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Tottenham ‘punished by own mistakes’ against Liverpool – Mourinho

Jose Mourinho - Tottenham
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Lapses in defense ended up costing all three points for Spurs against the Reds, and they now find themselves eight points off league leaders.

Jose Mourinho blames individual mistakes for Tottenham’s defeat to Liverpool in the Premier League on Thursday.

Tottenham thought everything was under control with the scoreline level as half-time approached but Roberto Firmino made sure they go into the break trailing.

Liverpool quickly added another after the breakthrough Trent Alexander-Arnold before Sadio Mane rounded off the well-deserved 3-1 win.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored an absolute stunner from outside the box but it turned out to be only a consolation goal for his side. 

All three goals conceded were a result of sloppy defending from Spurs. Hugo Lloris and Eric Dier hesitated to deal with Mane’s cross for the first one, Lloris pushed the ball straight into the path of Alexander-Arnold for the second one, and the third came after Joe Rodon failed to clear the ball.

“We were punished by our own mistakes,” said Mourinho to BBC Sport.

“Everything went wrong in the first half, we shouldn’t be losing at half-time. I thought we were very solid and very confident in the first half.

“To go 1-0 down, not easy. To lose Harry, not easy. And, in the first minute of the second half, to have another defensive mistake, at 2-0 it is mentally difficult to resist.

“But we had a good reaction, in the opposition half, and then another mistake – this time from a young boy [Roden] who played so, so well.

“But I have to praise the guys who stayed on the pitch because they tried until the end.”

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