Jose Mourinho

[Vincent30]

2020 Dele still scored and assisted more than Maddison. Maybe he would struggle but it comes to different playstyle, different formations.

And seriously, why do you think he lacks work rate/discipline? He's making more pressures than league average for midfielders. Same with
tackles. Distance covered and sprints are very good too.

Why does everyone get so obsessed with stats rather than actually watching the game to tell if a player is good.

So because stats tell you he makes more pressures than the league average, you're claiming he is good at pressing? He is crap at pressing, pressing is about really accelerating towards a player and doing it as a unit, from watching Dele and not going by stats he is very very average at pressing players. Lucas and Lamela are way better than him at pressing and nicking the ball.

Why do i think he lacks work rate and discipline, because i watch every Spurs game. He walks around a lot, stops with the ball a lot, doesn't press with any intensity and can literally play only one position a floating role behind Kane.

Are you honestly saying you've been impressed with Dele this year and think he has shown great progression in his career since his breakout year with us? Away from numbers, is this what you're saying?

He is so average and too many have rose tinted glasses with him. No top team in the best leagues in Europe would go near him, that is for a reason. He isn't good enough.

 

[DiVaio]

Why does everyone get so obsessed with stats rather than actually watching the game to tell if a player is good.

So because stats tell you he makes more pressures than the league average, you're claiming he is good at pressing? He is crap at pressing, pressing is about really accelerating towards a player and doing it as a unit, from watching Dele and not going by stats he is very very average at pressing players. Lucas and Lamela are way better than him at pressing and nicking the ball.

Why do i think he lacks work rate and discipline, because i watch every Spurs game. He walks around a lot, stops with the ball a lot, doesn't press with any intensity and can literally play only one position a floating role behind Kane.

Are you honestly saying you've been impressed with Dele this year and think he has shown great progression in his career since his breakout year with us? Away from numbers, is this what you're saying?

He is so average and too many have rose tinted glasses with him. No top team in the best leagues in Europe would go near him, that is for a reason. He isn't good enough.

Maybe because this stats in football are becoming more important every year and currently the best team in the world used them very heavily to build their squad?

This year Dele played in a horrible team and still outscored most of the midfielders.

 

[spursfan77]

Maybe because this stats in football are becoming more important every year and currently the best team in the world used them very heavily to build their squad?

This year Dele played in a horrible team and still outscored most of the midfielders.

They may be important to some people, but they'll never be as important as watching a player live. They can help form an opinion but unfortunately for the nerds, they’ll have to leave their basements and go watch a player to get a proper idea of him. It’s my main worry about Holbjerg. People post his stats being good but whenever I’ve watched him he’s been distinctly average and ward prowse has outshone him in the southampton midfield every time.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

They may be important to some people, but they'll never be as important as watching a player live. They can help form an opinion but unfortunately for the nerds, they’ll have to leave their basements and go watch a player to get a proper idea of him. It’s my main worry about Holbjerg. People post his stats being good but whenever I’ve watched him he’s been distinctly average and ward prowse has outshone him in the southampton midfield every time.

Stats can lead to spats, but the eyes never lie. Something I was taught by a scout when I was involved with recruitment back in the day.

Statistics can be very misleading but are a good middle ground to use when judging a player. Watching a player consistently over a period of time can tell you so much more though. It’s the reason why scouts have careers to begin with.

So much of the game is focused around numbers these days we forget about the most important indication of how good a player really is or could be is simple observation.

 

[Mr Pink]

Lol no one hate you dude, well at least I don't. I just know how it was is all. I love what Poch did for us, and I'll always remember him fondly for that. Fact is though he brought his end upon himself in many respects, and that shouldn't be forgotten either.

And the minute he uttered those words about potentially leaving on the eve of the CL final, we all knew something was wrong behind closed doors.

And the timing was so, so wrong.

 

[WiganSpur]

The simple answer is that both Winks and Sissoko are unable to take the ball from deep and start attacks with that perfect pass never-mind playing a simple 10 yard ball. It is beyond me how so many fans expect Jose to be playing possession based football when our midfield is not capable of it. Hojberg will be a good start and as soon as we see the likes of Sissoko being taken out of the first 11 (he has his use as a squad player) we will start to see some changes in our attacking shape. You can't lose the likes of Dembele, Eriksen, a fit Wanyama or in form Dier, replace them with Winks and Sissoko and expect the same results.

Jose has made a solid attempt at fixing the defence and with a few more additions and sales we'll be a lot more solid. Then we need to address the midfield which I 100% believe we will do. Our attack scores goals regardless and we just need to tweak the squad a little bit to unleash them.

As soon as we get Hojbjerg and or get Ndombele involved I don't think you're going to see a change in the overall approach from Mourinho. What you see is what you'll get. We'll be a coached, organised unit with counter attacking capabilities. What those ball playing midfielders will do is hopefully be able to play the ball forward more quickly and accurately improving those counters. Crucially I also think it helps us to develop a plan B when we go one or two goals down, the opponent drops in and we need to chase a result. Jose will throw caution to the wind when he needs to, but I think playing in the opposition half is something we've been really poor at so far and we need to find ways of creating chances and getting goals when we find ourselves in these situations.

 

[Johno1470]

As soon as we get Hojbjerg and or get Ndombele involved I don't think you're going to see a change in the overall approach from Mourinho. What you see is what you'll get. We'll be a coached, organised unit with counter attacking capabilities. What those ball playing midfielders will do is hopefully be able to play the ball forward more quickly and accurately improving those counters. Crucially I also think it helps us to develop a plan B when we go one or two goals down, the opponent drops in and we need to chase a result. Jose will throw caution to the wind when he needs to, but I think playing in the opposition half is something we've been really poor at so far and we need to find ways of creating chances and getting goals when we find ourselves in these situations.

I completely agree with your points. Many complain that we sit too deep but we don’t have the players to drive out from a counter attack and start to build an attacking phase. Post lockdown games the majority of our counter attacks came from Moura, Son or Kane receiving the ball at the edge of the box or the middle of the pitch and playing it forward to one of the three. Did we see Sissoko take a touch, spin and play it forward? The same from Winks? GLC did but he can’t do it all himself.

I think we will see some differences in our style with a player like Hojbjerg but not drastic. We won’t be playing tiki taka football but I expect us to be a lot more clinical and efficient at least.

 

[Trix]

And the minute he uttered those words about potentially leaving on the eve of the CL final, we all knew something was wrong behind closed doors.

And the timing was so, so wrong.

I said back in September he wouldn't make it to Christmas. Too many players disillusioned by what was happening behind closed doors. Poch new the players were not buying into his rehashed ideas but continued with them anyway.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Haha nice spin. He literally decided there was one player for each position he wanted and nothing else would do. Sometimes teams just won't let players go just because another manager only wants them. Especially when they have strong contracts. Don't get me wrong Levy is no Saint but the reason we went a year without buying is down to Poch and no one else.

Thats crazy to hear, Levy is no saint like you say but he must be frustrated when he gets this PR of no signings and spend when fans don't realise that Poch was a big part of the issue, very interesting and thanks for sharing.

We've been here before so lets see but it does seem like jose has a very clear plan and is more realistic and decisive with targets compared to poch which should in theory make it easier for us to make signings... hopefully... Then there is the small matter of do we have much budget to bring in any real quality and also can we actually shift the players Jose doesn't want a la Rose, KWP, Foyth etc etc.

COYS. Fingers crossed for a decisive and solid window.
As we know, you don't have to spend big to be successful, a lot of our better signings were more astute and under £15m signings e.g. Lloris, Toby, Rose, Bale, Dier, Dele, Eriksen, Trippier so it just shows.

A window of something like the following might seem underwhelming to some but if these players tick the right boxes we could see a huge improvement on the pitch:

3rd choice young english goalie from academy or young signing
RB perhaps Max Aarons or Casagne
CB the south korean monster
DM Hoyjberg
AM Eze
ST Wilson

None of those bar Aarons should be any more than £15m each and would massively improve our weaknesses.

If we then can get Ndombele playing we'd have one hell of a squad, OR if its just not working then we sell him and replace with similar quality or do swap.

What encoruages me is what Jose has said in recent pressers is pretty positive about his work with Hitchen and Levy and we know he's a pragmatic merticulous planner and submits dossiers and regular comms to the board regarding players etc so it should 'in theory' make Levy's job a little eaiser.

A realistic hope would be that we can get Hoyjberg and a ST sorted early doors and then if we have to drag out the other 3 positions to stretch the budget then fine but they can't all be last minute jobbies and we end up with a heap of shit.

COYS.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Anyone else notice in pressers he says "apart of" instead of "apart from", his english is bloody amazing and I can't speak a word of Portuguese so I have no leg to stand on but just makes me laugh when he says this and its a funny thing to get wrong when he has such an impressive range of vocabulary for someone speaking a language which is not their 1st language.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Thats crazy to hear, Levy is no saint like you say but he must be frustrated when he gets this PR of no signings and spend when fans don't realise that Poch was a big part of the issue.

Steady on.

 

[Legacy]

Anyone else notice in pressers he says "apart of" instead of "apart from", his english is bloody amazing and I can't speak a word of Portuguese so I have no leg to stand on but just makes me laugh when he says this and its a funny thing to get wrong when he has such an impressive range of vocabulary for someone speaking a language which is not their 1st language.

Plenty of English adults still say "should of" instead of "should have".

 

[spids]

Plenty of English adults still say "should of" instead of "should have".

Maybe they are saying “should’ve” which is perfectly fine and your hearing isn’t as great as your lust for grammar?

 

[Legacy]

Maybe they are saying “should’ve” which is perfectly fine and your hearing isn’t as great as your lust for grammar?

I'm sorry I wasn't specific enough. Plenty of English adults still say, and type, "should of" instead of "should have". Is that also perfectly fine or is my eyesight also not as great as my lust for grammar?

 

[spids]

I'm sorry I wasn't specific enough. Plenty of English adults still say, and type, "should of" instead of "should have". Is that also perfectly fine or is my eyesight also not as great as my lust for grammar?

Maybe you really meant write rather than say (as "should of" really is rather indistinguishable from "should've"). Thanks for clearing that up. Your eyesight is first class.

 

[RichieS]

Plenty of English adults still say "should of" instead of "should have".

In a similar vein to the originally mentioned phrase, "except from" does my head in!

 

[Legacy]

Maybe you really meant write rather than say (as "should of" really is rather indistinguishable from "should've"). Thanks for clearing that up. Your eyesight is first class.

Maybe it's your own hearing you should've been questioning then. I don't think it's outlandish to assume that people who write it incorrectly also say it incorrectly either. Thank you for the compliment on my eyesight.

 

[Japhet]

Anyone else notice in pressers he says "apart of" instead of "apart from", his english is bloody amazing and I can't speak a word of Portuguese so I have no leg to stand on but just makes me laugh when he says this and its a funny thing to get wrong when he has such an impressive range of vocabulary for someone speaking a language which is not their 1st language.

That kind of thing is usually a result of how their native language literally translates into English.

 

[spids]

Maybe it's your own hearing you should've been questioning then. I don't think it's outlandish to assume that people who write it incorrectly also say it incorrectly either. Thank you for the compliment on my eyesight.

You're more than welcome.

 

[SheffieldAndy]

Hellfire, surely ‘I did really mean write’ would have been so much easier than this minor grammatical peeing contest.
Plus I highly doubt Mourinho gives a fig about it, so it has nothing to do with this thread. Take it to the ITK discussion where it belongs please chaps, or better still, just let it go ?