The Spurs boss praised his side’s effort, although he wasn’t fully happy with Tuesday’s performance 

Jose Mourinho says insists that there is “no secret” to his success in the Carabao Cup, but he did admit that he believes that Tottenham do have one ingredient that leads to trophies.

Mourinho and Spurs booked a spot in the League Cup finale on Tuesday, toppling Brentford 2-0 to book their spot at Wembley.

There they will face either Manchester United or Manchester City in April, as Mourinho will look to get his hands on the Carabao Cup for the fourth time.

He’d done so three times with Chelsea and once with Manchester United and, this time around, he believes he can do so again.

While there isn’t any big secret to Carabao Cup success, Mourinho says there is one key to cup runs: desire.

“There is no secret. I come to England in 2004 and I remember that in that period I had to learn the meaning of the cups here and I always took it serious,” he said after the match. 

“If there is any secret, it’s to take it seriously, to respect what English football is, what English clubs are, what English lower divisions are, and try to not be surprised in any of the games from smaller quality and, when you have like we had this season a game against Chelsea, to go serious and with ambition. Apart from that there is no other secret

“What I sense in the team is exactly that: desire. I’m not saying winning mentality, I’m not saying we are this or that. I just say we are honest people. Since the first game against Chelsea, then Stoke, and now, the guys took it seriously.

“And that’s what I hope to do on Sunday in Crosby against Marine [in the FA Cup]: try to be serious, respect the opponents, and try to progress.”

Spurs are looking to end a 13-year trophy drought, having not won a cup since 2008.

And, although they sealed a chance to end that drought with Tuesday’s win, Mourinho wasn’t entirely happy with the performance.

“Defensively was good. We were always in control,” he said.”The disallowed goal was a throw-in, impossible to stop a ball that goes in the air then first ball, second ball, and they had one penetration through the right side when Davinson Sanchez was very clever not to touch him and he was very honest for not to dive like some players would do.

“Apart from that, we were always in control. With the ball we scored two goals, we could have scored a couple more.

“But I’m not happy. I think we have to play better. Sometimes bad decisions, sometimes technical mistakes. Many times recovering the ball and not being vertical in playing backwards.

“I think we have to do better but great respect for the opponent, for the game, for the responsibility, for the ambition. But job done, we are in the final.”