Jose Mourinho: Every word of the Tottenham coach's response to Paul Merson over Harry Kane goal concerns

The Spurs boss namechecked Drogba, Ronaldo, Benzema, Milito and Ibrahimovic to defend his record with strikers

Jose Mourinho launched an amazingly detailed defence of his record with strikers in response to Paul Merson's claim that Harry Kane would not score 25 to 30 goals a season under the Tottenham manager.

Appearing to read from a sheet, Mourinho listed the goals per season averages for Didier Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Diego Milito and Zlatan Ibrahimovic under his management.

"So dear Paul, I have lots of respect for you," he concluded. "I think Harry Kane has no problem at all to score goals in my teams, especially when he’s fit and fresh and has routines of playing. That’s my message to somebody I have lots of respect for."

Kane was subdued in his first performance since tearing his hamstring on New Year's Day as Spurs restarted their Premier League season with a 1-1 draw against Manchester United on Friday.

The England captain completed the 90 minutes but recorded just one shot – a blocked free-kick – prompting Merson to tell Sky Sports that Kane should have a "serious think" about his future at the end of the season because he is unlikely to prolific in a Mourinho team.

Speaking before Tuesday's visit of West Ham, the Portuguese offered a robust defence of his record with goal-scorers at Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan.

"I feel a bit strange [about] some analysis and some comments," he told a Zoom press conference. "Especially because it looks for me that the beginning of some comments and analysis, they started from Paul. I have to say I respect a lot people like him and because I respect a lot, I want to be nice in my answer.

"I don’t think he is ready for a bad answer. So I try to be nice. And I try just to say something where people can think a little bit. First of all, Harry played his first game for six months and if you watch and analyse the game, compare Harry Kane with Anthony Martial.

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"It wasn’t a game of many chances, where the two strikers had a lot of chances. Do you give credit to my defence for Martial’s game, do you give credit to United’s defence to the occasions that we didn’t create? You have to look at it in a balanced approach.

"In our case, Harry doesn’t play a game for six months. The record of goals that Harry has with me is easy for you, you just go to your data and it is easy to see how many matches Harry played with me and how many goals he scored.

"For you not to lose time, I can say that I had a few strikers who played for me and they are not bad. I had one guy called Drogba. He played for me four seasons, he scored 186 goals which gives an average of 46 goals per season." Drogba scored 73 goals in 186 games for Chelsea.

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"I had one guy who is not also bad. Plays for Juventus now. He played for me for three seasons. He scored 168 goals which gives an average of 56 goals per season.

"I had another guy that is also not bad, called Karim Benzema. He played for me three seasons. He was not always starting because he was quite young at the time. He scored for me 78 goals in three seasons, which gives a 26 goal average per season.

"I had another one called Milito. He played one season for me, he scored 30 goals, he won three titles. Of course, the average is 30. I had another guy who played for me for one-and-a-half seasons. I say that because in the other half he had a big injury.

"Tall guy called Zlatan. He played for me for one-and-a-half seasons, he scored 58 goals which gives a 29-goal average per season.

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"So, dear Paul, I have lots of respect for you. I think Harry Kane has no problems at all to score goals in my teams, especially when he is fit, fresh and has routines of playing. So that’s my message to somebody that I have lots of respect for."

Mourinho insisted he was not angry with Merson, adding: "I could be aggressive in my answer. I have been aggressive many many times, I still can be. I decided, because it’s Paul and I have respect and other things more than respect, I decided to answer just with data."

Mourinho confirmed that Lucas Moura is available to face the Hammers after being forced to miss Friday's match with a concussion, while Dele Alli will return from a one-match ban.

(Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)
Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty I

"That gives me for the first time since I arrived, it’s the first time I have all six attacking players available for the game," he said. "I had matches with only one and now finally I have six. I can have people playing, people on the bench, rotate the players. Our attacking options for this match are really good.

"They’re all players that I like very very much. I always liked the players here when I arrived and then in January we got Bergwijn.

"Bergwijn, Lamela, Lucas, Sonny, Dele and Harry – six attacking players, all different, all very good. And it’s the first time I have all of them available which is the kind of problem that we coaches just love."

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