Jose Mourinho

[ralphs bald spot]

Aside from Liverpool 2H and Brighton, what other times has José truly “got it all wrong” in the league this season?

Palace Wolves Fulham are easy to pick out

 

[Montalbano]

Palace Wolves Fulham are easy to pick out

We scored in all of those games and conceded from individual errors. Hard to throw all of the blame for that on the manager.

 

[supahmario]

Can we please stop with this whole 'the game has passed him by' bullshit. You give him far too much credit by thinking that he somehow no longer understands how football works. This is such a weird argument to make.

Just in the same way, it is hard to stomach this notion that he somehow doesn't understand modern players. FFS, the 'modern game' and 'modern players' have been around for 20 years. He understands egos. He knows how to work with them. What he doesn't understand, is how to tempt some of our pussy-ass players to actually give a shit. In that sense... yes, he has seemingly failed.

There are a lot of managers out there that play a somewhat similar to style of Jose and have been very successful. I'd argue that Simone at Athetico is one such manager. Can say the same about Conte and a few others.

The general conceit, is that you optimize your game plan for striking quickly and efficiently, while abstaining some degree of possession. In other words, he wants the team to attack purposefully, rather than playing the ball backwards, sideways and slowly.

The truth is, we don't have the players to execute this plan consistently. By-and-large, our center backs are average. Our RBs are very hit and miss. Reg is our best fullback. Davies is okay, but as we saw against Brighton, prone to mistakes.

We also do not have the right balance in midfield. As it gets overrun nearly every game. Winks, Sissoko, are not very good players. Certainly not at the level needed to compete for a league title or even the top 4. We fucked up royally when we whiffed on Grealish and Bruno. As Lo Celso should be the answer, but he can't stay fit.

We have attacking midfielders that cannot operate in tight spaces, as nearly all of them struggle with close ball control and making quick decisions. Nor are they disciplined with and without the ball. And none of them seem all that bothered.

Maybe Jose overestimated the impact he could have on the players. Felt like he could mold them into a system that has worked well for him over the years. I mean, it was just three seasons ago he finished 2nd in the league with a shit UTD team and won two trophies.

Yes, the football has been awful at times. But do not come back at me with a selective memory... as it was just as turgid and ugly during most of Poch's last season. Hence, why I feel the issues aren't as superficial as needing a new manager. The squad needs a massive overhaul. And let's not just look past Daniel. He also bears responsibility for us permanently being the bridesmaid and never the bride.

Unfortunately the season, the players have won this battle of 'who knows best'. They have been unable to carry out Jose's tactics. And sure, if it makes you feel better to blame this dismal team on the manager, I totally understand. But I sorta struggled with understanding how a manager is directly responsible for players who constantly make childish mistakes, switch off, hide, not communicate, barely run, lose every 50/50 challenge, feel sorry for themselves, and walk around like they're in a haze. And then having a good 'ol laugh about it afterwards.

You can count on one hand how many players we have that are willing to run through walls in order to win. The rest assume the fetal position any time the going gets rough. Yet -- so many are willing to just look past this and have decided that their inability to play without making reckless decisions and colossal mistakes is due to the will of one man, who apparently is coaching them to play like complete morons.

Look, I get many just loathe the guy and wanted him gone as soon as he joined. I wanted him to succeed. 'Cos if he succeeds, the team wins. Simple as that. And I want to see us winning shit. Now, you will get your wish, and I'm sure he isn't long for the Spurs world. And I really hope you're all right, that it will only take a young footballing genius like Naglessmann to whip these same players into hungry, determined, disciplined, skillful, footballing titans. I pray that's the case. I pray you are right.

But here's the rub... it means another year or two of rebuilding. Which is okay, I guess, if it works out. Yet, that's not really the worst part. No... that'll happen this summer when Kane, Sonny and a few others request to leave... regardless of whomever takes charge. That's will be the consequences of jettisoning the one manager those guys have some belief in. It's bit Pollyanna-ish to think hiring a young, footballing progressive -- charged with a rebuilding project -- means that our best players - who are in the prime years - will stick around. They won't.

Would love to be wrong on that last point. But if you were Harry, and we sack Jose, win fuck all (again) this year, and it appears like we are starting from scratch with a manager who has lots of potential... what would you do?

Agree with most of what you say in this post. The thing I have a problem with is that we do run, but not smartly or as a collective. How many times have we seen Højbjerg, Son, Ndombele etc run at full speed and try to close down the opposition just to be played past/through? It happens all the time.

Most teams are able to beat our high press (and we are not able to beat anyones high press if we dont get lucky with our long ball) and that is surely something the manager can help improve. So many of these players were drilled in it before.

I would like to add that so many of the games where we look flat and almost lifeless, we still outrun and outsprint the opposition. The Everton game is a prime example of this. Everton looked like they were all over us while we never got close to anyone - still we outran them and had far more high inensity sprints than them.

I expect a manager like Mourinho to get the team to perform at a higher level in this area of our game.

 

[feet01]

We scored in all of those games and conceded from individual errors. Hard to throw all of the blame for that on the manager.

But we were fully in control and kept on conceding possession and sitting deep

I was all for the mourinho appointment, but it just isn’t working out

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

That’s why I think we keep Mourinho and see if he can turn it around over the rest of the season. Who knows what will happen between now and then, nobody can say with any certainty. People bang on that we brought him in to win us trophies so maybe we should see if we can do it with him. If not, reassess in the summer when, if we fail on the trophy front, there will be more managers available. That would be the sensible thing to do.

Agree with this. Pointless sacking him now for a interim.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Aside from Liverpool 2H and Brighton, what other times has José truly “got it all wrong” in the league this season?

Everton (h)
Leicester (h)

Sissoko for Dele sub in the first game and then the starting line up against Leicester was baffling.

All managers get it wrong though occasionally, but I’m just answering the question.

Apart from Rodgers. He never gets it wrong

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Agree with this. Pointless sacking him now for a interim.

I do agree as well, the only reason to bring in an interim would be to give the crowd a boost. But seeing as there isn’t one of them it’s just a case of business as usual until the end of the season for me.

 

[Essex Spur]

We scored in all of those games and conceded from individual errors. Hard to throw all of the blame for that on the manager.

We sat back and invited pressure in all those games as well though leading to the error, its a mixture of both im afraid neither is 100% at fault but a perfect storm

 

[doctor stefan Freud]

Sacking Mouronho for Potter. Just say that outloud a few times

Is that a spell?

 

[Betha]

We scored in all of those games and conceded from individual errors. Hard to throw all of the blame for that on the manager.

But in the end, the manager installed a system which magnifies the possibility of human error. When you have to be at 100 for a very long time, the chance of you making a mistake is quite high.

But, I will throw in quite a few of the early matches, where the 4-2-3-1 with Aurier high, and Davies tucking in. In these games (think Man. Utd last season as an example, but it was quite a few of those at the time), he used Sissoko as cover for the right back, and left Winks (at Man. Utd) alone against three opposition midfielders. Needless to say, Winks didn't really look very good, but Fred and Mactominay looked like world beaters. Now, that is a year ago, but it's the same thing that happened at Brighton, which is very very disturbing. Brighton have some decent midfielders, but none are nearly as good as they looked on sunday. Ndombele and Højbjerg very trying to cover the same space as three Brighton players, almost running themselves into the ground, without being able to get close.

 

[Montalbano]

Everton (h)
Leicester (h)

Sissoko for Dele sub in the first game and then the starting line up against Leicester was baffling.

All managers get it wrong though occasionally, but I’m just answering the question.

Apart from Rodgers. He never gets it wrong

The Sissoko for Dele decision was definitely not a good call at all. I have a bit of empathy for José for that game though as it was the first game of the season and many of our players had virtually no preseason.

Leicester lineup being baffling I don’t agree with. Everyone had been calling for Ndombele and Lo Celso in the same team (even the media was asking when they could play together). After Aurier committed yet another individual error before half and José brought Ndombele off to revert to our 4-2-3-1 it was pretty unlucky for Lo Celso to then be forced off minutes later.

 

[spursfan77]

We scored in all of those games and conceded from individual errors. Hard to throw all of the blame for that on the manager.

Plus missed fucking easy opportunities to win the games. It’s why I’ve been reticent to place partial blame on the manager until the last week.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

The Sissoko for Dele decision was definitely not a good call at all. I have a bit of empathy for José for that game though as it was the first game of the season and many of our players had virtually no preseason.

Leicester lineup being baffling I don’t agree with. Everyone had been calling for Ndombele and Lo Celso in the same team (even the media was asking when they could play together). After Aurier committed yet another individual error before half and José brought Ndombele off to revert to our 4-2-3-1 it was pretty unlucky for Lo Celso to then be forced off minutes later.

Lol, we were garbage against Leicester without Aurier's mistake and the injuries.

I'm still a Jose fan but you aren't getting around that one as a massive bollock dropped.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

All the bad stuff can be countered by good stuff generally, City at home was brilliant, we were quite unlucky (Bergwijn and Kane missing easy chances) against Liverpool so it's not a slight on Jose or saying that he gets things wrong too often.

My worry after the last couple of games is that he's lost the dressing room though, which is big.

Thursday will be very telling.

 

[Spartanspurs]

Agree with this. Pointless sacking him now for a interim.

I think it depends on the dressing room situation. Whatever people think about the players, if the dressing room have turned on him there's no turning this around.

 

[spids]

We scored in all of those games and conceded from individual errors. Hard to throw all of the blame for that on the manager.

The tactics were clearly to sit and park the bus, for the majority of the matches, against inferior teams to protect a 1 goal lead. And it backfired spectacularly.

 

[Spartanspurs]

That Brighton performance was a team who have stopped playing. I think it shows a disgusting lack of professionalism and also shows that, whoever the coach is, we are in deep shit.

I don't agree. I didn't see a lack of effort against Brighton. I saw players scared to try anything going forwards. I saw players who had no idea how to build attacks and a I saw a defensive shape that was absolutely terrible.

 

[Rosco1984]

OK this is what I don't get and would like someone to help me out

Mourinhos brief is top 4 and a trophy and he is still in all 3 Cup comps including 1 final. He is 6 points off Leicester with a game in hand

If he was to get dismissed based on that remit is that not a little harsh?

If style of play was the brief in addition to top 4 and a cup then there is a case for dismissal but we haven't had any intel that Levy wanted stylish football..

Its not where we are sat now its where we are sat now in relation to where we were. We were 6 points above City a month ago we are now double figures behind. 3 wins in 11 premier league games. One of them against the worst team in premier league history at this stage of a season. Changing formations and playing players out of position every game has all the hallmarks of a spiralling manager. We had a system that worked we lost one game in the last minute and a month and a half later he hasn't gone back to it. Its a total fucking mess and its only showing signs of getting worse, Why wait until we are 12 points off Leicester with no chance of catching them before making the change.

 

[Metalhead]

I'll welcome him with open arms & back him.

I'll also be sure to take down the names that are currently happy to push him to the forefront just to be sure when things hit a sticky patch that they're not then at the front of the queue on here shouting because the striker we've got isn't finding the back of the net and attacking play is dull.

In fact I'll do it for all the managers people are pitching.

Far to easy for people to wank themselves into a coma on here before the hire, and then moan about the hire after the fact.

Without knowing what Levy is thinking, I really don't think that it matters all that much if it's Big Sam, Allegri or some guy managing in the Dutch second division who is the next big thing. People get all wound up when someone suggests a name but it's their opinion; not necessarily the name on Levy's shortlist if he decides to end Jose's tenure.

 

[Metalhead]

Agree with this. Pointless sacking him now for a interim.

Unless things turned ugly behind the scenes, you'd have to think that this would be Levy's mindset.