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Jose Mourinho says Tottenham need to rediscover cutting edge

  /  autty

Jose Mourinho has urged his Tottenham side to rediscover their cutting edge ahead of this weekend’s North London derby against Arsenal, live on Sky Sports.

Despite possessing an array of attacking talent, lead by former Golden Boot winner Harry Kane, Spurs failed to register a single shot on target against Bournemouth as they were held to a goalless draw on Thursday evening.

In contrast, Tottenham have kept three clean sheets in their last five outings, with Mourinho readily admitting the side need to strike the right balance at both ends of the pitch.

"We want to keep our defensive organisation as it is giving us good numbers but we're not scoring enough goals," Mourinho said.

"We're not being dangerous and attack-minded enough despite all the attacking players on the pitch.

"At the moment there is a contradiction between the amount of attacking players we have on the pitch and our production.

"We are arriving in good positions, we have good percentages of ball possession and spend the majority of the time in the opponent's half.

"But there is no sharpness or objective - there's too many touches, we're not clear or aggressive or making sharp killer decisions."

Despite Mourinho's frustrations, he insists there will be no personnel changes in the transfer window, maintaining all his forward players are good enough to compete.

"We cannot get any better players than what we have," Mourinho added. "I like them all.

"It's one thing to say we are not scoring enough goals but another to say my players are not good enough - and my players are very good.

"So in relation to the transfer market - I don't want to replace my attacking players."

'Referee's should explain their decisions'

Mourinho also refused to speak about Michael Oliver's appointment as referee for Sunday's north London derby.

Oliver has been the VAR official in Spurs' last two away games, where there were controversial decisions in both - first ruling out Lucas Moura's handball at Sheffield United and then opting not to award a clear penalty at Bournemouth.

Despite those controversies, which Mourinho heavily criticised, Oliver will referee the match against Arsenal.

"I cannot speak about it, I don't like to speak about it," Mourinho said.

"I feel free to comment on the referee performances after the performances but I don't like and I know from a legal point of view I can't make comment before matches."

However, Mourinho believes the referees and VAR officials should be made accessible after the games to explain their decisions.

"I think you should have access to them, I think you should have access to them to ask directly why," he added.

"It is very important. They are very important in the game, I think so.

"It would stop nothing, make things much more open, much more clear. It would give the ref the chance to say, 'Yes, I made a mistake - I feel sorry for that', or 'Yes I had incredible performance'.