Steven Bergwijn has denied Tottenham suffered from a mentality problem as a result of Thursday’s controversial VAR call against Sheffield United.
Spurs were denied a first-half equaliser when Lucas Moura was deemed to have handled the ball before Harry Kane struck. Lucas was seemingly fouled, and it was unclear whether the ball actually touched his arm.
The visitors struggled after the perceived injustice and shipped two more goals, seriously harming their chances of qualifying for the Champions League in the process.
After the game, Jose Mourinho questioned his players’ mentality (via the London Evening Standard) and called on the squad to “care and fight” for the remainder of the season.
The Spurs boss suggested the players failed to recover mentally from the VAR incident, but Bergwijn – who, it’s worth noting, was unaware of Mourinho’s comments as he was being interviewed at the same time – disagreed with the handball call’s impact.
“No, I don’t think like this. It is mixed feelings, but I don’t think it affected the players,” said Bergwijn (via Football London).
“When you concede a goal and equalise so quickly it is a good feeling, but it is disallowed, it’s really mixed feeling.”
Bergwijn was strangely substituted just 10 minutes into the second half despite being Tottenham’s most dangerous attacking player in the opening 45 minutes. Here’s hoping Mourinho gets his team selection and substitutes right against Everton on Monday.
man u played with a host of forwards and struggled to score –we were no different as our forwards were not in sync and needed someone like erickson to provide a pivotal pass–with so many same type players we needed harry in midfield as he can see the early pass that can unlock a stubborn defence —
apart from that our reliable defence were caught napping too many times and we paid the penalty —
a little disappointed that the manager seemed bereft of inspiration on the tactical front
IN ONE JOHNMAX THE MANAGER IS BEREFT OF ANY TACTICS
A guy like Tanguay ndomele should have played from the start as a number ten role to unlock sheffields defence… Moura kept falling, lo selso was being bundled of the ball..kane was dropping in wards. Aurier was playing with two right legs… Son had no support bergwien was dropping deep to pick up balls… Ndomele was the perfect man to stand on his strong feet and dictate the passage of play across a team defence that came to defend and counter attack. From deep…. Spurs keeping letting their fans down.. Jose don’t have the players to play his style of football .. This is an attacking team … He cannot expect attack minded players to drop back deep.. That caused his demise at both chelsea and man utd…. Spend money on a world class holding midlfielder… Academy guys and mediocre players are not going to do it… To Toby and jan reads the game while Eric afn Sanchez look at pictures of balls on the ground and get caught… The only player reading the game is Sissoko at the moment.