Jose Mourinho claimed his Tottenham team showed a "sadness" in their 1-0 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.
Spurs suffered back-to-back Premier League defeats as Leandro Trossard's well-crafted early goal proved decisive at the AMEX Stadium.
It was Brighton's first home league win of the campaign – and their first since June – while Tottenham have lost four of their last eight top-flight matches, as many defeats as they had suffered across their previous 28 games in the division.
Talisman Harry Kane was missing due to an injury sustained in Thursday's reverse to Liverpool, and Spurs have won just three of their last 13 Premier League games in which the England captain has not featured (D4 L6), including none of their last four (D1 L3).
A dismal first-half showing saw Tottenham manage just one attempt, the 11th occasion a Mourinho side has had one shot or fewer in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League game, and the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss accepted his team started with a lack of intensity.
"I agree with that," Mourinho told Sky Sports. "We didn't start well and the team was a bit sad, my feeling was the team was a bit sad.
"To concede a goal early brought even more sadness and lack of self-esteem, the team was suffering. The second half was different. The chances they had were the chances of a team that was trying everything.
"I saw people trying really hard, I saw some individuals with fatigue but trying hard. The defeat of course is always a bad feeling, but I leave with a positive feeling for my boys which is a good thing for me."
Indeed, Mourinho – who has lost all three of his league visits to Brighton – went as far as to say his side deserved more than they got from the match, despite mustering only eight attempts compared to the hosts' 16, with only substitute Carlos Vinicius truly testing Seagulls goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
"The last 25, 30 minutes I saw a team ready to give everything, gamble everything and finish the way we finished," he added.
"Probably the boys deserved more than we got. I go with the positive feeling for my boys because in the last 30 minutes they showed they wanted everything but defeat."
In Kane's absence, Son Heung-min filled in up top, with Gareth Bale handed a rare start on the right, but the duo failed to link up to much effect, the latter creating only one chance before he was subbed off just after the hour.
"We tried to start with a team that could try to give Sonny the same dynamic that he is used to," Mourinho explained.
"There is no replacement for Harry but we tried to have Bale going into those positions to connect with Son, and we were not successful, but I'm not speaking about Bale, I am speaking about us.
"Vinicius is a different player, we tried to change the target point. He brought us energy, new problems to the opponent. The team improved."
Rodrigo Bentancur set to be out until February after tearing an ankle ligament
Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur is set to be out until February after tearing a ligament in his ankle, the PA news agency understands.
The 26-year-old was injured in a tackle from Aston Villa’s Matty Cash during Sunday’s 2-1 home Premier League defeat, and a scan on Tuesday confirmed the extent of the damage.
The Uruguay international was making his first start since returning from an ACL injury that had kept him out since February.
It represents a further blow for manager Ange Postecoglou, who is already contending with a lengthy list of absentees, with nine first-team players having been unavailable through injury or suspension for the Villa defeat.
That list includes summer signings James Maddison and Micky van de Ven, who were influential in Spurs’ unbeaten start to the season that saw them go top after eight games.
Both went off during the 4-1 defeat to Chelsea earlier in November and are likely to be out until January, while defender Cristian Romero is currently serving a three-game ban after being red-carded against the Blues.
Tottenham are on a run of three straight league defeats that has seen them slip from first to fifth.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink wants aspiring black managers to get ‘a fair chance’
Former Chelsea forward Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink believes aspiring black managers are not taking their coaching badges because they do not believe they are given ‘a fair chance’.
The ex-Netherlands international has reunited with former Middlesbrough team-mate Gareth Southgate earlier this year when he joined the England boss’ staff in March ahead of the Euro 2024 qualification campaign.
Burnley’s promotion to the Premier League ensured the top flight would have one black manager this season – Vincent Kompany – but once again highlighted the disparity between the number of black players and bosses, a problem that extends beyond the pitch.
Asked on the latest episode of the Matt Haycox Show podcast, to be released on Wednesday, if football was moving in the right direction, Hasselbaink said: “The only thing that I can say is I have applied for a lot of jobs, and the majority I didn’t get an interview.
“Why? I don’t know. I can only tell you I didn’t get an interview, and I only want to get a job because they think that I’m the right person for the job.
“And I do know that a lot of black ex-players don’t want to go and take their coaching badges because they think that we don’t get a fair chance.
“I can only give you an answer of my experience, and my experience is that I don’t get interviewed.”
Hasselbaink’s managerial career started at League Two Burton in 2014 and also took in Championship QPR and League One Northampton, before his second stint with the Brewers ended with his resignation last year.
He continued: “I was always told, ‘Jimmy, start in League Two, and start small, do well, and then you will get an opportunity’.
“However, other players who are white, who have more or less a name like mine, they don’t have to do that. So, that is my fact.
“Patrick Vieira would say the same. Thierry Henry would say the same. Sol Campbell would say the same. Those are the facts, you know.”
Last season saw Vieira sacked at Crystal Palace and Hope Powell dismissed by Women’s Super League Brighton, leaving both the English men’s and women’s top flights without a black manager until Kompany steered the Clarets to promotion.
And a January 2023 paper commissioned by the Black Footballers Partnership revealed that while black athletes comprised 43% of players in the Premier League and 34% in the EFL in 2021, black employees accounted for just 4.4 per cent of those occupying management-related positions in football clubs the following year.
Hasselbaink told entrepreneur and investor Haycox: “I know there’s a lot of black managers that want to be coaches, but they have to put bread on the table as well.
“They need to make a living and they’re thinking ‘I need to do something that is going to feed my kids, and if I’m not going to get a chance, why pursue this?’
While Hasselbaink believes some prominent football figures could be stronger allies for black players hoping to pursue leadership roles, he has nothing but praise for Southgate, his former captain at Middlesbrough, who brought the 51-year-old into the England fold after a chance meeting.
He added: “He believes in me, and he gives me the chance to be with him and to help the team.
“Black or white, Gareth doesn’t look at me like that. And I know that, because I’ve played with him for two years.
“Gareth was always around everybody. He was with the white guys, he was with the black guys. He was joking with all of us, and he was tough on all of us as a captain when he needed to be, regardless of our backgrounds.
“Working with the best talent in the country, seeing them flying over the pitch, and seeing that group together is magnificent.”
Like father, like son – Shaqueel van Persie makes Youth League debut
Robin van Persie handed a UEFA Youth League debut to his son Shaqueel for Feyenoord on Tuesday.
Van Persie, the former Arsenal and Manchester United star, is now coaching Feyenoord's Under-18s team and the Under-19s team.
And while taking charge of the latter side in the Youth League, Van Persie handed his son Shaqueel his debut in the competition as a 56th-minute substitute against Atletico Madrid.
Van Persie junior could not help his father's team avoid defeat, however, with Iker Luque scoring the only goal of the game in the 81st minute.
Shaqueel the real deal?
Shaqueel van Persie made his European debut five years and 104 days after his father last played in a European match for Feyenoord, where he finished his career.
The 17-year-old, who was born during Van Persie's stint at Arsenal, began his youth career with Manchester City before moving to Feyenoord in 2017, a year before his father joined the same club.
He has already represented the Netherlands at Under-16 and Under-17 level.
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