Jan Vertonghen: Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has restored forgotten fighting spirit

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Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP16 December 2019

Jan Vertonghen credited Jose Mourinho with restoring Tottenham's forgotten fighting spirit after his late goal sealed a smash-and-grab 2-1 win at Wolves on Sunday.

The Belgian headed home a corner in stoppage-time to earn Spurs a fourth win in five League matches under Mourinho, moving them to within three points of fourth-placed Chelsea, who they host next weekend in a pivotal London derby.

Spurs were second best throughout but took the lead through Lucas Moura's early screamer before Adama Traore, who gave left-back Vertonghen a torrid afternoon, equalised with an equally fierce strike on 67 minutes.

Asked if an ugly win was a sign of Mourinho's growing influence, Vertonghen said: "Yeah, I think so. The gaffer has a lot to do with it – he has brought that fighting mentality back. We had lots of games last season when we won right at the end. It is the best feeling, we can’t give up. Wolves wanted a late goal too – but we believed just that little bit more.

"We had a lot of meetings this week about this game because, tactically, Wolves are a very good side, they will always have good spells in the game, especially in the first half," Vertonghen added. "It was tough one, towards the end we were thinking, 'Should we be happy with a draw or not?’ But this feeling is better.

"At 1-1, you're going to waste some time or try to go for the win. We had two thoughts there."

Vertonghen said a first League goal since the opening day of last season was particularly sweet after an exhausting outing against Traore, who repeatedly found a way past the stand-in full-back and took full advantage when Vertonghen backed off him from 20 yards for Wolves' equaliser.

"I tried to take the attention away from [my performance] with my goal!" Vertonghen said. "But it was tough, playing one-v-one against someone like that with so much pace. But we defended well.

"I asked to go up for [the] corner, for that element of surprise," Vertonghen added. "And I was allowed, so that was good. We have such a big team – [Eric] Dier, [Harry] Kane, Dele [Alli], Toby [Alderweireld], [Davinson] Sanchez – you have to decide who to keep at the back. Hopefully I’ve changed that decision! But my feeling would not be any different if someone else had scored.

"If you saw the celebrations at the end of the game, it meant a lot for us, we dug in deep and coming away with the win meant a lot to us.

"Everyone is feeling it's possible to get that fourth spot. A couple of weeks ago we were 12 points down, in 14th, 15th place. If you look at where we're at now, it's a good place."

A centre-half by trade, Vertonghen has started the last four League matches at left-back, with Ben Davies sidelined for at least two months with ankle ligament damage, Danny Rose out of favour under Mourinho and Ryan Sessegnon not deemed ready to play in defence by the Spurs boss.

Lift: Mourinho has fired Spurs back towards the top four
AFP via Getty Images

The Belgium international, who is out of contract in the summer, says he is just happy to be featuring after being in and out of the team under Mourinho's predecessor Mauricio Pochettino. "When Ben Davies was picked in [Mourinho's] first game, things might have changed," said Vertonghen. "I just want to play, I love football too much to sit on the sidelines. I’m just happy to play, even though it’s not really my position, I’ll just help the team out and play."

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