Jose Mourinho says Spurs' striker injury crisis is like hanging by your arms on the balcony of the fourth floor after the stairs have been taken away.
'Now we are with our arms on the balcony' - Mourinho's take on Spurs striker crisis
SHOWS: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (FEBRUARY 18, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) REPORTERS ASKING TOTTENHAM MANAGER JOSE MOURINHO: "Jose, you had to find a different way of playing without Harry Kane, how will you now cope without Son, will you have to try a different style again?" MOURINHO: "Yes (smiling).
Has to be.
"You know that - I know that if I don't say something strong, you are going to say the same questions, so you know that I like analogies - it's the word, right?
- you know that I like analogies, and sometime I do good ones, sometime I do silly ones, but in this case, I try to do one for you.
"When we arrived, we were in the minus 12 floor.
We got the stairs and we start climbing, but immediately in the beginning, the stairs, they broke.
So we were in trouble and we were finding a way to try to get.
We found a way, we start climbing, lots of work, lots of effort, and we start going and going and going and when eleven steps, eleven floors, we go, we go, we go and when we arriving on the fourth floor, which is when we wanted to arrive, somebody come and took the stairs away.
"So now we are in trouble.
Now we are with our arms on the balcony, in the fourth floor and now we have two options - one, is to give up and fall and normally die because it's the fourth floor.
Another way is to fight with what we have.
No stairs, but arms. So we are going to be on that balcony, fighting with everything that we have.
"And there is only one possibility of help in this incredible fight that we have ahead of us - our public.
No strikers, no market, no players, nothing.
The only help that we can have now, especially playing at home, is our crowd." 2.
WHITE FLASH 3.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) JOSE MOURINHO SAYING: "In some period, I was worried about not having attacking options on the bench, now I don't have attacking options on the pitch!" 4.
WHITE FLASH 5.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) JOSE MOURINHO SAYING: "But, we have to recover from broken hearts and we have to fight with the team that we have, so let's go with a smile, let's go strong, I'm not going to give up.
And probably opponents, they are thinking 'wow, now is the time to kill them' which I understand if they think that way, but we are going to give everything and I don't think it is going to be easy for Leipzig to play against us, I don't think it is going to be easy for Chelsea to play against us, I don't think, I don't think we will be easy for them." STORY: Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho compared the loss of striker Son Heung-Min to taking "the stairs away" as his side prepare to take on RB Leipzig in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie in London on Wednesday (February 19).
South Korean Son fractured his right arm in Tottenham's win over Aston Villa on Sunday (February 16), leaving Mourinho's side short an attacking options in the absence of injured striker Harry Kane.
Kane is sidelined until April with a hamstring injury and Mourinho compared the loss of Son to climbing up stairs that break without warning.
"We are holding by our arms on the balcony.
Now we have two options, to fall and normally die... The other is to fight with everything we have," said Mourinho on Tuesday (February 18).
"No strikers, no (transfer) market, no players, nothing.
The only help now is our crowd," Mourinho added.
"In some period I was worried about not having attacking options on the bench, now it's not having attacking options on the pitch!" (Production: Mike Brock)