Tottenham Hotspur star Lucas Moura has given a long interview to Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte this week, with most of the chat being about manager José Mourinho.
South American players are often more sincere when speaking to their home country’s media, and that’s how last year Lucas revealed he wasn’t any happy with Mauricio Pochettino for putting him on the bench for the Champions League final.
Now the 27-year-old sounded quite honest once again, this time talking about the good relationship he has with the Portuguese boss, with the language being a big boost.
Asked if he’d spoken to any other Brazilians before Mourinho’s arrival, Lucas revealed he talked to Chelsea’s Willian to know more about the manager.
“I talked to Willian. When Mourinho took charge of Tottenham he came to talk to me, he spoke very well of him. When a coach of this calibre like Mourinho arrives, we get anxious, in the expectation of getting to know the day-to-day training with him there, how he is at meetings. I was very anxious,” Lucas Moura told Globo Esporte.
“Willian said that it was very good the time he was at Chelsea with him, that he’s great, that I would like him a lot. But I didn’t try to probe and ask everyone because each one may have a different opinion, have spent different moments with him, so I’m looking to have my experience with him on a daily basis and draw my conclusions.
“I try never to draw conclusions from what other people say, what the press says or other players. If I have the opportunity to work with him now, I try to draw my conclusion from what I’m seeing from day to day. It’s been very positive with him, I really have nothing to say. It’s a style that I like a lot because what he needs to say he’ll speak directly to you, he won’t send a message to anyone. If you played badly he’ll tell you that you did nothing in the game. It’s a style that I really like, which is very sincere. He won’t say anything to please you. He’ll say what he thinks. I’m finding it very positive.”
Asked about the difference between Mauricio Pochettino and José Mourinho, Lucas Moura said: “I think it’s still a little early to speak. Mourinho told us when he arrived that it was the second time, if I’m not mistaken, that he takes a team in the middle of the season. This is a little tricky because you don’t have much time to train playing almost twice a week. There’s no way to work hard in training. But I think the style is a little bit more different. He’s a guy who tactically analyses the opposing team and is a guy who really likes to work tactically with our team.
“He really enjoys teamwork, a very compact team, which makes the movements designed, all together. It gives us that freedom to play, have fun on the pitch, put our characteristic into practice. He’s very sincere, he plays very openly with us. When we play badly, he talks to our face. When you play well, when you have to be praised… I think the beginning with him is very positive.”
Finally speaking about the language, Lucas Moura says their private conversations have all been in Portuguese: ‘When the meeting is with the team, he always speaks in English. If he needs to speak to me in front of everyone, he will speak in English too. But when he calls in private, that’s our language, and of course I feel more comfortable speaking Portuguese, which is the language I speak and I have this freedom with him to talk. But as I said, he’s a very open, very sincere guy. He gives me the freedom to go to him and say what I think, what I want, what I’m thinking. Being Portuguese, this ease of language makes me more comfortable when I need to ask him, when I need to say something.”
Lucas Moura is clearly enjoying life under Jose Mourinho at Tottenham.
