Mourinho reveals Alli’s reaction to being substituted at half-time in Tottenham’s defeat by Everton

Jose Mourinho has revealed Dele Alli was ‘quiet and sad’ after being substituted at half-time in Tottenham’s opening Premier League game of the season against Everton amid reports of a bust-up with the midfielder.

Spurs started the new campaign on a sour note, losing 1-0 at home to Carlo Ancelotti’s side on Sunday in a disappointing performance.

England international Alli was hooked by Mourinho at the interval, with midfielder Moussa Sissoko brought on in his place.

Reports have claimed that Alli and Mourinho had fallen out in the lead-up to the game, but, speaking ahead of Spurs’ Europa League qualifying tie against Lokomotiv Plovdiv on Thursday, the Portuguese suggested there were no issues with the player.

“Dele was quiet, he was sad,” said Mourinho, regarding Alli’s reaction to being substituted against Everton amid reports he could head to Real Madrid as part of any agreement which would see Gareth Bale return to Spurs. “After the game, he was just one of many.

“He’s a good boy, very, very polite and I never saw from him a strong reaction. A good boy, a really good boy.”

Speaking in the immediate aftermath of the Everton defeat, Mourinho had accused his players of being “lazy”.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the only goal of the game and Mourinho suggested that some of his players were not in the proper mental state for the match.

“What happened after the goal with them having more chances is a consequence of conceding the goal and not such good fitness condition from some players,” Mourinho told BBC Sport. 

“What happened before the goal was a good game. We had two incredible situations and two good saves from Jordan Pickford. We didn’t score. The game was open.

“In the second half one goal made a difference in the result and what happened after the goal.

“Against good teams like Everton if you let them play from the back they are comfortable with very good technical players. If you don’t press them you give them ammunition.

“We were lazy in our pressing. That is a consequence of bad fitness, bad pre-season. Some players didn’t even have a pre-season. Some players had a wrong state of mind. I don’t want to speak about it — I’m not sure about it.

“It was too easy for them to play from back to front.

“Technically it was not so easy because some players didn’t have a pre-season for different reasons. We had two days with everybody. Two days before the game is not where you can work too much.”