Jose Mourinho

[slartibartfast]

I think we are going forward with the ball much quicker than we were under Poch.
Lo Celso, Ndombele and Bergwijn take it forward quickly 9 times out of 10. Even Winks seems to have cut out the lets play safe sideways shit quite a bit. Lamela always did so it suits him and Bergwijn and Fernandes are the same, forward first.
It when we dont have the ball we look all at sea. For me thats where we need a dm to balance this team.

 

[yido_number1]

I can't wait till the season is over. The football we are playing is terrible with the players we got, even injured. GLC, Ndombele, Alli, Moura, Bergwijn, Lamela, Aurier, Davies, Winks can play decent football if they're instructed to do so, but they're told to sit back and hoof the ball only to invite more pressure and then pray we can do something on the counter. Not my type of football.
I miss the time where we used to play like RBL.

I was never excited getting Jose in the first time, but that's how it is and we will have to stick with it.
I will support him for now, but if next season doesn't get much better, with backings in the summer, i'll sharp my knives.

I agree to a point but we have no one to hold the ball up and we are missing our most potent forwards.

I'll give him time to get his players and Son and Kane back fit before judging.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Watch the Ajax home match again, the reason I'm comparing the two is because we were in very similar situations with out two strikers missing.

Anyway I see what Jose is trying to do, keep us in matches until around the 70th min mark then makes subs to get a stranglehold of the game which is when we start playing football and you have to say it's working for the most part, his hands are tied at the moment though.

Second paragraph is bang on. Anyone who has been watching Mourinho’s teams for the last few years knows that especially in cup games this is what he sets up to do.

 

[spursfan77]

His biggest problem now is getting us to score goals, that’s obvious.

We might be better now set up to play away from home.

Either way, it’s not going to be easy missing our two best players but we need to find a way.

 

[wrd]

This was the first game Jose has had to deal with since losing Son, theres a few weeks between now and the 2nd leg to figure things out but from where I'm sitting having Moura as a target man isn't working and I hope we see a style which involves Ndombele in the midfield and having Dele holding the ball up with 2 wingers playing off of him.

I know he's been dealt a shit hand with no striker in Jan, no Kane, no Son but what's done is done and I'm not willing to write the season off when we still have so many fantastic players at our disposal. As I say we have a few weeks Im backing Jose to figure out a solution come the 2nd leg.

As valiant an effort as Moura makes, he has proven time and time again he's at his most devastating being able to play off somebody and the 4-4-2 and going long wasn't allowing Dele to hold the ball up in any capacity but as we saw against Villa, Dele is very good when the likes of Winks and Lo Celso were playing quick balls to his feet.

 

[double0]

I'm not gonna blame him for the position we are currently in with the injuries we have and the squad he has inherited, but if we set up and play the way we did last night over the next 6 games, culminating in the Man Utd game at home which are in all likelihood going to define how far we go in both cups and where we will finish in the league and I can easily see us losing 4 or 5 of them and maybe snatching one or two draws.

With the tactics Mourinho employs there is one game I'm dreading to see, that's when Arsenal comes for the very first time to our stadium.

Football wise it might be humiliation

 

[Japhet]

Audere est facere. To hoof is to hope.

Hoofere est hopere.

 

[luptic]

I think the problem now and last night was working on a plan for now on without Son and Kane. I think the son injury probably gave them little time to work on a plan without him. Its only 0-1, which can be turned around, but we were abject for 70mins.
Its just one of those season's.

 

[shoggy33]

Jose deserves credit for turning results around especially given the injury problems and the obvious limitations with our squad. But I'm getting pretty fed up of watching us get utterly dominated for large portions of every game. I can see what he's trying to do, but the fact is our players don't have the discipline and ability to play this way. They have spent years playing a possession based game, they have no idea how to sit deep and defend. We do, however, have Lo Celso and Ndombele who are superb on the ball. Everytime we get these 2 on the pitch and play some actual football with intensity we look decent again. We could easily have been 3 down at half time last night, and against Villa and City. Playing this way just isn't sustainable.

 

[Klinsmannesque]

I think if we went toe to toe with RB last night, with our current squad situation we’d get slaughtered. They are a very good team, were very good in the press and in transition, I think we’d have been picked off.

Rode our luck a bit, Lloris made some big stops but we are a misfit of a squad trying to stumble through the season, it’s a hard job no matter who the manager is. I’ll judge Jose next year when we actually have a squad and he’s had pre season to implement a system and style

Would hope we are a bit braver vs Chelsea though, they aren’t as good, are very fragile and be under big pressure.

 

[double0]

I think if we went toe to toe with RB last night, with our current squad situation we’d get slaughtered. They are a very good team, were very good in the press and in transition, I think we’d have been picked off.

Rode our luck a bit, Lloris made some big stops but we are a misfit of a squad trying to stumble through the season, it’s a hard job no matter who the manager is. I’ll judge Jose next year when we actually have a squad and he’s had pre season to implement a system and style

Would hope we are a bit braver vs Chelsea though, they aren’t as good, are very fragile and be under big pressure.

We gave them far to much respect time and space on the ball. We needed to be more bold.

 

[leelee]

I think people need to realize, JM had a game plan. Without our 2 best offensive players we wanted that clean sheet and set up with Bergwijn and Lucas on the counter in Leipzig. He set up to play a defensive game last night.

 

[Japhet]

IMO, without a quality target man up front, we have to start getting the ball down on the ground and playing more football. Going aerial most of the time is just chucking away possession and waiting to be under the cosh again with the options we have up front. I think it's unfair to judge Mourinho too harshly under the current circumstances but, having said that, I don't see any tactical genius in belting the ball up to Moura, Dele and Bergwijn at nearly every opportunity. At least when Lamela came on we played some nice passing football and Leipzig looked rattled at times.

 

[SamR]

Let's not kid ourselves. If Liverpool lost Sane and Salah they would be in the same boat.

 

[Betha]

I watched the first games under Mourinho with some sort of exitement, looking forward to at least seeing a well organized team without the ball. At least i expected beeing overrun in midfield like we had all autmun would stop. I really didn't expect a fine tuned attacking machine, and I don't think we'll ever be that under Mourinho.

Unfortunately, that exitement turned quite fast. The Man.Utd game away is one of the worst coached games I have ever seen (how he didn't get fired after that midfield set up beats me). But still, that was early on, so no reason to panic. Then came the Chelsea game which was even worse. Watching that game hurt so bad I decided to take a little brake from watching this team (yes I know). There are so many entertaining teams to watch and life's to short to be miserable every weekend. And, I got to watch a lot of good football (Bundesliga i.e.).

Still, I have been paying attention, and I've seen the results improve. The reports haven't always been positive (lot of talk about luck and undeserved victories), but seemingly things were improving. So, yesterday I sat down again, for the first time since Chelsea. And ffs. We looked even worse than we did against Chelsea and Man Utd before christmas.

I know that Mourinho has only been here for three months, and that there are no strikers available. And both of those excuses are somewhat valid. But, there are no excuses for the defensive setup yesterday. We should have been down two goals inside the first minute, and no one could have complained if Red Bull were up by five at half time. We looked like a team that has never practiced together before, and seemed extremely unprepared. A Mourinho team, at least, used to be hard to break down, this team looked like Southend (or how I am imagining them looking). The midfield got completely overrun, and all the defence could do was throw bodies around. I really expected more from Mourinho in this area.

Offensively I'm willing to cut him some more slack, although there really are huge areas for concern. It's not Mourinhos fault that Lucas Moura really isn't good (enough), or that Dele Alli seemingly only plays well in very specific circumstances (close to a striker, and with a creator high on the pitch). But it is most certainly on Mourinho that we seemingly do not have a plan, or something looking like the start of an identity, at all. It is on Mourinho that we end up attacking with two flat lines of five. It is on Mourinho that we do not look like a team that trains together at all. It's on Mourinho that our midfield is organized in a way which makes them so easy to take out that we have no other options than hoofing, and hoping for some pure luck. And, whats even more striking to me, is that when you are without players like Kane and Son, you'd be even more looking for some sort of organization offensively. It doesn't really have to be all that advanced either, but something, just something.

We look like a team completely without an identity both offensively (somewhat understandable given the time available), and defensively (not understandable). And yesterday we were an extremely boring side to watch. I do believe that a lot of the problems are down to what Poch did or didn't do over the last year, and if Poch had left at the summer (as he should have) it would have been way easier and better. But still, I'm extremely worried. And I fear that this is what we will see for the next year and a half.

Now, this could obviously improve. And most likely it will, at least some. But, if you look at the United team he managed, and how that unfolded, there really are huge rooms for concern. That team didn't really become all that great. It turned out quite shit actually. The lack of improvement is really worrying I think.

 

[double0]

IMO, without a quality target man up front, we have to start getting the ball down on the ground and playing more football. Going aerial most of the time is just chucking away possession and waiting to be under the cosh again with the options we have up front. I think it's unfair to judge Mourinho too under the current circumstances but, having said that, I don't see any tactical genius in belting the ball up to Moura, Dele and Bergwijn at nearly every opportunity. At least when Lamela came on we played some nice passing football and Leipzig looked rattled at times.

So who is to blame....many teams don't play with a target man.

 

[double0]

Let's not kid ourselves. If Liverpool lost Sane and Salah they would be in the same boat.

What play long football and sit back

 

[tototoner]

Let's not kid ourselves. If Liverpool lost Sane and Salah they would be in the same boat.

Liverpool would not be playing the turgid football we do without them 2 and Firminio

 

[Deleted member 27995]

We should have brought Eddie Howe in, open attacking football with a clear plan for us all to see so we can all pat ourselves on the back and say 'well, at least we can see what we're trying to do, we're still losing, but it looks pretty sometimes' ...

 

[Ionman34]

Watch the Ajax home match again, the reason I'm comparing the two is because we were in very similar situations with out two strikers missing.

Anyway I see what Jose is trying to do, keep us in matches until around the 70th min mark then makes subs to get a stranglehold of the game which is when we start playing football and you have to say it's working for the most part, his hands are tied at the moment though.

Said exactly this to the Old Man last night. That is his pragmatic approach to get us to the end of the season.

It might not be as pretty as many of us would like but, for the most part, it is effective.

Nor is it the way that we will be playing next season, I'm utterly convinced of this. However, I'd caveat that by saying that I'd expect to see much of that pragmatic approach in away games against the better sides we play, and I welcome that approach. If we're looking to take a minimum of 4 points a season off our main rivals (in main rivals I'm talking top 6) and maximum points from the rest, then we'll be right up there for my money.

He'll have the majority of his spine already in place, having a full preseason to work with them and a decent chance to have them fresh and raring to go next season. From a selfish perspective, I'm hoping Southgate doesn't take Kane or Dele to the Euro's. Rest, recharge then come out firing in the new season.

Everything up to the end of this season is effectively crisis management.