Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho defends team selections

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho has questioned why Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Frank Lampard are not asked about their team selections in the same way that he is.

The Portuguese boss secured his first victory at St James’ Park on Wednesday night as a Harry Kane brace and Son Heung-min strike sealed a 3-1 win against Newcastle.

Son opened the scoring in the first half but Newcastle equalised through a fine Matt Ritchie strike in the second period. 

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho defended his team selections following victory at Newcastle

He questioned why Jurgen Klopp (L) and Pep Guardiola (R) are not asked about their decisions

He also asked why Chelsea boss Frank Lampard is not quizzed on his team selection choices

Mourinho responded by replacing Lucas Moura with Steven Bergwijn a minute later and the Dutchman supplied the assist for Kane’s first header moments after being introduced.  

Following the victory the Tottenham boss was quizzed on what Bergwijn has to do to force his way into his starting line-up, to which Mourinho defended his selection decisions and pointed out that his Premier League counterparts do not have to answer similar questions.

‘Look, that is a question you normally do to me but you do not do to Frank Lampard, to Jurgen Klopp, to Pep [Guardiola], to all the coaches of the big clubs with big players,’ he said.

Mourinho was on what Steven Bergwijn has to do to get into starting XI after impact off bench

‘Frank Lampard plays [Christian] Pulisic, you don’t ask him why he doesn’t start [Callum] Hudson-Odoi or something. When Pep Guardiola plays someone and Bernardo Silva is on the bench, you never ask about Bernardo Silva.

‘It looks like I am the only guy that has to play 15 players from the start, or I am the only guy who doesn’t have the right to have good players on the bench. If I start with Bergwijn today, you would now be asking me what Lucas [Moura] has to do to start, what [Heung-Min] Son has to do to start.

‘They have to do nothing. They have to be team players and team players are player that start that go on the bench, that come in for half-an-hour, that come in for one minute.

‘How many times has Nuno [Espirito Santo] left [Adama] Traore on the bench to win matches in the last 30 minutes. You don’t ask Nuno why Traore is on the bench and why he’s playing [Diogo] Jota or [Daniel] Podence or [Leander] Dendoncker. It’s just me.

‘So he doesn’t have to do anything else, he’s a team player. He plays for Tottenham and if Tottenham wants to try and compete against the best teams, Tottenham cannot have 11 good players, they need more and we’ll have them on the bench.’

Bergwijn supplied the assist for Harry Kane’s first header moments after being introduced