Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris says their struggles this season stem from their inability to recover from losing the Champions League final to Liverpool.
Spurs’ remarkable European run last season took them to their first Champions League final, but they were beaten 2-0 in Madrid.
Less than six months later, Mauricio Pochettino, the man behind their success over the previous five-and-a-half years, was sacked, with Spurs 14th in the Premier League.
New manager Jose Mourinho has guided them to eighth in the Premier League, but they were on a run of six matches without a win before football was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Spurs were also knocked out of the FA Cup and Champions League in the space of just six days in March, and Lloris says their regression should not come as a huge surprise.
He said: “There is a risk when you go over your potential. Last season, we went on an incredible run in the Champions League and we finished the season on our knees. You don’t have time to recover from one season before you have to start a new one.
“And then there was the accumulation of things that provoked the situation and then a lot of injured players, the change of manager. It’s difficult to stay stable and to be always looking at the top.
“There is sometimes one season when everything goes against you. Maybe the consequence when you play four years making a huge effort to compete with the top teams and finish in the top four [every season], it’s a lot of accumulation and one season there is everything you cannot control. It can happen.”
(Sky Sports)
