Mourinho: 'Don't compare me to Andre Villas-Boas"

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has said that he sees no similarities between himself and Andre Villas-Boas.

Despite both Portuguese coaches working for Porto at a young age and managing Chelsea in the Premier League, los Blancos boss believes that Villas-Boas's career does not have any resemblance to his own.



"I don't see anything of myself in Andre Villas-Boas," Mourinho told RTP1.



"He has accessed places others couldn't. I follow his career regularly. I know there is a Jose Mourinho effect in the young Portuguese.



"There is a lot of young people who dream about being a coach. Twenty years ago the youngsters wanted to be players, not coaches."



Mourinho looks set to leave Madrid in the summer after all but conceding La Liga to bitter arch-rivals Barcelona.

Villas-Boas confident of Champions League

Andre Villas-Boas remains confident of guiding Tottenham to Champions League qualification despite yesterday's damaging 1-0 defeat to Fulham.

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The Portuguese claims that so long as Spurs pick up good results against rivals Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton in the run-in, then they will qualify for Europe's top club competition.



"The situation has shifted, it has become difficult," the Tottenham manager said.



"We have the direct games against Arsenal and Chelsea which can enable us to get back to third hopefully, or bring Man City closer to us.

"The margin over Arsenal is what we want to build and we have to get the most amount of points from the next games.

"After the international break we have to get back to business and do our job against Swansea and try to collect the points there to put us in a more comfortable position by the time we play Man City."

Tottenham offered little yesterday to suggest Villas-Boas would be right. Their passing was sloppy, their defence shaky, and Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer was only called into action late in the second half.

Fulham manager Martin Jol, who tasted victory at White Hart Lane for the first time since he was sacked from the north London club in 2007, hailed Berbatov after the game.

The Bulgarian has now racked up 10 goals this season, and he was so confident that he would secure a shock victory for the west London club that he told his manager he would do so before the match.

Jol said: "Before the game you hope for a point... but Berbatov came to me and promised me... He said: 'you have to trust me'.

"I thought he was joking. But he said it before the match against Stoke (where he scored the winner) and he is a wonderful player. It was one of the best wins ever."

Tottenham forward Gareth Bale, meanwhile, took a knock to his right ankle but should be fit for international duty with Wales this week.



Villas-Boas has ruled Aaron Lennon (groin and hamstring) and Michael Dawson (hamstring) out of England's double-header with San Marino and Montenegro, though.

AVB targets second place

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has his sights set on Manchester City as he looks to guide his team to second place in the Premier League.

Spurs face North London rivals Arsenal at White Hart Lane on Sunday but Villas-Boas has one eye on the bigger picture, as his side attempts to close a five-point gap on Roberto Mancini's men.

"They have the experience of winning the league, I think in their mind they are still focusing on it," he said of City.

"They have to come here (to play us, on 21st April). We have to play them still within this margin of five points at White Hart Lane.

"We could still put a threat to them. Our focus is on bridging gaps for the people in behind us."

First Villas-Boas must try to oversee a victory over Arsenal, who themselves are only four points behind Spurs in the league going into derby day.

"More than anything else, we will try to focus on getting the result at the weekend. That will be excellent," added Villas-Boas.

"For the fans it will be tremendous. The rivalry is something very, very special and I spoke to them about it when we played them at the Emirates.

"There is a demand from everybody to achieve success in this fixture, independent of whatever position you finish in the league."

There is a particular edge to this season's games after Arsenal pipped Tottenham to third place last season, denying their arch-rivals a Champions League spot after Chelsea won the competition.

"It's never easy to finish in the position that they did, qualifying for the

Champions League in fourth spot and seeing it taken away from them because it's the rules," Villas-Boas said.

"We need momentum as we want to qualify (for the Champions League). We have our own objectives.

"There is some pressure on this fixture and this result. Both teams will be up for it, it is a special game."

AVB expects battle for fourth

Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas is fully expecting the battle for a Champions League place to run until the end of the season.

Spurs currently hold fourth spot, just one point behind third-placed Chelsea, who lost to Manchester City on Sunday.

Tottenham travel to West Ham in Monday Night Football - also knowing they are one point ahead of local rivals Arsenal back in fifth.

"It is very tight still," he told.

"Everton and Liverpool are still strong teams challenging, and Liverpool has played most of the big teams, and they have to play us and Chelsea.

"Arsenal are still a threat and finish the season strongly - but our hope is to continue doing our job, our team is committed to this and we get great satisfaction from seeing our players strive towards these results."

Meanwhile, Villas-Boas has revealed he makes little use of complex analysis of data in football, describing the process as "useless."

Villas-Boas will test his mettle against Sam Allardyce, a manager who pioneered use of the Prozone system during his time at Bolton.

But Villas-Boas prefers to focus on the psychology of his players to achieve results rather than relying on facts and figures.

"I have never used Prozone. I don't use it because I don't believe (in it)," he said.

"You always have to be very, very careful with statistics. It doesn't mean that we negate them completely; we just don't use them to the extent that people might think.

"We have a scientific department that deals with that but we don't prepare our training or players based on the physical data we get from matches.

"The mind and how the player feels is much more important for us, rather than statistical data.



"For me it's useless, but it varies from coach to coach. We all have different approaches."


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Bale is incredible, says Andre Villas-Boas

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas says he has been stunned by Gareth Bale's "incredible" free-kick technique after the winger's double against Lyon.

Watch Gareth Bale two incredible free-kick

Bale, 23, followed up his goal in Saturday's win against Newcastle with two more set-piece strikes in the 2-1 Europa League home-leg victory.

"Incredible," Villas-Boas said. "Not only his all-round game but the ability he has to strike these free-kicks.

"The ball gains power when he strikes it and it changes direction easily."

Bale excelled in the Europa League round of 32 first-leg meeting with Lyon as he first found the back of the net with a swerving 35-yard effort before powering home the winner from a dead ball deep into injury-time.



Bale's brilliance

Bale's brace of free-kicks took him to 17 goals in all competitions this season, with four of his last six strikes coming from distance



He has now scored his club's last six goals in all competitions, with four of them coming from distance. The Welsh winger attributes this run of form to the hours spent on the training pitch honing his technique.

"I've been practising free-kicks on the training ground and I scored one like that last week," the Welsh winger said.

Spurs travel to France for the return match on Thursday and Bale hopes his brace will prove crucial.

"Lyon are a good team and we weren't 100% to be honest - we looked a bit tired," he said.

"But the most important thing is we got the win, it's going to be hard going over there, but we're taking this competition seriously."

Villas-Boas backs Popov card

Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas feels referee Mark Clattenburg made the right decision in dismissing Goran Popov in the 1-0 win over West Brom.

The Albion defender enraged his boss Steve Clarke when he was sent off for spitting on Tottenham right back Kyle Walker.

And Villas-Boas echoed Clarke's sentiments and praised Walker for not reacting to the incident.

He said: "It's difficult for the ref, but Popov did what he did and Walker did nothing to react.

"It's difficult to assess but I think Mark Clattenburg made the right decision. It's horrible and nasty."

Tottenham have collected four points from two away games at Norwich and West Bromwich in the space of four days, and Villas-Boas is delighted with the return.

"It has been a very important week for us," The Spurs manager added. "To get four points away from home, with not much time between the games, is excellent.



"We have put ourselves in a very good position to threaten for third place."