Lambert: Really Happy With How the Guys Went About It Saturday, 22nd Aug 2020 19:20 Paul Lambert declared himself happy with how his Ipswich side applied themselves in their 3-0 friendly defeat at Tottenham. Town, fielding two separate sides in either half, went down to goals from Ryan Sessegnon and Son Heung-min (2) inside the opening 30 minutes. But they competed well for the remaining 60 minutes, passing the ball well, even if they did not look like scoring a goal. Lambert was impressed with his side and did not think they were embarrassed. “Oh no, far from it,” he said. “We started the game really well, really well, we looked really good, we played some good football and their opening goal is from a mistake. “Young Aaron Drinan, who has been brilliant for us in pre-season tried to do something in one touch when he should have done it in two and we get punished. “But we were up against a team who were in the Champions League last year, Jose [Mourinho] has got a really good team. “The second goal, [David] Cornell’s made the error but he’s tried to play, and he’s only just started training, so that’s unfair on him. “But I am really delighted that we played some really good football, really happy with how the guys went about it and the great thing is if the lads can learn from the speed of the ball and take that into our own game then we will be better for it. “When you come up against this, I know what it is like, I have been at this level in management, the Premier League, so I know what it’s like, the top ones can punish you at the blink of an eye. “But that’s what top players do, top teams do it and you’ve got to be so careful and so tuned in mentally. As I said before, if the lads can grasp the speed that the Tottenham lads move the ball and take that into their own game, then they’ll be better players for it.” “I’ve come here a few times watching games and the infrastructure here is incredible. They’re a fabulous team, Jose’s got a really good side sitting there, and some guys haven’t even played, which shows how powerful they are. A top-six team, Champions League final last year, how well they’ll do this season, nobody knows. But it’s an incredible place.” Reflecting on some of his players' performances, he said: “I thought Toto Nsiala did really, really well for us, I think he’s playing really well, Toto. I think there are a lot of good things happening at the minute. “Aaron Drinan’s playing really well. I’m really happy with how we’re playing football. The football we’re playing is really good but it just shows you when you come up against the top ones, you have to be so concentrated.” Regarding the players who were missing, James Norwood, who is continuing his rehab after his groin operation last season, James Wilson, who has a minor calf problem, and Oli Hawkins, who was training on his own until he joined the Blues last Monday, Lambert added: “The three of them are getting there. Oli’s probably a just a little bit behind it, he’ll be a big threat for us, something different we don’t have.  “James [Norwood] is doing well with his rehab, he might train with us on Monday. James Wilson again, he might train with us on Monday. Hopefully we can get a few of them back.” Lambert spent time talking to opposite number Jose Mourinho before the game and joked about making an ambitious sales pitch. “I just asked him if Harry Kane was available on loan,” he said. “You are dealing with a guy who is at the top of his profession, he is a serial winner and it was just really nice for him to come here.” Mourinho was pleased with his team’s performance and to have given some of his younger players a run-out. “No injuries, very important, and we saw some good things,” he said. “We gave the opportunity to lots of young players to play, some really young, Alfie [Devine] was playing for Wigan U16s a few months ago, and [Dane] Scarlett is 16, and closer to 15 than 17. So, it was good overall. “We managed to save the majority of the players from playing 90 minutes, which is too premature in this first week of pre-season. Ipswich play in League One, but they have trained for a few weeks, they played two teams, so they kept lots of intensity in the game. So, I think it was good. “It was good, positive and really some very good things that I don’t want to go into in detail, but we put into practice some of the things we worked on during the week.”
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