Jose Mourinho

[BringBack_leGin]

Isn't the worrying part not that Jose made four changes - but that the changes didn't actually work. If anything we got worse and coughed up more chances in the second half than in the first.

So when Jose says "now I know more about who to select" is he talking about those who didn't get the job done first half? Or those who didn't get the job done second half?

Or is his whole madcap scheme to have the entire squad asking the question

First half got us into that situation.

Second half v a leading side with an excellent home record and clearly a very organised backline we couldn’t get out of it. They were two different matches effectively.

It happens.

 

[rossdapep]

What's all the hand wringing about here?

I see nothing contentious about what he's put in his Instagram, bad performances DO deserve bad results on the whole, he's expressed his sadness, not anger, and he's stated that they'll be training at 11am.

He hasn't called out a single player, not thrown a tantrum ... It's a nothing post really.

The lengths some people will go to to find criticism is astounding at times.

Exactly.

Plenty of players make a post expressing their feelings after defeat and that they need to do better.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

The only reason we were behind in the first half was due to Ben Davies mistake, yet he wasn't one to make way at half time.

The second half team was not much better than the first half team going forward.

This was not a must win game, Jose basically panicked at half time which is not what I expect from him. We've played much worse in other games where he has made zero changes at half time.

Was very risky what he done yesterday and in the end it back fired as none of the key players were rested and we still didn't get a result.

I'm not a fan of Dele but only giving him 45 mins hardly seems like a fair chance. I hope Vinicius and Lo Celso were injured as they didn't deserve to be hooked either and should have gotten more time. Not Lo Celsos best game but definitely no worse than Winks who played the full match.

Idk something just doesn't sit right with me about yesterday and that's not even taking into consideration the result.

 

[Who’s our next manager?]

Nah this is on the players this time. Those players are good enough to go out there and put a professional performance. They played like shit... they playerd like they won the game before they even started. They were ****ish in their performance. Disgraceful. Each and every one shoud be left in Antwerp

Not on Jose though this one.

For the life of me I can’t work out what ****ish means. I’ve put all the usual letters in but nothing comes to mind ?

 

[soflapaul]

The lack of cohesion in the first half is more than understandable since quite a few of the players have had limited minutes this year and certainly with each other. It's hard to fault the players for that. What was difficult to understand was their overall positioning and inability to win 50-50 balls. Antwerp was a good side and well organized but it didn't seem that anyone was willing to take the game by the scruff of the neck save Carlos. Even he was limited with what he could do because he is still new to the side and new to the tactics. Perhaps Jose could have handled it a little better with the emphasis on "little" but he does seem to have a plan that has gotten results for the most part.

 

[Japhet]

The lack of cohesion in the first half is more than understandable since quite a few of the players have had limited minutes this year and certainly with each other. It's hard to fault the players for that. What was difficult to understand was their overall positioning and inability to win 50-50 balls. Antwerp was a good side and well organized but it didn't seem that anyone was willing to take the game by the scruff of the neck save Carlos. Even he was limited with what he could do because he is still new to the side and new to the tactics. Perhaps Jose could have handled it a little better with the emphasis on "little" but he does seem to have a plan that has gotten results for the most part.

There was a general lack of application, particularly going for loose balls of which Antwerp won the vast majority. Aurier and Lucas were the only ones I saw sprinting to get to a 50/50 which simply isn't good enough. I didn't think Antwerp were actually that much better - they just wanted it a whole lot more than ours did.

 

[Phomesy]

First half got us into that situation.

Second half v a leading side with an excellent home record and clearly a very organised backline we couldn’t get out of it. They were two different matches effectively.

It happens.

Nah I reckon that's it for the season. Jose's lost the dressing room and we are about to begin a downward spiral that will see us bottom half by Xmas and Jose and Kane gone in January. We should manage to stave off relegation - just...

Either that or we'll win the league. At a canter.

Somewhere between those tentpoles.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Nah I reckon that's it for the season. Jose's lost the dressing room and we are about to begin a downward spiral that will see us bottom half by Xmas and Jose and Kane gone in January. We should manage to stave off relegation - just...

I’d suggest there’s a worryingly large number of ‘fans’ who’d be cool with this as it’d vindicate their opinions...

 

[rez9000]

Nah I reckon that's it for the season. Jose's lost the dressing room and we are about to begin a downward spiral that will see us bottom half by Xmas and Jose and Kane gone in January. We should manage to stave off relegation - just...

Either that or we'll win the league. At a canter.

Somewhere between those tentpoles.

I'm glad you pegged it down (get it? get it?) so specifically. It's narrowed down the possibilities very nicely, I think.

 

[Jamturk]

Mourinho isn't perfect and can/does and will make mistakes.

In my humble opinion what he did yesterday wasn't unifying it was divisive and instead of getting more minutes into players that needed it he added more minutes into players that didn't.

P.s and leaving Bale on wasn't a great look either.

 

[RikkiRocket]

I take exception to your TONE, Sirrah!

Have at thee!

Sorry - what was the point? I was just tickled by the idea that you - or anyone - can discern "tone" on an internet forum. I would love too!

I would love TO. For someone so critical of others grammar yours sucks.

 

[Ionman34]

I would love TO. For someone so critical of others grammar yours sucks.

Others'

 

[BringBack_leGin]

I would love TO. For someone so critical of others grammar yours sucks.

grammar, yours

?

 

[rossdapep]

I think if we were to all go back to Tuesday morning we would have all be making a case for a great deal of players who hadn't featured against Burnley to play last night.

We wanted to see Vinicius get a start and have Kane rested. Build on from his positive start last week.
We wanted Bale to start so he can get up to speed quicker.
We wanted Lo Celso to play to get back up to fitness.
We wanted Reguilon to play because he hadn't played on Monday.
We wanted Bergwijn to play so he could build confidence and form.
And some probably wanted Alli to be given a start.

It's easier to sit here now and say "He shouldn't have changed the team so much" and whilst I do believe that is the case he probably felt that these players had shown enough previously to at least get a result.

The good thing is now he has seen that firstly he can't change the team so much as some players still need their hands holding (need the better players to play with them) whereas for others too many changes was disruptive.

When I was looking at the team sheet yesterday, I actually felt that we have TOO many players and some of these need to be gone and that will make things easier.

Going forward we need to keep a relative core of the team with 2-3 changes per game only.

 

[Alex4487]

Cant blame mourinho for last nights shambles although taking lo celso off unless he was injured was abit ott as we need him or ndombele atleast one of them need to play for creativity. I also think son was abit meh when he came on dwelled on it abit too much but overall the players take the blame they were labouring around all game

 

[dbspurs]

I don’t understand why everyone moaning about the starting 11 last night . We have always used the fringe players In Europa . Remember Ramos , redknapp and poch doing it in the early stages.
Last week it felt like good squad management , this week it’s to much . It’s not like they are the kids . All of them bar Vinny , dele and Bale have started Prem games this season and the three mentioned are pretty experienced players ? And the 5 that came on with 44-35 mins to go had enough time to turn it around.
We just had an awful day at the office and the team including manager take it on the chin.

I do agree but I think that away from home in Europe there should always be minimal changes from the standard team. No more than 4 changes.

That way you can still keep a bit of rhythm. 9 changes away from home is a bit severe.

The selection problem for me was mainly in the midfield. Alli, Winks and a not fully fit Lo Celso caused most of our problems.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

I think if we were to all go back to Tuesday morning we would have all be making a case for a great deal of players who hadn't featured against Burnley to play last night.

We wanted to see Vinicius get a start and have Kane rested. Build on from his positive start last week.
We wanted Bale to start so he can get up to speed quicker.
We wanted Lo Celso to play to get back up to fitness.
We wanted Reguilon to play because he hadn't played on Monday.
We wanted Bergwijn to play so he could build confidence and form.
And some probably wanted Alli to be given a start.

It's easier to sit here now and say "He shouldn't have changed the team so much" and whilst I do believe that is the case he probably felt that these players had shown enough previously to at least get a result.

The good thing is now he has seen that firstly he can't change the team so much as some players still need their hands holding (need the better players to play with them) whereas for others too many changes was disruptive.

When I was looking at the team sheet yesterday, I actually felt that we have TOO many players and some of these need to be gone and that will make things easier.

Going forward we need to keep a relative core of the team with 2-3 changes per game only.

I think you’re overriding point it’s fine, but perhaps 2-3 players is a touch conservative. I’d say we could change half the side, based on the non regulars who were most deserving, and not lose too much. More than happy with Reguilón and Aurier coming in as that’s not really an extreme change given how many minutes both are getting anyway, but at least one of Sissoko or Højbjerg for a bit more physicality would’ve helped, and two of Lucas, NDombele and Son given their form and link up with Kane would have also been fine. One of Toby or Dier for Davies too. I think something like:

Lloris
Aurier Sanchez Alderweireid Reguilón
Sissoko Lo Celso
Bale Ndombele Lucas
Vinicius
​

Then, with the allowance of five subs, we could easily have predetermined subs for those players for whom the minutes were racking up or who only had an hour in their legs.

 

[JCRD]

I think if we were to all go back to Tuesday morning we would have all be making a case for a great deal of players who hadn't featured against Burnley to play last night.

We wanted to see Vinicius get a start and have Kane rested. Build on from his positive start last week.
We wanted Bale to start so he can get up to speed quicker.
We wanted Lo Celso to play to get back up to fitness.
We wanted Reguilon to play because he hadn't played on Monday.
We wanted Bergwijn to play so he could build confidence and form.
And some probably wanted Alli to be given a start.

It's easier to sit here now and say "He shouldn't have changed the team so much" and whilst I do believe that is the case he probably felt that these players had shown enough previously to at least get a result.

The good thing is now he has seen that firstly he can't change the team so much as some players still need their hands holding (need the better players to play with them) whereas for others too many changes was disruptive.

When I was looking at the team sheet yesterday, I actually felt that we have TOO many players and some of these need to be gone and that will make things easier.

Going forward we need to keep a relative core of the team with 2-3 changes per game only.

Each and every single one of those players who did play yesterday (perhaps with the exception of Dele) would do well if they were playing in our strongest line up. Unfortunately putting them all together and when they havent played together before, was a recipe for disaster which we didnt really envisage.

I think the balance of the first team is fine, its our squad which isnt quite right. I still think we are missing a defender and a central midfielder...

 

[PCozzie]

We still overthinking this? Come on, shit game, shit result, only two days to the next one.

Fuck sake, Man Utd got destroyed by us a few weeks ago. They were going down, Ole was getting sacked, Pogba was finished and this week they beat Leipzig 5-0 in the CL.

Jeez.

 

[rez9000]

I would love TO. For someone so critical of others grammar yours sucks.

Others'

grammar, yours

?

Run, Ricki, run! They're after you!

To be fair, I'm after you for your grammar too, but I just thought I'd give you fair warning. Just to be sporting.