Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho called into question his players’ commitment after they lost 1-0 to Everton, with the coach calling his players “lazy”.
The former Manchester United boss suggested that his players were not ready for the new season after he oversaw their pre-season training regime.
After the match he told the BBC: "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.
"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."
Mourinho was criticised earlier this year when he took small training sessions with his players at the height of the coronavirus lockdown in Britain.
He criticised his squad for their showing on the pitch in their first Premier League game of the season.
"We were lazy in our pressing," he explained. "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."
He also made familiar complaints over refereeing decisions, in particular the goal which came from a free kick that appeared to be taken several meters ahead of where it should have been awarded.
"The goal shouldn't be possible when you have six referees and VAR — to let a free kick be taken five or six metres in front because it's a huge difference," said Mourinho.