Jose Mourinho

idontgetit said:

People are committing the sin of equating correlation with causation, without bothering to explain exactly why the two are the same.

The game changed completely in the second half. N'dombele got dubbed off for Lo Celso who came on and had a great game while Kane and Son tore Southampton to shreds.

Apparently Mourinho deserves credit for swapping off N'dombele for Lo Celso so if you're going to state that (and especially if you're going to slag everyone off for questioning it at the time) then you should explain why exactly N'dombele deserved to come off rather Winks.

What we needed was for creative players to regularly get the ball in space and start hitting good balls behind the Southampton press, in co-ordination with actual runs being made by the forwards.

The reason that failed to happen in the first half but happened in the second half is because Southampton worked and tackled themselves bloody during the first half. More than that, we failed to hurt them and they started getting a fuck ton of success with their press.

An intense pressing game requires total commitment, if you half arse it is worse than never attempting it. The more success they got the more confident they got the more they pressed, the more they pressed the more success they got and the more they pressed. It's a feedback loop and the failure of our midfield to break that press and assert themselves on the game just fed into that loop.

The main thing that changed the game was not N'dombele coming off. He was one of the few players that actually broke their press and opened up space a couple of times. He did it for Son's equaliser. Winks however spent the entire first half much the same as he did the entire Everton game, just going through the motions. Tippy, tappy back and forward. He never asserted himself on that game or did anything to damage Southamptons confidence in pressing him or the rest of the side. Twice in fact he actually fucked us up when breaking their press.

You know what other things correlated with the game turning around? The length of time that the game went on. You know what else correlated with the game changing? Kane and Son, out of nowhere, tearing their high line a new arsehole a couple of times. When a team works itself to the bone tackling and pressing, they get tired. Southampton got tired and it opened us space because they didn't stop pressing. Kane and Son took advantage of that and it broke their confidence in pressing. They still kept pressing but now as a unit they weren't committed.

Lo Celso coming on took full on advantage of this and deserves all the credit he's got. Mourinho though probably doesn't and needs to sort out the team system to start minute one of the next match, rather than trying to fix it at half time and blaming his players.

It sounds like I'm shitting on Winks here but in the system that Mourinho has tried to play, he is required to step up and run the game. If he doesn't do that then he's a passenger.

Click to expand...

THFC_SWE said:

I defended him last season, but the performances this season (apart from 2nd half today) has been shambolic. Yes, he should get praise for the 2nd half. At the same time he should get criticized for the way we have played. With the players we have, we should look much better when attacking. Instead we play long ball after long ball, looking completely clueless on how to attack.

If we continue to play like we did in the 2nd half, I'm the first one to admit I was wrong. Until then I'm sceptic.

Click to expand...

SheffieldAndy said:

You make some good points, but a lot of them rely on everyone being fit and being able to play 90 mins.
It’s very clear that not all of our players can at the moment (even moreso with trying to manage fitness for the glut of games we have), so we’re currently trying to manage what we have available, and what we had available was a Winks that was fit enough to play 90, and two other mids that definitely were not.

Click to expand...

idontgetit said:

I get what you're saying and us fans aren't privy to everything thats going on.

Simply put though there were two CM's on the bench that would have offered way more in terms of dominating that midfield. I'm not even the biggest fan of Sissoko and I still would far rather have his energy, tackling and ball carrying against that Southampton side.

I think what annoys me is not that Winks is there, but that Mourinho doesn't see the problem with Winks being there in the way we're trying to play.

Click to expand...

SheffieldAndy said:

Mourinho did come out after the game and speak about fitness of both, and that he’d planned to start Tanguy and bring on Gio.
I don’t think it’s that Mourinho doesn’t see the limitations of playing Winks in that role, I think it’s more that he’s the only player we have fit that can play it.
If we start with Tanguy and Gio, where do we go when they’re both done by halftime? Leaves us with Winks and Sissoko to bring on and that leaves us open to all sorts (and a hell of a lot more fan backlash).
Seems he has a clear way that he wants to play, and rather than sacrificing that for what he has available, he’s making (or trying to) what he has available fit to that system. Makes sense from some ways as it allows players to get used to the system, though I can see why there is criticism, but I think we as fans need to try and understand that what we see as the best team we have isn’t going to be the team played week in, week out (or started, especially where we are in the season with fitness etc).

Click to expand...

idontgetit said:

If both were not fit then I can see the sense in what he's done. I'd still ask why Sissoko wouldn't be starting over Winks but that could have a decent explanation as well.

We absolutely cannot continue with the set-up as it is though.

Click to expand...

Wig said:

We've just clinically dispatched a premier league rival 5-2, even after disallowed goals and bogus penalties, yet some of you are still moaning about the manager who is still in progress of rebuilding the squad. Loser mentality

Click to expand...

SheffieldAndy said:

I agree we can’t keep this as the midfield we use, but I think it should be obvious to everyone that we aren’t, we’re just getting players up to fitness to change it.

Click to expand...

Who’s our next manager? said:

We need another central midfielder.... Brozovic would be superb. Ruben Dias at centreback and a striker.
Weghorst seems to be in favour, very underrated player by his country.There will be massive changes by the Summer of 2021.

Click to expand...

Who’s our next manager? said:

I didn’t like the way he chipped in at the Son interview to claim Kane was MoM.

Click to expand...

glacierSpurs said:

The state from some of you.

Play poorly and badly - Mourinho's fault.
Just won a game 5-2 - no credit to Mourinho.

Always the gaffer fault when things went wrong and always the players awesomeness when things went right.

He's here for barely a year but just incoming players alone, we have upgraded 4 of the starting XI, and Hart, being a personnel of experience and mentality so much needed in the dressing room over Vorm.

Mid-game calls of sacking him will be so ridiculously prevalent this season unless we lead 2 goals in the first half.

But for better or worse, today's show this is a sport of two halves.

Bear in mind the current squad is the most balanced we have in a long long time. And we may still be adding a few more quality players in the coming weeks.

The prejudice against Mourinho is getting ridiculous ffs .

Click to expand...

Who’s our next manager? said:

I didn’t like the way he chipped in at the Son interview to claim Kane was MoM.

Click to expand...

DJS said:

Just concerns me that Doherty is so attacking and maybe will leave us exposed at right back.

Also saints fans (although admittedly salty) were saying PEH average and he has been a little iffy for us thus far.

I’m just stressing as so concerned we have world class players like Kane, Son and now Bale and hope rest of team don’t let them down.

Click to expand...

Who’s our next manager? said:

I didn’t like the way he chipped in at the Son interview to claim Kane was MoM.

Click to expand...

Neon_Knight_ said:

I could lip-read Jose saying "man of the match, man of the match" as he patted Kane on the back after subbing him off.

I didn't see Jose interrupt the interview, but I did see Son accept praise from the interviewer for his "man of the match performance" without turning to Harry to praise him for his assists (that's fairly common practice during public interviews, even if not off-camera), and immediately thought to myself "that's extremely dissmissive of the guy standing next to you". Perhaps Jose was trying to make a point of this to Son.

It's also possible that Jose felt Kane needed a morale boost or that the way he played needed positive reinforcement. We don't know what's being going on behind the scenes or what instructions Mourinho has given him.

Click to expand...

Blake Griffin said:

son himself even said harry was man of the match, no?

Click to expand...