Jose Mourinho

Normally the more you control games and the better football you play the results will follow, not always but generally. I think everyone’s up for winning stuff but conceding that much possession and territory in games for me is not a long term recipe for wining leagues and big cups. The more likely scenario is we’re going to play this way and still not win anything.

holsten777 said:

I don't understand how the priority could be anything other than winning! What is the priority in your opinion? I wasn't going to live games then, but yeah I would watch spurs whenever I could.

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Winning trophies and good football aren't mutually exclusive.

Vinny_Sammways_left_peg said:

I know you're sat there in your Poch PJ's in a man cave dedicated to our once great leader typing this, don't lie!

When we lose against West Ham on Tuesday all this will be forgotten anyway.

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I’ll be joining the Mourinho out brigade if we get done by West Ham ?

I want entertaining football

So we get entertaining football

Then it's I want entertaining football AND results

So we get entertaining football AND results

Then it's I want entertaining football AND results AND trophies

We didn't get that so then it was

Pochettino out

Now we're back to square one.

Eventually we'll get entertaining football again and that won't be enough. Again.

Japhet said:

Thanks for the advice. Ironically, my reaction to watching us play of late usually falls into the 'that's 2 hours of my life I won't get back' catagory.

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That's alright. I hope it becomes entertaining again for you soon, as you know though Jose is not paid to entertain, but to win, so it might be a while.

GutBucket said:

Winning trophies and good football aren't mutually exclusive.

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What is the priority in your opinion?

Shadydan said:

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A really good summary. Cheers for sharing

GutBucket said:

Winning trophies and good football aren't mutually exclusive.

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We've had a pretty decent stab at it.

Jamturk said:

Jose just is'nt a Spurs manager, he has the wrong footballing DNA.

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Normally that would be a good thing if the DNA is letting us fans down at every single fucking opportunity!

E17yid said:

I’ll be joining the Mourinho out brigade if we get done by West Ham ?

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I'll be on here defending him in my custom made Jose mask, it'll be hard work but someone will have to do it.

Right, i'm off to dig up the Levy thread, it's coming.

Bobby TwoShots said:

39% possession, 3 shots, at home against a team outside the top 4 is a joke. We won’t win many games playing scared football. And it’s brutal to watch. I understand always backing your team (and manager) but I don’t get why people think this is a blueprint for success.

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He played very good tactic against team who can't play against that kind of football.

Teddy Klinsmann said:

He still needs time. Still needs to address positions of weakness. I thought we had a much better shape last night. Yes it’s not the gung ho attacking football that won us countless trophies under Poch, but it certainly had the potential to be a much bigger disaster last night.

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Agree. These unfortunate circumstances have presented opportunity that Jose will exploit. How often do you 9 competitive pre season games prior to a transfer window along with a 6 week break? Our club is craving a trophy. I hope and believe Jose will deliver regardless of style. I loved Poch, his was style was erratic during his tenure, and I'll love Jose COYS

Shadydan said:

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Really emphasises the need for at least one highly competent full back. I can see the value in this system but we’re going to need a full back with a good passing range, pace to burn and a decent engine on them. If we could find those things in both a left and right back, we’d suddenly become a much more potent counterattacking team. While Aurier has been ok in this position, I don’t he’s consistent enough or at the level that would really damage other sides. And while I actually think Ben Davies is a good squad addition, I really think we need both fullbacks to possess these qualities to prevent us from being too predictable.

ItsBoris said:

We got close to the best teams (with far bigger resources) but never won a trophy because we lacked a winning mentality. Mourinho has won more than he's lost against most of the big teams. Against us he's won 13, lost 5 and drawn 4, and some of those wins were in pivotal matches. Plus iirc Inter outplayed Barca in the San Siro?

A team that can defend better than anyone else will always have a good chance of winning trophies. I think if we can be really good defensively we can built an attack on top of it and have a team that can win big games.

As far as Mourinho's track record at other clubs, the downfall is typically his souring relationships with key players and his mercurial personality. It doesn't happen because of his tactics or coaching ability - in fact he usually wins quite a lot before any such downfall.

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This!

Any successful team starts with a solid defensive unit and builds from there. It is evident that this is where Mourinho has started his process, make us hard to beat first, drill the team into working together as a cohesive defensive unit, then build on from there.

The lack of understanding on here of this basic tenet is incredible. You can't fix everything all at once, you just end up with a hot mess, which was what he inherited in the first place.

It's a process that will take time, and it's evident that few on here aren't prepared to give him that because of who he is.

Ionman34 said:

This!

Any successful team starts with a solid defensive unit and builds from there. It is evident that this is where Mourinho has started his process, make us hard to beat first, drill the team into working together as a cohesive defensive unit, then build on from there.

The lack of understanding on here of this basic tenet is incredible. You can't fix everything all at once, you just end up with a hot mess, which was what he inherited in the first place.

It's a process that will take time, and it's evident that few on here are prepared to give him that because of who he is.

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Problem is that some didn’t want him to give him any time from the beginning.

kaz Hirai said:

Just gotta ride it out and hope the damage isn't too bad when it's time for him to leave

A director of football would help with that

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Directors of football can be pretty shitty too. It's not like they have some sort of track record that makes them superior to managers. Empty suit Commolli wasn't up to much with us.

But the need for consistency from manager to manager could be very valuable. Which is why it still boggles the mind that not only was Poch binned, but the whole style was too.

Jamturk said:

Jose just is'nt a Spurs manager, he has the wrong footballing DNA.

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Yes... Let's get someone who's DNA will never win us anything but fancy football... That's the Spurs DNA?

ackie said:

Yes... Let's get someone who's DNA will never win us anything but fancy football... That's the Spurs DNA?

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#spursy?

This all comes down to how you view football, as a whole. How you approach your involvement in the game.

Everyone wants to see their team win games, and win trophies.

For a lot, probably the vast majority of fans, the result is what matters. They don't care how it is done, they just 'need' (we keep seeing that word used, go check) their team to win to make it worthwhile. First football matches, and eventually trophies.

As I've said tons of times now, but will say once again, I personally look at it in a different way. The end result comes after the process - the 90 mins of football.

Football for me is entertainment and something I choose to participate in. So, and this has been reinforced even more by the events in recent times and a reminder of how fragile life is ultimately, when the process takes up 99.99999999999999998% of your football viewing, the result being the smidgen on the end, and you invest hundreds of hours of your time on it each year, surely you have to find it enjoyable? Everyone measures that in different ways, to their tastes and ideas on how football should be played, but if you don't enjoy it the logical thing to do would be to ask what's the point?

Winning matches and trophies, the end result, is a moment in time for me. It's there for a bit, I might crack open a beer and share in the various banter with mates, ring my dad, and then life goes on. Some of you act though as if winning a trophy is like some holy grail, everything stops and where you bask in eternal glory. Really you do, putting that much stock and hope into it.

Win lose or draw on a Saturday afternoon and it's done with pretty quickly. I'll go do whatever else needs to be done - a chore, help the missus, make dinner etc. and by 6pm it's done with, life has gone on. Same applies for trophies - we lost the CL final, I wasn't happy with that and it was a disappointing night, I woke up the next morning and I was over it. Hand on heart it would have been just the same if I'd woke up the next morning and we'd won. Happy to be on here for instance and discuss it to the nth degree, but emotionally and whatnot it's done with, on to the next one. Maybe that's just me and I can compartmentalise it and I have other hobbies, interests, work, friends, family, etc. to take up my time and make football/sport just one aspect in my life. I don't know.

Ultimately every fan has to balance what they value as the process, how that is then balanced against the end result, and make their own decisions and judgements. That will be different for everyone and there is no wrong answer. And will continue to make for many many pages of internet discussion