I've made no mystery of my disdain for this man. He's not doing meaningfully better with the same talent as Poch, whom we saw as a brilliant manager not long before this season. Others have argued that he was out managed by many other relatively novice managers. Meanwhile, Mourinho is already lashing out at the players for his mistakes. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/dec/28/jose-mourinho-tottenham-defensive-mistakes-norwich Levy better have new ideas or just sell on the club to owners who will think long term.
I don’t particularly like José, but he’s not wrong, some pretty schoolboy level mistakes were made. He didn’t really throw anyone under the bus here. Our defense has been atrocious for nearly a year now largely on the back of individual errors. Maybe the players needs a bit of a calling out. Then again it’s José and there’s ample evidence his locker rooms end in disaster.
It's been 8 league games, 5 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses. We've turned from heading for relegation battle to being a win away from the top 4. We play more to the current strenghts of our player group, many have new found direction and go. Mourinho does not have the same squad quality as Poch did in his good days at Spurs. Hopefully that will change, through the transfer market and rebuilding those already here.
Now 9 matches since Mourinho was hired. 5 wins 2 draws 2 losses But this is more important, IMO GF - 22 GA - 13 That is an absurd number of goals given up. The GD is also a bit misleading due to the 5-0 victory over Burnley. But it should also be noted that versus Bayern Munich, Man United, and Chelsea, Spurs lost all three, scoring 2 and giving up 7. That is not a team competing at the height of European football. While Poch may have skated along last season due to the pour form of Chelsea and Arsenal, Mourinho has not impressed the way is CV says he should.
How much is our still remaining poor defense down to the manager though? What can Mourinho do, knowing we have very little time on the training ground to work on our play - it's almost all about getting fit for the next game. We play with our back up goal keeper, our only left back is an ageing central defender, what we got on right back are decent going forward but full of defensive mistakes, only midfielder that can give protection is Dier who struggle massively with fitness and mentality. Mourinho could have parked the bus, but it would have had an impact on our attack - I'm not sure it would have brought us better results. We won't be a top team again over night, no matter the manager, what he has done immediately however is to stop the fall and get the player group going again. We have no relegation threat anymore, and it's time to rebuild.
Gazzaniga is as close to a starter as possible. Lloris might be more spectacular at times, but Spurs are certainly not doing worse because Lloris is missing. While Vert is primarily a CD, he has long experience with Spurs, before Spurs, and at international level as a left back. To me, he is not being played out of position, but is not being played in his primary position. Saying that, what I have seen does align with the aging comment. When I have seen him beat, it is for pace or being pushed off the ball, both signs of age. I agree about Aurier being stronger going forward, but he is far from a poor RB. His issue defensively is consistency. Agreed with the issue surrounding Dier. I do think it would have. Remember Dele started out as a deep lying midfielder and did a lot of good defending that first season. Ndombele has also shown the ability to defend. And if Winks has support, he can be a fine DM-typle player. And with those players, Winks aside, they all can break forward and deliver the longer, cross field ball. Even Dier. That leaves Spurs with Kane, Son, Moura, Lo Ceslo, and Eriksen to attack, not much different in attack than 3 and 4 seasons ago. Add to that Sissoko has shown markedly improved ability at going forward. And Lamela seems to be back to playing at his best for Spurs. I agree that Spurs are not a top-of-the-table club now, but they are not really that far away from 3rd (I think Man City and Liverpool are far and away the top two teams). Two immediate purchases, such as a left back and a defensive midfielder, would massively improve Spurs. Still, the current status is a mixture between Mourinho not making the best decisions and Levy looking for a name.
Think you overrate a lot of our players. And especially the defensive players for what quality they got they are almost all of them flawed - fitness wise, ageing, bad at something if good at something else. There's a reason why we struggle against the better teams we've met, as they got players that can punish our defense which tends to be all over the place. That said we're 3rd in the league after Mourinho took over. Expectations are unrealistic from those who already complain
Actually, it is 10 matches (all comps), with 6 wins, 1 draw and 3 defeats, 23 goals scored and 17 conceded. It is 16 points from 8 games in the league, which although a small sample size, would be 76 points over a full season.
Bottom line is if we are paying a manager 15 million pound a year with his pedigree, he has to do better in games against Manchester United and Chelsea, who have been beaten by far inferior teams than us with less experienced managers. Of even more concern to me is he is being out-coached tactically by relatively novice managers and his team selection has been poor. To struggle to beat and draw teams like Brighton and Norwich with the quality at his disposal only supports the criticism that the game has passed him by. If Levy had gone with a lesser name, I would be willing to cut him some slack, but Mourinho was brought in to do a job and we are already starting to hear the excuses come out.
Today's result is a tough one to stomach. It really felt like a turning point - though it was more likely a turning point in my expectations ('hopes', actually) than in our performances. When Poch left, I felt there was still something to win from 'his' team … but I really can't see it now. We're pants. Then again, give 'boro a good kicking on Sunday and I'll be back on the Cup Train … CHOO CHOO!! C'mon Jose … if Juande Ramos can get us a trophy on his way to making us pure shit, surely someone of your mercurial talents can, as well. To quote one of your critics, "I believe!" As a fan in general, I'm not a fickle - but my hopes sure as hell are.
Mourinho is well past it, he is a total poser. The last 5 games he has been out-coached by relative novices with inferior talent.We managed to beat a couple of rubbish sides early doors, but the performances have been nose-diving ever since. Like I said when he was hired, this can only end in tears, I would not be surprised if he were gone by the end of the season. The last 4 games we have been rubbish to watch.
How many managers do you want to go through before you blame the players? Poch warned Levy two years ago that he had to "be brave" in the transfer market because this core was nearing the end of its lifespan. He was right and what we have now is a squad in need of fresh blood and new ideas. I was not on the Poch out train and I certainly did not want Mourinho in. But here we are now and I'm willing to give him a chance. I'm willing to give him a chance because I don't agree that he has made a lot of mistakes. In fact, he's been bold enough to do things that Poch wouldn't do. For example, you can criticize Mourinho for his love affair with Dier but would Poch have pulled him after 29 minutes against Olympiakos? Would Poch have pulled him at halftime against Chelsea? How often did Poch even make tactical subs? There are clearly problems that can only be fixed through the transfer window. Mourinho hasn't even been able to operate through one of those yet. Tactically though, what we have is a never ending flow chart where the solutions are all things that one section or another of the fan base asks for and when it doesn't work, somehow it doesn't circle back to the players. Team concedes too many goals ↓ Plays Dier and Sissoko ↓ Dier is too slow and sucks at playing the ball ↓ Gets pulled at halftime and replaced in starting eleven by Winks ↓ Winks doesn't play the ball forward ↓ Gets pulled at 68th minute by Eriksen. Jose starts next game with Eriksen, Ndombele and GLC ↓ Yeah but now other teams are getting in behind too much ↓ Reverts to back four next game and benches Sanchez It took a year for the players to understand Poch's system and that was after he'd had three windows to work with. While you can point to Chelsea and ask why they're doing so well, may I remind you that they're only six points ahead despite how awful we've been. I read a stat the other day that said that only City and United have gained more points than us since the day Mourinho was hired. Do I think that all the problematic players will be replaced in January? No. The real question we should be asking isn't whether it's time to hire another manager. The questions we should ask are which players should be sold at any price, who can leave at the right price, who should be built around?
He was out-coached by Graham Potter, a rookie PL manager who rested 4 regulars, he was out-coached by Daniel Farke, a rookie PL coach with a far inferior team and he was so badly out-coached by 2nd year PL manager Ralph Hassenhutl, that he had a go at their goalkeepers coach and ball boys. Surely we have better players than Norwich and Southampton? Did he change anything against Saints? The only subs he made were for injuries.
It was a mistake to start him in those games in the first place (and the fact he made the same mistake TWICE shows how out of touch he is). Anyone could see Dier was done last season, he no longer has the skill set to succeed in the PL.
The players can't even simple passes. That's has nothing to do with tactics. The new guy is entitled to give everyone a blank slate. It's clear that we're conceding too many goals so the proposed solution was to play with at least one DM. Both Dier and Winks and been chances to fill that role and neither have impressed. Do you want to try Wanyama next then? Do you want to play with no holding midfielder again? If Dier can't do the job, then it's Levy's job to move him on - clear and simple. That he refuses to do so is not the manager's fault.
How well are we doing with Dier as a holding midfielder? He can't play that position, he couldn't play that position LAST season. Sissoko and Winks are not holding midfielders either. So why keep playing them when it doesn't work? At the minute, Southampton, Norwich, Sheffield United and Brighton are all playing better football than us with inferior players and less experienced coaches.
The choices are limited. Every possible decision, whether it's to play Sissoko or Winks or Dier has its risks. We're all familiar with what those are. It goes deeper than coaching. We've been shit since last January. You can rationalize sacking Poch by concluding that he had reached the peak of exhaustion and the club needed fresh ideas. You can also rationalize what's gone on the past year by concluding that this core of players is old, slow, and in need of a change of scenery. Our academy hasn't produced a quality first team player since Winks. So unless Skipp, Parrott, Tanganga or someone else can suddenly burst onto the scene, the club can only improve things through a) time and b) multiple transfer windows.
Winks is not a quality first team player. Once again today he was rubbish. And again the master was out-coached by another novice with inferior players.
Not pick Dier in defense and Winks in midfield for starters. We have better players than them. Woodgate didn't even pick his best side and they still outplayed us.
We've seen lineups with both in and both out, under Poch and under Mourinho. The results are the same. Seven of players who started for Boro has made at least 19 appearances this year. They played very much a first choice squad. Getting outplayed is not the same as getting outcoached. Coaches owe practice, preparation and a gameplan. Players owe execution and effort.
He picked his 3rd string goalkeeper. Woodgate had his team better prepared, simple as. Lo Celso and Lamela should have been in from the start. It was poor team selection and even worse tactics. We should never get outplayed by a Championship side. It was embarrassing to watch, yet predictable.
Tactics don't explain why nobody other than Eriksen, who will be gone soon, bothers to play through balls or first time passes. So let me circle back to my original point which is that the core needs to be rebuilt.