The Brazilian has advocated the remainder of team-mates to pick themselves up and work hard so as to get more than a”difficult moment” for the club.
Lucas Moura has fought to put his finger on the reason Tottenham were conquered so comfortably by RB Leipzig at the Champions League, with the winger admitting that recent results haven’t been great enough under Jose Mourinho.
Spurs suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to the Bundesliga outfit in the first leg of the last-16 tie last month, using a Timo Werner penalty proving to be the gap between the two sides.
Tottenham had to score twice at Red Bull Arena to have any hope of reaching the quarter-finals, but fell behind only 10 minutes into the second leg when Marcel Sabitzer fired a low shot beyond Hugo Lloris and to the internet.
Sabitzer doubled his accounts to place Leipzig in a controlling position heading in at half-time, and Spurs were not able to reply in the next 45 as Moura, Dele Alli and Erik Lamela suffered a frustrating night in the last third of the pitch.
Emil Forsberg rounded off a 3-0 victory for Julian Nagelsmann’s side, with Tottenham failing to produce the same high degree of functionality which took them all the way to last year’s European Cup final.
Moura confessed post-match, “Something is missing” in Spurs at the moment but insisted that a winning formula will be rediscovered if the group stays united.
“What happened last season showed we’re an excellent team, an excellent club, that we’ve got good players,” the Brazil global began. “But today is a new season and a new second. I can’t tell you what happened if it’s all about mentality, about optimism, but we are aware that something is missing.
“I don’t think there’s a lack of confidence. We know that we have good players, we’ve got a fantastic squad and we could do better. It’s just football. Sometimes you may try all you perform well, you do not win. It’s just something which is missing. We’ll get the winning way again. We will need to keep working and fighting.”
Tottenham are still without prized duo Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, both of whom are in recovery after undergoing surgery on various injuries, and Mourinho does not anticipate January signing Steven Bergwijn to play again this season after spraining his ankle during last weekend’s draw at Burnley.
Mourinho will need to make do with a makeshift frontline once more if his side play host to Manchester United on Sunday, which comes five days prior to a London derby experience against West Ham.
Moura expects Tottenham can pick up six points to maintain their hopes of Champions League qualification alive, as they seem to close a seven-point gap between themselves and fourth-placed Chelsea.
“We have two major games at home today and we will need to win, which is it,” said Moura. “Every season it is our goal to get into the Champions League. We know we will need to be better. The last few results weren’t good and we must improve our game.
“It’s true, it is a really tough moment for us. But the only way we have is to keep fighting, keep thinking. Now we have just the Premier League and we will need to be in a better position. Our goal is the top four, the Champions League next year.
“I feel that it is possible. We’ll try.”
