Embattled Mourinho: I don´t need others to put pressure on me, I put pressure on myself

Jose Mourinho has little interest in external scrutiny after three consecutive Tottenham defeats, insisting he places enough pressure on himself.

Spurs host struggling West Brom on Sunday but head into the weekend eighth in the Premier League, 14 points off top, after losing to Liverpool, Brighton and Hove Albion and Chelsea consecutively.

That miserable run has made Mourinho the first Tottenham boss since Andre Villas-Boas in November 2012 to suffer three defeats in a row in the league.

Indeed, the reverses against Liverpool and Chelsea represented the first time in 327 home league matches in Mourinho’s managerial career he has lost back-to-back games.

Speaking ahead of the West Brom game, where Spurs will aim to bounce back at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Mourinho offered a spiky response when asked about increasing pressure, referring to the club’s wait for a league title that stretches back to 1961 and a total trophy drought of more than 12 years.

“I put pressure on myself every day,” he said. “I don’t need others to put pressure on me, I put pressure on myself every day.

“Since 2012 without three defeats in a row, correct? How long since a title? Maybe I can give one.”

1 – In what was his 327th home league match, Spurs boss José Mourinho has suffered back-to-back league defeats on home soil for the very first time in his managerial career. Questions. pic.twitter.com/LB6fAhV1uU

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 4, 2021

Mourinho added his focus remains on the short term and again getting the better of Sam Allardyce, the West Brom boss against whom he has never lost in 12 Premier League meetings.

Even with West Brom 10 points shy of safety after losing to bottom side Sheffield United, Mourinho is aware of the threat they pose.

The Baggies have held Manchester City and Liverpool away from home this term and beat Mourinho’s Manchester United at Old Trafford during their previous relegation campaign in 2017-18.

“The most important thing now is West Brom,” Mourinho said. “I don’t even want to think about [subsequent fixtures against] Everton or City.

“After City, we go to Austria in the Europa League, which is a big competition for us that we have good expectations in.

“But I don’t even want to think about that, I want to think about West Brom. That’s a big game. Sometimes big games are just against the top six or the London derbies or whatever it is, other times big games are games like this.

“It’s a big game for West Brom because they need a victory, they need points to survive, to get out of where they are.

“It’s a big game for us because we need to leave the position where we are, which is not a dramatic position like theirs but is a very bad position for us, so we need to leave it.

“We need to break the dynamic of three defeats like you saw, so it’s a very important match for us.

“But the reality is until the end of the month we have great motivations in front of us. The Europa League is something that since the beginning we put a lot on.

“I cannot forget that we had to play many games to qualify for the group stage, games with two days in between, travelling around Europe to play.

“The team wants and the team is waiting for that, maybe the squad needs that, but let’s focus on West Brom because it is the next match and, after three defeats, we have to win against West Brom; we cannot even think a different thing.”