Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho told BT Sport after Thursday’s UEFA Europa League game against Lokomotiv Plovdiv that their schedule is a “total joke.”
Spurs have already played two games this season and there are many more to come this month. The match against Lokomotiv was one of potentially three UEL playoff games that Tottenham will have to win to reach the group stages of the Europa League.
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At the moment, the North London club are in a situation where they could possibly end up playing nine games in the space of just 22 days. The team will be playing in the Premier League, Europa League and the Carabao Cup. On Sunday they go to Southampton FC for a league fixture. Following that they will be taking on Leyton Orient in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
After this clash comes another Europa League playoff to deal with on Thursday, followed by Newcastle United coming to London on Sunday. Mourinho spoke to BT Sport about how he looked at the upcoming schedule and how he was going to deal with it.
He said:
“This is a joke, this is a total joke, but here we go. We were very, very lucky that Leyton Orient beat Plymouth because Plymouth would be very, very far for us. It’s quite dramatic but I would prefer to be in this competition so let’s fight until we can.”
September is going to be a tough month for Spurs as they will have a heavy workload to deal with. But if they can emerge from this with a place in the Europa League group stages, they will count it as a successful start to the season.
Mourinho will have to heavily rotate his squad in order to ensure that fatigue doesn’t set in. This is tough, as there are plenty of matches to play and he cannot risk anyone getting injured. Spurs will also be looking to bounce back in the Premier League compeition after having lost their first match.
Southampton will provide a tough challenge, but Mourinho will be counting on his squad to get the job done. Their schedule is indeed packed but getting past it with plenty of results will show what this squad is made of. Players such as Harry Kane and Dele Alli will have to be at the top of their game, consistently, in order to get them through this tricky period.