Jose Mourinho went off on a bizarre rant after his handling of Harry Kane was questioned.
[ VIDEO: Premier League highlights ]
In his pre-match press conference ahead of the game against West Ham (Start time, 3:15pm ET on Tuesday, live on NBCSN and online via NBCSports.com), Mourinho was asked about comments from ex-Arsenal player and current Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson about Kane and how the current style of play at Tottenham means he will no longer score 25-30 goals a season.
Mourinho then went on what can best be described as a four-minute rant as he listed Didier Drogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and others as strikers he has got the best out of.
That’s fair enough. One small thing though, Jose, you may want to work on your math when it comes to the number of goals Drogba scored at Chelsea.
Here’s a clip of Mourinho switching into full stats mode:
🗣"I had a few who weren't bad, I had a guy called Drogba he scored 186 goals, I had another guy who wasn't bad, he's at Juventus now"
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) June 22, 2020
Jose Mourinho has just read a list of strikers he has managed in his Harry Kane comparison after @PaulMerse said he didn't suit his style 🤣 pic.twitter.com/HubZ3EROMN
For the most part, his stats were correct but Drogba scored 164 goals across all competitions during his entire Chelsea career. Not 186 during Mourinho’s spell in charge of the Blues.
Mourinho only managed him for four seasons at Chelsea and Drogba scored 73 goals in that period. He was also off when quoting stats on Gonzalo Higuain. Mourinho should probably get a new calculator but his point is that central strikers usually fare well in his system and it’s tough to argue with that.
Kane looked sluggish in Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with Man United but that was to be expected in his first appearance since Jan. 1. That said, Tottenham gave him little service and their tactics to sit back and hit Man United on the break worked, for the most part.
Mourinho was not happy his team couldn’t seal the win against Man United and is feeling the pressure a little as Spurs’ season looks in danger of petering out as they missed a big chance to cut the gap to fifth place, which looks like being a Champions League qualification berth if Man City’s UEFA ban is upheld.