José Mourinho has compared possession and passing statistics to an overcooked delicacy, promising much but bringing little to the table, as he continued to defend his style of play at Tottenham in the wake of Wednesday’s 2-1 loss at Liverpool. The manager had argued that he and his players deserved better, having created two gilt-edged chances at 1-1 before they conceded a 90th-minute winner to Roberto Firmino. Jürgen Klopp saw it differently and the Liverpool manager made a cutting post-match observation based on the numbers which showed his team had 200 passes in the final third to Spurs’s 19. “If you ask me now, I can’t remember the 19,” he said. Mourinho was asked for his thoughts on Klopp being named as the manager of the year at the Best Fifa awards and he responded by saying that he could not believe Bayern Munich’s Hansi Flick had not won it. He was more direct and expansive when responding to questions about his approach at Spurs, which has taken them to second in the Premier League, three points behind Liverpool. “You love the word possession and you love the stats,” Mourinho said, as he prepared for Sunday’s visit of Leicester. “It is a little bit like the efficiency of players and sometimes you say: ‘The stats say Player B had 92% of efficiency in his passing.’ But the stats don’t say that player only made passes of two metres, they don’t say that the player was a centre-back who only passed to the other centre-back. Or a No 6 who only passed to a No 8. “And the guy that had 65% of efficiency on his pass is the guy that made the assist, is the guy that makes the adept passes, is the guy that makes 60-metre passes to change the direction of the play. So the stats many, many times are like an incredible piece of meat or fish but badly cooked. It doesn’t tell me much. What tells me [much] is the number of goals you score and the number of chances that you create.” Mourinho said that he was open to every style. “It depends on the circumstances, on the opponent, on your players, on your weaknesses, too. When sometimes I see people in the lower divisions trying to play the way the top players do and then make incredible mistakes because they have not enough quality … I just feel that is wrong. I promise you that nobody knows better than I do our own weaknesses.” The Tottenham manager was also asked whether the scrutiny of his approach was fair at a time when Manchester City are struggling, Chelsea have stuttered and Arsenal are in freefall. “If you want to write an article like you told … [in] your words not my words – ‘Man City are not playing well, Chelsea are not playing well, it’s not fair that people criticise you’ – then you change the perception and you don’t need to ask me that question,” he replied. “So do it. I believe your question is showing already that you don’t look at me the same way you look at others. Because if you looked at me the same way you look at others, you would just write an article.” Mourinho said that he did not care if he received adulation or recognition, adding with a smile: “OK, when I arrived [at Chelsea in 2004] and I was probably a bit too arrogant for what you were used to, maybe I was [looking for recognition] but I’m not [now].” If anyone deserves recognition, Mourinho said it should be Flick, who won the Bundesliga, German Cup, Champions League, German Super Cup and European Super Cup this year but not the Best Fifa award. “The only chance for Flick to win that is if Bayern find two or three new competitions for him to win,” he said. “Maybe if he wins seven titles in one season, maybe he wins the award. Poor Flick.”