Jose Mourinho

glacierSpurs said:

In-game management at the very least, has been more responsive and reactive. You won't see GLC and Lamela coming on at the 55th minute together if Poch was still here. That tactical change swayed the balance to our favour massively.

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I don't disagree as I think Pochettino is very poor at managing games, but it makes it easier for Mourinho to make changes for the better when you are always starting games poorly.

No one with any sense thought Mourinho coming in would result in immediate improvement, it is clearly the squad that is the main issue but you do have to question who allowed it to get in to this state. Why haven't we had a good central midfield partnership for 18+ months? Maybe it was all Levy and Poch was banging on his door saying we need to change this and he didn't get the support. It doesn't really matter whose fault it was though, for whatever reason Poch didn't get the players in we need and therefore he had to go. If Mourinho is better at influencing Levy then that is what we needed. I won't judge until the beginning of next season.

Tired of reading problems problems problems and no solution coming from the board.

Maybe my engineer background is making this even worse in my head.

Wsussexspur said:

Harry Kane's injury is a problem for Jose Mourinho’s style of play

Harry Kanes absence will hurt Tottenham more because of Jose Mourinhos style of play, writes Adam Bate.

www.skysports.com

pretty depressing reading

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Maybe we could make an £80 mill offer for andy carroll?

Given that we have fast forwarded to season 3 of mourinho already, how do we see this all playing out?

Dean said:

I certainly don't agree with Jose's reasoning that they are professional and work for eachother. If I showed the attitude they do in my place of work, I'd fear for my job. There is no team out there. And the squad is so light, I think players like Dele think they are undroppable. Especially in an injury ravaged group of players.

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I have to scratch my head with Dele.He is capable of brilliant things but you can never count on him.

glacierSpurs said:

In-game management at the very least, has been more responsive and reactive. You won't see GLC and Lamela coming on at the 55th minute together if Poch was still here. That tactical change swayed the balance to our favour massively.

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No but you might have seen the buggers starting together instead...

THOWIG said:

What one aspect of our team has improved since he took over?

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Our points tally. Pretty important aspect.

jeremystorey said:

The result was not 100% the fault of the coach. That doesn’t pass the straight face test. He can’t make players stop playing passively or making mistakes. Their goal came from Jan losing focus. Again. With the exception of Moura all of our players (until Celso and Lamela came on) were dreadful and lackadaisical.

He set the team up in a way he was hoping they would be able to defend deep and hit the opposition on the break. Sadly his tactics couldn’t account for Winks being a moron again, Eriksen phoning it in again, Deles brother showing up again, Son having a jolly in the park again, Jan limping around like a broke cock again, Aurier unable to cross again and Dier being Dier again.

What should be plain for all to see is that we don’t having a coaching issue. We have a players not giving a shit issue,

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I could argue that that is part of the manager's job

Danny1 said:

Really struggling to understand how people are already writing off Mourinho. He has been at the club 6 weeks, tried almost every player in different positions and almost all of them have failed their audition. On top of that he has had injuries / suspensions to his key players in:

Lloris, Sanchez, Davies, Ndombele, Son and Kane.

Let’s give him atleast one summer window shall we, he has taken over a group of uninterested average footballers in all honesty and our best players are listed above in the injured/suspended group.

We have hired one of the highest rated young coaches in the world in Joao Sacramento and the other guys are all massively rated, so not sure why people think it’s just Mourinho on the training pitch. Let’s give them a bit of time.

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I don't think anyone is writing him off. It's more a criticism on Levy and the squad, and putting into perspective what situation Poch had to handle before his sacking. Many thought that by replacing him, things would improve. That is clearly not the case. But that's not a criticism on Mourinho. I'm quite sure he's now realizing this is going to be a harder job that what he initially thought. There are several players that overperformed with Poch, and now are being found out.

fedupyid said:

Jose is proving Pochettino was not the problem. Our squad is. We have an ageing squad with only one recognised centre forward. I have never liked Jose but what a mistake it was sacking Pochettino for him. Best thing for the club would be for Enic to sack him then sell the club so we can rehire Pochettino.

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LOL, though I agree with the first part, we cannot go back. What's done is done. We have to hope Jose finds his way

Ossie85 said:

I could argue that that is part of the manager's job

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Absolutely. The worst case of this ("players not giving a shit issue") was in October when after a record home defeat by Bayern the players again didn't turn up for the 3-0 thumping by Brighton. This mentality issue is not going to be cured overnight, even with a new manager

Ossie85 said:

I think Mourinho is starting to realize that Poch made some players look better than they actually are.

I know it's early days, but there's been no change in how we play. I hope Mourinho signs several players this window, or it's going to be a long season

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Pochettino came in and improved individuals and got them playing at as a team. He got them to fight and work their socks off. He achieved amazing things without the funding from the board. After years of pleading for investment and warning of stagnation the team did go off the boil as he predicted. Then he was fired while the fans looked the other way.

If Levy let’s Mourinho buy the right players we’ll be fine. But you can only cook with the ingredients you have.

teok said:

Maybe we could make an £80 mill offer for andy carroll?

Given that we have fast forwarded to season 3 of mourinho already, how do we see this all playing out?

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We were linked this past days with Piatek, which could be a great signing imo, even if it's only a loan. Milan have just signed Zlatan, so he could be attainable.
But there are so many positions we need to upgrade, I don't know if striker is a priority

NEVILLEB said:

Everyone who’s ever played competitive sport knows a good manager/coach can help


Pochettino came in and improved individuals and got them playing at as a team. He got them to fight and work their socks off. He achieved amazing things without the funding from the board. After years of pleading for investment and warning of stagnation the team did go off the boil as he predicted. Then he was fired while the fans looked the other way.

If Levy let’s Mourinho buy the right players we’ll be fine. But you can only cook with the ingredients you have.

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Spot on imo

Going across this site, apparently we have no good goalkeepers who are unable to stop shots or distribute and make silly mistakes, full backs who can’t defend and offer no creativity, centre backs who can’t play out of defence nor can they deal with simple opposition attacks, a midfield which can neither protect its defence nor create for the attack and absolute can’t keep the ball, and attackers who don’t make runs, don’t play with their heads up, don’t have any technique and can’t do the simple things. At the same time, the manager has no clue, is a has been and only knows long ball.

Fuck me we are in the shit.

BringBack_leGin said:

Going across this site, apparently we have no good goalkeepers who are unable to stop shots or distribute and make silly mistakes, full backs who can’t defend and offer no creativity, centre backs who can’t play out of defence nor can they deal with simple opposition attacks, a midfield which can neither protect its defence nor create for the attack and absolute can’t keep the ball, and attackers who don’t make runs, don’t play with their heads up, don’t have any technique and can’t do the simple things. At the same time, the manager has no clue, is a has been and only knows long ball.

Fuck me we are in the shit.

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Going to be hilarious when we beat Liverpool on Saturday isn't it!

Ossie85 said:

I think Mourinho is starting to realize that Poch made some players look better than they actually are.

I know it's early days, but there's been no change in how we play. I hope Mourinho signs several players this window, or it's going to be a long season

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In which case prepare yourself mate. It’s gonna be a long season ......

stevenurse said:

The problem with that graph is that the long balls/results ratio isn't one that correlates. Some of the games in which we played the fewest long balls were those with the poorest results and performances. Also the term 'long ball' is disingenuous as there's a difference in a hoofed long punt and the balls Toby plays that we saw at Burnley.

When Liverpool do it to get behind the defence it isn't highlighted. It's just getting the ball forward quickly to the pace they have up front. It's not a bad tactic to get the ball in the opposition half.

We also forget that if the players we have can't play like Barcelona at their peak, that's no fault of Jose.

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Those of us without the memory of a Goldfish will recall how Liverpool played when Klopp first arrived. His default tactic was to have the ball hit long for the likes of Salah to run onto and attack their backline. He then patiently built up his squad to include players that now allow them to play in a variety of different ways, but they still employ the long ball tactic on a regular basis even now, as it is still an effective tactic when employed at the right time.
It has taken him 4 to 5 seasons to get the balance right and his player procurement has been, quite frankly, exemplary.

JM has inherited a disfunctional squad, with confidence issues and some glaring holes in it. I'm not going down the "blame game" route that many on here seem to default to as it achieves nothing other than creating division on here. We are where we are.

We are currently looking on Liverpool with envy and complaining about how far behind us they used to be, whilst expecting a new manager to magically redress the balance just because he has a winning CV, yet ignoring the fact that the manager we are so envious of has taken 4 to 5 seasons to work his own particular brand of magic.

The significance of this seems to be eluding many on here, blinded it seems by the intense dislike of the perceived character of our own manager.

Personally I couldn't give a flying fuck about his perceived character, us older fans will recall that the great Bill Nic wasn't exactly the warm and cuddly type, his response to Cliff Jones, when he came looking for a raise, bear that out, but we worship Bill Nic because he was a winner with a winners mentality.

I personally like JM, always have, but even if I didn't I wouldn't give a toss about his character so long as he gets the club up there challenging and winning pots. He's our manager, he'll be doing his utmost to get the club where we all believe we belong and, as such, will get my support whether I like him or not. I don't give a shit if he's doing it for personal reasons, winning is winning.

But the key point here is that if we want what Liverpool currently have, we need to give him the time and support required, same as Klopp got.

This includes DL. I'm BSoDL as most on here know, but the club's success comes first and foremost. He's done a terrific job up till now with getting all of the foundations in place, including an elite manager. I believe he WILL back JM, but don't necessarily expect to see a huge outlay this window. However, if he doesn't start bringing in the required personnel from this coming Summer then I too will be adding my voice to the general discontent towards our Chairman.

NEVILLEB said:

Everyone who’s ever played competitive sport knows a good manager/coach can help


Pochettino came in and improved individuals and got them playing at as a team. He got them to fight and work their socks off. He achieved amazing things without the funding from the board. After years of pleading for investment and warning of stagnation the team did go off the boil as he predicted. Then he was fired while the fans looked the other way.

If Levy let’s Mourinho buy the right players we’ll be fine. But you can only cook with the ingredients you have.

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We've had itk that he had funds, had players offered and turned his nose up at them, so your claim that he was "pleading for investment" doesn't really hold any water. We've also had itk that certain players who were an unmitigated disaster (Janssen being a prime example) were Poch picks, so he had his opportunities.

It's disingenuous to suggest that the fans looked the other way, on this forum alone there was a great deal of angst at the prospect of losing him, but it was almost universally agreed that the change was necessary, revising this because JM hasn't worked wonders is a tad ridiculous really.

The point we do agree on is about JM getting the right backing from DL, this is imperative really as it is patently obvious that this squad, in it's current form, has run its course, but we as fans need to recognise this and give the same backing to OUR manager that we expect our board to give him.

Ionman34 said:

We've had itk that he had funds, had players offered and turned his nose up at them, so your claim that he was "pleading for investment" doesn't really hold any water. We've also had itk that certain players who were an unmitigated disaster (Janssen being a prime example) were Poch picks, so he had his opportunities.

It's disingenuous to suggest that the fans looked the other way, on this forum alone there was a great deal of angst at the prospect of losing him, but it was almost universally agreed that the change was necessary, revising this because JM hasn't worked wonders is a tad ridiculous really.

The point we do agree on is about JM getting the right backing from DL, this is imperative really as it is patently obvious that this squad, in it's current form, has run its course, but we as fans need to recognise this and give the same backing to OUR manager that we expect our board to give him.

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I do wonder if Poch "turning his nose up" at certain players was because he'd played nice with the likes of N'jie and N'Koudou and decided to put his foot down and ask for the players he wanted. I personally think he'd earnt that level of trust but that may not be how Levy is willing to operate.

As ever, we are all guessing but I am struggling to see Levy allowing the level of spend required to buy our way out of the mess we appear to be in at the moment. New GK, CB, LB, RB, CDM, CM and backup striker/AM - I just can't see it.