Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho says his side were not “Spursy” despite letting their 3-0 lead slip against West Ham on Sunday.
The Hammers scored three goals inside the final 10 minutes to salvage a point against their London rivals.
The ‘Spursy’ tag has been frequently used to describe Tottenham’s supposed habit of letting leads slip or choking.
“We can play 50 more matches and it’s not going to happen again,” said Mourinho.
“I don’t want to be sticking on this. No stories about ‘Spursy’ and this kind of thing. We just need to defend better from set-pieces.”
Speaking at a news conference before Spurs’ Europa League match against LASK, Mourinho added: “We are a team in evolution. I believe that nobody played better than us with the ball. Which is a big evolution from last season. We are a very exciting team to watch. And that’s the DNA we want to have.
“Is that enough to win football matches? No. Of course we need to play for a result and we have to learn how to do it.”
Mourinho confirmed that the injured Eric Dier and Japhet Tanganga would miss Thursday’s European clash, but added that Davinson Sanchez – who scored an own goal against West Ham – would start.
On Tuesday, Tottenham’s 25-man Premier League squad was announced, with England left-back Danny Rose not included.
“Danny is not part of our squad,” Mourinho said. “Danny wanted very, very much to leave in the January window last season. Why? Because he wanted to play and play and play.
“Then he went to Newcastle and I immediately had the feeling of being a player of his dimension that, thinking about Euros, I thought our future would be [Ben] Davies and [Ryan] Sessegnon. Then we had the possibility to get [Sergio] Reguilon and I thought that would be a good opportunity for Ryan to get game time and develop.
“With Danny, the players and agents make the market. If the agent didn’t find a solution for Danny to move then it’s a question you have to ask him.”
