‘So many long balls’ – Moura hits out at Spurs tactics at Arsenal

Joe Williams
Lucas Moura playing for Spurs

Spurs forward Lucas Moura says the tactics deployed in their 3-1 loss to Arsenal in the north London derby “didn’t work at all”.

The Brazilian who started his fourth Premier League match of the season at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday was part of Nuno Espirito Santo’s outfit which sunk early on.

Goals from Emile Smith Rowe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bukayo Saka put the Gunners 3-0 ahead at the break before Son Heung-min grabbed a consolation goal near the end for the visitors.

The downward spiral of Tottenham Hotspur is starting to look unfixable

And Moura issued a damning assessment of the Spurs performance in the aftermath of the defeat in the north London derby.

Speaking after the match, Moura told reporters: “The feeling is very, very bad. We know what it means for the fans, for the club and of course we wanted to win, we wanted a different result.

“It’s not a time to speak. It’s a time to be quiet and work hard. It was a very bad game, it didn’t work at all.

“I think they took advantage of our mistakes. We gave them too much space. And we didn’t play. We didn’t try to play. We didn’t try to have the ball.

“We have quality to have the ball, to build, to do more than what we did. So many long balls. We were not aggressive enough and they punished us.

“Even 3-0 down, it was not finished. Second half we did different, it was quite [good]. But it was too late, 3-0 from the first half was very difficult to turn over.

“But we tried, we fought until the end but it was not enough we’re not happy and we need to improve.”

Moura added: “We need to run more. We need to be more aggressive, we need to work more, work harder.

“But we cannot be crazy. It’s only the beginning of the season. We have a lot of games to play so we need to improve as soon as possible.

“It’s Premier League. Every game is hard, every game is a war. The first three games was good, especially against [Manchester] City. I don’t know why we changed our mind against [Crystal] Palace, it didn’t work.

“We didn’t know how to react after but we need to react as soon as possible. We need to improve. Like I said, we have the quality to do better.

“We need to know how to pass this moment, how to face this moment. We’re all good players who have quality to improve. To do better. That’s the Premier League, that’s football.”

 

Tottenham Hotspur Lucas Moura