Jose Mourinho

[SamR]

I'm not sure we can look at Levy and the board for this. They backed Jose in the summer and brought in players who we were all happy with, including getting Bale back which we all thought was a brilliant move. This is all down to Jose and the team now, Levy delivered a summer during a pandemic that we would not have dreamed of in a regular transfer window.

I accept that point too. Thoughts above.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

FWIW, Levy isn't sacking the man he's been coveting for nearly 2 decades. And I think sacking any manager at this stage of this particularly disruptive season, would be suicide. We were in a similar rut last season, and he managed to change the mood in the team (as per the AON doc), and we had a good run in.

It's bleak right now, but I reckon he'll have it sorted enough to win the League Cup, and keep us top 6.

Levy is pretty cold blooded and objective when it comes down to it. He will be judging Jose on what he is actually achieving at the club now he’s here. One thing I’ll say about Levy is he has always been ready to terminate a manager when things go sour. He doesn’t hang about on that and never has. It won’t be any different with Jose.

Sacking a manager at this stage doesn’t look like suicide for Chelsea from where I’m sitting. Maybe I’ll be proved wrong on that though.

 

[dontcallme]

It seems the common theme here is the players, too many mid table players, too many injury prone and comfortable players. So do we take next season on the chin? Shake things up?

Huge clear out in the summer, bring 3-4 players in, accept that next year we’ll have a thin squad and give youngsters a chance. That would be my way out of this mess of a team right now.

Never going to happen though.

The things is that we clearly do have quality in the squad. Not as much as we'd like maybe but Kane and Son would get in almost every team in world football.

You can have a very good team without having every player being world class.

I remember when Arnesen put a team together very quickly on a budget and helped turn us from lower mid table to 5th best in the league within 2 seasons.

Redknapp took over an uneven team and after buying a midfield destroyer and a striker suddenly our quality players improved and we improved immediately.

I am not convinced by our full backs and struggle to understand why we have bought wing backs instead of defenders when we show no signs of playing a back 3.

Hojbjerg and Ndombele can be top quality. One sensible signing makes our midfield functional.

I just don't see where the team building is or what we're aiming for.

 

[GutBucket]

We've seen it time and time again recently when we push forward one long pass and we are scrambling around like idiots.

Push us forward and who is creating? I think people think it's as simple as push us forward and we will be like Liverpool and City. We won't! We don't have the numbers of technically confident players who can first control the ball and then find another player in tight areas. We can't build that sustained pressure like they do and that's why we looked so much better countering into space. We saw it game after game under Poch. Teams park the bus and we can't unlock the door.

Southampton and Aston Villa don't have too many technically gifted players and they know how to attack and they will have more than 1 shot in half in any game. We can't build sustained pressure because Mourinho doesn't know how to and doesn't teach it and because his possession and turnover philosophy is flawed. You need to have gifted players to counter attack too, players who can make smart runs, midfielders who can make precise long passes and FBs or WBs who can cross. Most importantly good defenders who can soak up the pressure. Leicester want to counter but it's difficult without Ndidi and Vardy. We want to play it without good CBs (except Toby) and now with crap WBs. Mourinho doesn't have to go tiki-taka route but he has to change something, teams know how to play us and couple of mid table clubs have shittier teams that play better football and have way more shot attempts. Last season it worked when he switched to 442, now he is trying it with back 3 but it won't work with Davies and Sissoko as WBs. Parking the bus and hoping nobody makes a mistake and Son scores with his talent alone won't work either.

 

[Stamford]

FWIW, Levy isn't sacking the man he's been coveting for nearly 2 decades. And I think sacking any manager at this stage of this particularly disruptive season, would be suicide. We were in a similar rut last season, and he managed to change the mood in the team (as per the AON doc), and we had a good run in.

It's bleak right now, but I reckon he'll have it sorted enough to win the League Cup, and keep us top 6.

Levy sacked Poch who he supposedly was friendly with and went on holidays together. He wouldn't hesitate to sack Jose at all imo.

 

[Japhet]

FWIW, Levy isn't sacking the man he's been coveting for nearly 2 decades. And I think sacking any manager at this stage of this particularly disruptive season, would be suicide. We were in a similar rut last season, and he managed to change the mood in the team (as per the AON doc), and we had a good run in.

It's bleak right now, but I reckon he'll have it sorted enough to win the League Cup, and keep us top 6.

Has he ever navigated through a slump and turned things around? All I can remember is things getting progressively worse and toxic at previous clubs. I don't see any way Man City don't humiliate us in the Cup final either the way things are going. Horrible situation now because it would cost a fortune to get rid of him and I wouldn't want to give him money to spend on his brand of football which he will most likely demand.

 

[Nocando]

As an aside did he really stand outside the dressing room at half time?

 

[Gassin's finest]

Levy is pretty cold blooded and objective when it comes down to it. He will be judging Jose on what he is actually achieving at the club now he’s here. One thing I’ll say about Levy is he has always been ready to terminate a manager when things go sour. He doesn’t hang about on that and never has. It won’t be any different with Jose.

Sacking a manager at this stage doesn’t look like suicide for Chelsea from where I’m sitting. Maybe I’ll be proved wrong on that though.

Chelsea are a very different club, who can happily ditch a coach, chuck money at the best one going, and then give him 1/4 billion to spend.

We are simply not in that position. There are no top drawer managers out there that we could bring in mid season, that would sort this team out, and convince Kane and Son not to fuck off in the summer.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

Chelsea are a very different club, who can happily ditch a coach, chuck money at the best one going, and then give him 1/4 billion to spend.

We are simply not in that position. There are no top drawer managers out there that we could bring in mid season, that would sort this team out, and convince Kane and Son not to fuck off in the summer.

Chelsea aren’t spending any money on players mid season though are they?

Son and Kane aren’t both leaving this summer, I can promise you that. And if things do turn sour in the squad, I see more chance of convincing Son and Kane to stay by righting the course quickly than letting the negativity breed over the course of the next few months. Personally.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

I don't. He knows that back line is the problem, that's why it's constantly changing. He doesn't believe we can keep a clean sheet playing anything other than the all out low block and neither do I.

OK I think we all understand that Mourinho thinks his squad's weakness is the defence. And I think that is a fair assessment. The issue now is, forget keeping a clean sheet without the low block. We can't keep a clean sheet with the low block. On top of it we can't score a goal (OK, maybe one per game. Maybe). Mourinho has gone too far trying to mitigate a risk that frankly isn't THAT important. You win matches by scoring the most, not by conceding the least. And we've got the players to score the most in more matches than what is currently the case.
So if you constantly are trying to mitigate your weakness, and that leads to your weakness persisting and your strength being omitted almost entirely, what then should you do?

We have seen what this squad can do when the approach doesn't carry as much care for clean sheets and as much about a leaky defence. Some matches under Mourinho have been quite successfully managed with a more creative flair. Then yes! Sometimes that will end in a 3-3 draw. Other times that will end in embarrassing defeats. But on an aggregated basis, it might just end with a CL spot, too. And that is ultimately what is required of this squad and team of coaches.

 

[jondy1]

https://www.football.london/tottenh...boola&int_medium=display&int_campaign=organic. This guy could see the problems ahead after only ten games of mourinihos tenure

 

[vAs]

Personally I think that Mourinho is done at top level football. His tactics are so outdated its embarrassing. He just does not want adapt to modern football. His tactics were effective 10-15 years ago, but in 2021 when football is so much more attacking you are destined to fail. We need young and ambitious coach with modern vision..

 

[doctor stefan Freud]

Might be the post I’ve enjoyed most on this site this year.

Well played sir. Well played.

Fucking turncoat

 

[Gassin's finest]

Has he ever navigated through a slump and turned things around? All I can remember is things getting progressively worse and toxic at previous clubs. I don't see any way Man City don't humiliate us in the Cup final either the way things are going. Horrible situation now because it would cost a fortune to get rid of him and I wouldn't want to give him money to spend on his brand of football which he will most likely demand.

His tenure at Man Utd started terribly, with public feuds with Shaw and Pogba. They ended up winning the LC and EL that season, and came 2nd the season after that. I'm no staunch Jose defender, nor an over enthused critic. But there is plenty of reasons to give him the season, and not hit the panic button.

 

[sausage]

Levy sacked Poch who he supposedly was friendly with and went on holidays together. He wouldn't hesitate to sack Jose at all imo.

It's amusing for me as a long-term read-only type person, as it wasn't too long ago that Levy was labelled as a ruthless 'trigger finger' manager-sacker who didn't give anyone enough time etc. Now he's seen as a dallier.


I understand about Jose, because he's always been a top, top, manager. A Gareth Bale. We've just picked them up at a time where neither is what they were, and you expect that Levy will be able to separate the personal from the professional.

It'd be disastrous for DL if he let 20 years of hard progress be undone by the inability to make the right choice of manager.

As mentioned, though, the 'cup final' thing may at least give him until EOS. I don't know if we can afford to miss out on a wide-open CL place for the 2nd year in a row, though - especially with no fans in.

 

[Kuryakin]

How much money did Mourinho spend on players at United in order to get "his" squad? 350-400 million?

 

[walworthyid]

Chelsea are a very different club, who can happily ditch a coach, chuck money at the best one going, and then give him 1/4 billion to spend.

We are simply not in that position. There are no top drawer managers out there that we could bring in mid season, that would sort this team out, and convince Kane and Son not to fuck off in the summer.

You're right about Chelsea, but they didn't spend money last season and didn't bring in a top drawer manager yet they did alright. It was in fact spending money that caused their problems this year!

Lamport came in, brought youngsters through and started playing attacking, exciting free-flowing football. Id take that in a heartbeat!

We have quality in the squad and even more than that the right manager, like poch did, like jol did, like redknapp did, will make the team greater than the sum of its parts.

Players want to enjoy playing or at the very least win enough to make them believe in the style of play. We all acknowledged that the trade off with mourinho was that the style of play was shit but we would win something! Well, how's that going for us? So we have the worst of both worlds. Shit football and no success!

He has absolutely got to go immediately. There is no happy ending. As I've said before, no matter what we win there will always be a desire for good football at spurs. Jose will not deliver that. Cannot deliver that. Therefore, why waste time?

There has simply got to be a manager out there who can come in and get this squad at least smiling again and playing something resembling football!

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Personally I think that Mourinho is done at top level football. His tactics are so outdated its embarrassing. He just does not want adapt to modern football. His tactics were effective 10-15 years ago, but in 2021 when football is so much more attacking you are destined to fail. We need young and ambitious coach with modern vision..

I think this is touching on something important back in 2019. I was probably the first on SC to post about the possible scenario of Pochettino being replaced by Mourinho. And initially I did not personally want Mourinho but I saw that it was a likely case regardless of my personal preferences. But as you say, I remember talking to ManUtd fans back then about how Mourinho was, as you say, outdated and flat. Later on during that autumn of 2019, I changed my mind and actually thought Mourinho could be a good choice. Why? We were being sold this idea that Mourinho had taken time off, updated himself, reinvigorated himself and would come back as Mourinho 2.0. And honestly who wouldn't want a 2.0 version of a renowned winner who was impressive in the PL in the past? The issue was, and is, that there has been no reinvention.

 

[spursfan77]

This sounds really familiar. Can't believe that two years on we find ourselves back to square one.

I can because we don’t move players on when their time with us has expired. How the fuck we kept players around last summer like Lamela and Lucas and not bought Eze when we’d been tracking him for 18 months just sums us up.

The whole club is just stale. I didn’t rate Paul Mitchell but since he left we have gone backwards in the transfer market. Mourinho tried, on a smaller budget, to begin to change things in the summer but it will take more than one window. While the football is terrible nobody has the patience for that. Mourinho needs to get us playing better.

If Mourinho goes in the summer, expect to see Kane ask to go.

 

[Deleted member 27995]

I can because we don’t move players on when their time with us has expired. How the fuck we kept players around last summer like Lamela and Lucas and not bought Eze when we’d been tracking him for 18 months just sums us up.

The whole club is just stale. I didn’t rate Paul Mitchell but since he left we have gone backwards in the transfer market. Mourinho tried, on a smaller budget, to begin to change things in the summer but it will take more than one window. While the football is terrible nobody has the patience for that. Mourinho needs to get us playing better.

If Mourinho goes in the summer, expect to see Kane ask to go.

Yeah, and Sonny.