Month: February 2020

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Mourinho was also denied the opportunity to call upon January signing Steven Bergwijn for an FA Cup fourth-round replay with Southampton on Wednesday as the Dutch winger was ineligible.

The Portuguese claims he is working with one hand tied behind his back at present, with the progress he was hoping to oversee in north London impossible to implement.

Mourinho told reporters after seeing Spurs edge out Southampton 3-2 on Wednesday: “I had to manage this chess game without pieces. You know. No bishops, no kings, no queens. Very, very hard with so many injuries and problems. No Bergwijn.

“I cannot speak about the progress I want to make because I don’t have the players I want.

“And the team needs players to progress, collectively, tactically and dynamically. We need to have the players but we don’t have the players.

“We lose so many. Sissoko, Harry, and today Lamela, Lo Celso and Bergwijn. It is so difficult.

“One game we have players A, B and C out and then the next game we are without D, E and F. It’s been a very difficult season.

“So everything was like when you pull a blanket up and your feet are left out and then you cover your feet but half of your body is out. That’s us. But amazing spirit, and that is something I like.

“The best team lost (referring to Southampton’s 3-2 defeat to Spurs on Wednesday night). The best team on the pitch lost.”

While frustrated at seeing his plans torn up on a regular basis, Mourinho has guided Tottenham back up to fifth spot in the Premier League table – four points adrift of his former club Chelsea.

He also has them chasing down FA Cup glory, with a fifth-round date booked against Norwich, while a Champions League last-16 showdown with RB Leipzig is also fast approaching.

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In Netherlands, an incident in a second tier clash between Den Bosch and Excelsior dominated headlines in November as Ahmad Mendes Moreira was the target of racist abuse from the crowd.

That incident prompted the Dutch authorities to develop a new strategy to help eradicate the issue. 

The KNVB will implement 20 measures as part of the new plan that focuses on prevention, identification and enforcement.

“Clubs that have made insufficient efforts to combat discrimination may be faced with points deductions, fines or (partly) playing without an audience,” the KNVB’s plan says.

“Players may be faced with longer suspensions (from matches and training sessions) or exclusion from matches.”

Meanwhile, offenders will be prosecuted more often than they have been in recent years, while two special prosecutors for racism will also be appointed in the Dutch game.

“The KNVB will also set up a special discrimination chamber within the disciplinary committee and the appeals committee,” the plan says. 

“This puts the handling of discrimination cases for both professional and amateur football in the hands of specialists. The special prosecutor assesses incoming reports, conducts preliminary investigations and prepares disciplinary cases on discrimination.” 

Special cameras will be used around stadiums to help identify perpetrators, while a mobile app allowing fans to anonymously report abuse in the stands will also be promoted.

The KNVB’s director of amateur football, Jan Dirk van der Zee, says there will be a training program for clubs of all levels in the country, while he feels the governing body itself must become more diverse.

“We are not a reflection of society,” he said. “We have to be. We must come across as more credible. That is not unimportant.”

Dutch minister of sport Bruno Bruins added: “Our football belongs to everyone. That is the title of the campaign that we will be running in the coming three years. We request role models to help in the coming period, for everything that has to do with racism and discrimination.”

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He admits that he could not have wished for a better learning curve than the one offered to him on Merseyside, with outings already taken in across FA Cup and Carabao Cup competition.

Van den Berg could have been experiencing similar in Germany or his native Netherlands had other options been explored, but he is convinced that England is the best place for him.

“I had the chance to go to Bayern Munich, PSV ­Eindhoven or Liverpool,” Van den Berg told The Mirror.

“I was amazed that such big clubs wanted to sign me and I thought PSV Eindhoven was a brilliant option for me because I have been a fan from a young age.

“But, once Liverpool came for me, I knew where I would go ­because I can only describe my feelings for the club as mega.

“It is such a big club, but, at the same time, it feels like a family club.

“Thanks to [Jurgen] Klopp’s approach and vision, I am up against the best attackers in the world several times a week.

“He lets me train and play against Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.

“That is ­something I could only have dreamt of in the past. These guys really belong to the very best attackers on this globe.

“Of course, it is hard. But when you are up against them every week and you learn some valuable lessons, then you only get better and stronger.”

Van den Berg is among those to have provided cover for senior stars this season when Klopp’s men have been busy elsewhere, with it his opinion that promising showings against Everton and Shrewsbury in the FA Cup show how bright the future is at Liverpool.

He added, with the club already Champions League winners and Premier League title hopefuls: “There is a massive amount of talent in this age group.

“I don’t want to say we’ve now arrived on the big scene because every one of us knows that we still have a mountain to climb.

“But the average age of the team against Shrewsbury was 19.

“We are massively proud of what we achieved on the night and we all talked about it
afterwards.

“The topic of our conversations was that we all want to get into the first team together one day.”