Jose Mourinho

[DEFchenkOE]

Yep. It was obvious in the second half what was required and the match thread is probably littered with comments from people asking us to just hold onto the ball. After their first goal it was all that was required to see out the game.

Midfield needs improving. Of that I have had no doubt for two years. Bringing Lo Celso on had he been fit instead of Winks would of probably seen us out the game. Maybe Mourinho thought Winks could do this, he doesn't usually give the ball away much after all, it is just that he isn't progressive enough but that wasnt required then.

Selling Winks and sissoko and bringing more quality in in the centre of the park is imperative. Probably one step too far in the previous window but one for next summer. This is actually the reason why I think Mourinho still needs to be given a chance this season. He probably wont win anything with us but if he gets CL qualification like he should then that is more than enough to give him another proper shot at things next season with a capable midfield with proper options in there. At the moment we have three. GLC, Ndombele and Hojbjerg. More is required.

Yep I really wanted us to be to add some more quality in midfield, I can understand why we didn't considering all the other areas that needed strengthening. Moving forward though we need at least one or two more like you said to replace Winks and Sissoko so the drop off in quality is not so big when GLC or Ndombele is out.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

I don’t think we intentionally gave up territory or possession at all either v Newcastle it West Ham. I think v West Ham we were just stupidly complacent and it caught up to us, because once we thought we’d won already, combined with West Ham upping their effort, we just got pushed back and by the time we needed to respond we’d already got out of rhythm and getting back into the right habits towards the end of a match is not an easy thing to do. V Newcastle I maintain that our performance was fine and any other day we murder them. Even v West Ham, despite an hour of sloppy play, we still had chances to kill them.

I don’t think we’re deliberately dropping deep, I just think the players have been guilty of arrogance. I don’t think it’s coincidence that the two matches where we squeezed the opposition once on top are the matches we went behind in very early on. Mourinho needs to get the players into the mind set of always playing as if we’re 1-0 down.

As for possession, the far right figure is average possession so we’re not actually particularly inferior in this regard. We also boast the player who’s played the most passes in the league in Højbjerg:

Spoiler: Possession

 

[Guernman]

Jose Mourinho's No 2 Joao Sacramento 'could take charge of Mouscron'

Sacramento has been in the job less than a year after joining when Mourinho replaced Mauricio Pochettino last November, but could now be on his way to Belgium according to Le Soir .

www.dailymail.co.uk

I saw this and immediately rushed to SC to see what was happening on the Sacramento thread...

but there doesn't seem to be one, which is presumably why he may want to leave

 

[GLC10]

I think Mourinho has improved the team's performance. But you need to learn how to close matches. Never again should you change a great player for a Wink, Sissoko, Gedson ... they don't have the quality to replace Ndombele, Kane, Son, Gio ..

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Jose Mourinho's No 2 Joao Sacramento 'could take charge of Mouscron'

Sacramento has been in the job less than a year after joining when Mourinho replaced Mauricio Pochettino last November, but could now be on his way to Belgium according to Le Soir .

www.dailymail.co.uk

Jorge Simao appointed, Sacramento stays.

 

[spids]

Couldn't agree more, especially about the ball going back to Lloris and us continuously surrendering possession. But I guess this is the result of having a defence of:

Aurier - not comfortable on the ball
Sanchez - really not comfortable on the ball
Toby - On the decline, probably doesn't want the ball anymore
Reguilon - great on the ball but new to the team/ league

Add to that when you have a Winks or Sissoko in midfield, or even worse both at the same time...

I think Doherty needs to be brought into the team for league games from now on but I'm not sure if receiving the ball from the gk and starting attacks is his strength either but I think he is better on the ball than Serge.

It is probably also a flaw of Hugo, not as good as passing out from the back as a lot of the other top keepers who are very accurate with their passing and with pace so the ball is harder to cut out. Lloris has the floaty lofted pass in his locker but that rarely gets us going as easy to close down.

The main problem is Sissoko does not want the ball with his back to goal and even to the extent that he man marks an opponent when our CBs have the ball. That one less option in midfield means we have to pass to the FBs, who often have to pass straight back. If a FB then passes to Winks or Sissoko they will usually opt for safety first and pass it to a CB anyway. Lo Celso and Ndombele, and to a certain extent Hojbjerg, are willing to accept the ball and turn. Not sure what happened to the Winks of 2 years ago but at some point he became very risk averse.

 

[rez9000]

I think Mourinho has improved the team's performance. But you need to learn how to close matches. Never again should you change a great player for a Wink, Sissoko, Gedson ... they don't have the quality to replace Ndombele, Kane, Son, Gio ..

That's a simplistic way of looking at things. It's as if the only factor that led to the result was the substitution.

It's also similar to the view that there are dozens of people out there who 'knew' before it happened that it was going to happen.

Come on, people. I would bet real money that anyone in Mourinho's place at 80 minutes into that game would have made pretty much the same substitutions.

What happened on Sunday had little to do with skill, tactics or substitutions. It was psychological. It was the dyed-in-the-wool brittleness that our club has had for years. That culture is being changed, we have the perfect person in charge to change it. But you don't learn those things on the training ground. You only learn it on the pitch.

We needed to lose a game (or rather lose points) in the fashion we did. It blows that we did it to those shelfbrows, but it needed to happen at some point, so the squad can learn that losing is absolutely not acceptable. And we know that Mourinho thinks like that - he hates losing and he will use this to teach our players to hate it too.

That's what will stop us from repeating that. Not new players, not a different manager and certainly not retrospective 20:20-hindsight armchair tactical analysis.

 

[GLC10]

I agree, I just think that players like Sissoko, Winks, Gedson, Aurier and Sanchez make our best players look worse. That is why Mourinho needs to manage the changes well in the second half.

 

[rez9000]

I agree, I just think that players like Sissoko, Winks, Gedson, Aurier and Sanchez make our best players look worse. That is why Mourinho needs to manage the changes well in the second half.

That's still too simplistic an answer and it still suggests that the error was Mourinho's (whether that's deliberate or not). He's managed games very well this season, as he has a reputation for. The places that we've dropped points have been to a large degree down to bad luck, some appalling refereeing decisions, and a squad that hasn't quite learnt the necessary lessons.

This view, I think, is the germination of an unfortunate trope that's come about, based on one or two people (not saying yourself GLC) that we threw the game away against Newcastle and that what happened on Sunday was a continuation of that. It's utter, 100% industrial-grade bullshit.

What happened on Sunday and what happened against Newcastle have no bearing on each other whatsoever. How many saves did Fabianski make on Sunday? I don't remember the exact number, but it was far less than the bagfuls that Darlow made for Newcastle.

And against Newcastle, within the myriad ridiculous refereeing decisions we've seen over the years, this one was probably the worst ever made. And I'm not talking about the handball, I'm talking about the freekick where Hojbjerg was subject to a (literal) flying bodycheck that would have made a WWE wrestler proud and that utter dipshit Bankes gives Newcastle the freekick.

Yesterday was the first time in the new regime that we came up against a team who had mainlined desire into their veins, had the tools to hurt us with it, but who we thought we had beaten by half-time. The fault was with the players - initial complacency which then became nervousness. That isn't the result of poor second-half management.

As I've said elsewhere, West Ham can't bring themselves to replicate that level of intensity and desire against other teams in the league until they drop into the relegation zone. It's completely pathetic and it shows them up as the tinpot club that they are. But, regardless they wanted it right up till the final whistle and got something from the game. Hopefully, the shitty feeling we've all got now will be felt just as keenly by our players and Jose will use that to beat it into their skulls that it mustn't... happen... again.

It was psychology, not tactics, not skill, not substitutions. It was players not being ruthless enough.

And that will come in time.

 

[Dzejkob]

To be honest I think we will quickly resolve that mentality issue. The team felt far to comfortable after 20 minutes where we were 3;0 up. After United result, very positive transfer window, you are suddenly 3;0 up in London derby and imho the guys just felt they are invincible. They will learn from that. Remember the Chelsea game. How strong we were there throughout the whole game and in penalties. Our squad is strong enough to manage games like that, we are just still not finished product. But I'm pretty confident we will learn from that.

 

[mumfordspur]

and this shit doesn't even itself out, no matter what anyone says.

Too ******g right pal. I once complained to a boss about a new roster meaning I lost a rest day and the winker said "it's swings & roundabouts Micky".
Never did get to go on the roundabout. He was a w*nker and Spurs as well.

 

[Gb160]

Too ******g right pal. I once complained to a boss about a new roster meaning I lost a rest day and the winker said "it's swings & roundabouts Micky".
Never did get to go on the roundabout. He was a w*nker and Spurs as well.

Roundabouts are for pussies, give me a Witch's Hat any day of the week.

 

[tiger666]

Roundabouts are for pussies, give me a Witch's Hat any day of the week.

Your mate on his bike with the back wheel on it.

 

[SpartanSpur]

I like this, I hope this is a sign that we don't want to dwell on the West Ham result. Onwards and upwards.

 

[PLTuck]

Jose loves conflict. Not in a bad way though. He loves his players to push each other, he loves to bring a player down a peg when they are getting complacent, and conversely bigging them up when they do what he expects of them, despite any technical limitations of said player. That Sissoko is rarely out of the squad and Dele is says alot about Jose.

I loved what he said when asked about the transfer window. Paraphrasing but basically saying the players are excited by all the new additions but also he sees a bit of fear in them because we now have quality in depth in all areas. Even Kane knows he can lose his place if he takes his foot off the gas.

Despite the West Ham result, I still think we are going to have a great season, and so far it looks like it winning it might be wide open to any of 5 or 6 teams.

 

[cjbyid]

 

[kmk]

I’m glad that he has identified our problems defending set pieces.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Love that Jose called out both the media calling us Spursy due to the 3-0 to 3-3 and Bale's voodoo record of no wins again, he nips these silly things in the bud and said "it is not Spursy, we play this match another 50x and it won't happen again and we just need to defend set-pieces better". I'm not saying one is better or one approach is right or wrong but I do really like how honest and to the point and bullish Jose is in the press conferences compared to Poch who's answers were often very confusing, I think the way managers play the media can have a very real impact on the team and players motivation and belief.

8:10 : calls out that 'Spursy' is basically a load of rubbish:


This guy will win us trophies, as he says we are a team in evolution, he's got us playing quite frankly beautiful exciting fast direct football and he will sort out the defending, thats a lot easier to fix (concentration, organisation etc). Roden will also help with his height and ariel ability.

 

[Shadydan]

No such thing as Spursy, glad he came out and said that...shame some of our fans don't see it that way

 

[carpediem991]

No such thing as Spursy, glad he came out and said that...shame some of our fans don't see it that way

You may call it Spursy or not. Its a mentality thing and such things happen to us more often than to winning top clubs.
I think for a long time our technical and footballing abilities are not much worse than lots of winning top clubs. But signs of weak mentality when it matters have cost us winning big matches or titles the last years.