Nuno Espirito Santo has admitted that the feel-good factor has disappeared in Tottenham, after they fell to a disappointing 1-0 defeat against Pacos de Ferreira in their UEFA Conference League play-offs.
Espírito Santo mixed up their package for the game without any of the 11 starters from their Premier League victory over Manchester City playing any role.
Five players also made their debut, including new signings Pierluigi Gollini, Cristian Romero and Bryan Gil. The young couple Dane Scarlett and Nile John were also invited. Spurs produced at best an incoherent screen and collected only three shots on goal during the competition.
After the match, Espirito Santo revealed his dissatisfaction with the performances and said: “Of course it affects [the mood] very. No one likes to lose a game or not play well.
“The feel-good factor disappears. This is football. It’s upside down but how do you realize that’s the situation? They have to bounce back. This is what we’re going to do. The good part of football is that it gives you the chance right away, and we have a chance on Sunday. “
He added: “The first half we lost too many passes – and the goal came from that. We were unbalanced. But not a good performance, honestly not a good performance.”
Despite the poor performance, Espirito Santo insisted that he did not regret having rotated his team so extensively.
“The decision was basically to try to give them minutes. We need players to get minutes in their legs and increase their fitness,” he said.
“I would decide exactly the same thing [again] because the main issue is to use the squad because we have a long way to go and we need all the players involved. “
Spurs will jump back from Thursday’s disappointment when they travel to Espirito Santos’ former club Wolves on Sunday.
