spurs now sit in sixth place, just three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, and while it has been a tough week there is still plenty to play for at the north London club, with a Carabao Cup final against Manchester City also on the horizon next month.
“Yes, [the top four] is still possible of course. We’ll fight until the end to give everything,” said Lucas.
“If we play like we played today of course we can reach the top four. It’s