Mourinho slams Juventus and Barcelona target after Ajax collapse against Spurs
Speaking on beIN about the game, Jose Mourinho took the time to criticise Ajax's performance, singling out Juventus and Barcelona target Matthijs de Ligt and former Manchester United defender Daley Blind as primarily responsible for the collapse:
"For me, the philosophy is what makes a team grow up in a direction. Every team grows up, you need that base, you need that philosophy, you need that style of play adapted to the quality of the players.
"Ajax deserve all the credit for that and all the admiration of people like us who love football, and we give them the credit they deserve. But football is a sporting battle and in battles you need strategy. And to win matches, especially special matches, for special matches you need sometimes not to be tied to your philosophy.
"Sometimes you even need to go against your philosophy to win a football match. And I think if Ajax, in the second half, hide their weaknesses better, but everybody knows their weaknesses, they have to cope with that. We saw many examples in their attacking situations, we had other situations where Blind and De Ligt were outside. The basic thing you do when you have an advantage is keep your balance all the time – never unbalanced. The balance starts exactly with the defensive line in position then after that a certain number of players always behind the ball line.
"Ajax stuck with their philosophy, they played the game in the second half like they were playing Vitesse in the Dutch league. They played like it was a group phase game, or one more game in their own league. And I think in this moment they don’t believe what happened to them. Tottenham changed, they used very, very well direct football, they were lucky, they had the gods of football with them, but they chased that luck."
For more news, views and features, visit our homepage.