Jose Mourinho

[Gareth88]

Not posted on here for a while and have avoided watching games since the West Ham bollocks for a number of reasons. I’ve caught some highlights and read a lot of match reports and tactical analysis articles but the prospect of watching us for 90 minutes has been unbearable. The football is awful, and we are woefully predictable. The worrying thing is that many football writers and thinkers predicted this; that our decent start would fade away quickly as teams would easily anticipate our style and tactics and use the limitations of this to work against us.

I’m not sure where we go from here; I don’t just hold Mourinho responsible, there’s something at the core of our club, at least from a footballing performance level (nobody can question the growth of our infrastructure), that’s inadequate. We constantly blow our lines when it matters most. We can laugh at Arsenal’s poor season so far but they’re still capable of winning a trophy (which they managed last season), while this remains anathema to us. I’m far from convinced that Mourinho’s appointment is another master stroke from Levy, who apart from Jol, Redknapp and Pochettino has recruited poorly over the last 20 years

Genuinely, was actually thinking the worst had happened glad you are alive

 

[holsten777]

Summary of season so far:

Still in Carabao (semi-final)
Still in FA Cup (3rd round)
Still in Europa (round of 32)
Prem (6 points off top after 15 games)

As far as results go, that's a pretty solid start to the season. Long way to go but a good base on which to build.

 

[HW61]

It’s such a strange time.

I like JM. Charisma and character. Clearly a winner. But I gave up my season ticket I’ve held since 1978. Football has been awful since even before the Champions League final. Not a protest. Not angry. It’s just not entertainment worth paying fortunes for and queuing hours in traffic.

I’m watching on TV because quite frankly there’s not much else to do. But as things stand...even with a return to some kind of normality...I won’t miss going to The Lane. Don’t think I’m alone given what’s being served up.

 

[thebenjamin]

We are in semifinal against Brentford and possibly in final against team we already beat this season and are just inconsistent as we are.

Our only way of winning matches is Kane and Son passing to each other and scoring wonder goals. Other teams have got wise to the fact we have absolutely nothing else offensively and have completely negated that threat. Sit on Kane and we can't attack. Unless we come up with something a little more advanced we're not going to beat city, United, or indeed Brentford.

 

[Seafordian Spurs]

Keep Jose for a season or so more and win some pots playing crap football but hey ....

Meanwhile Poch wins everything at PSG and comes back to us with a winner's mentality, builds an amazing team and wins everything with us. Arsenal are relegated.

This seems like a reasonable prediction grounded in reality.

You're welcome.

 

[handsomecake]

is sabitzer any good at defending his 6 yard box?

 

[rossdapep]

I'll admit that I wanted him and I've defended him a fair bit but I'm not liking this current pattern that's emerging.
The dour football is doable if it's getting results but of late, it's costing us points and that's not a good thing. We've been in positions to win matches and haven't taken advantage, instead, we've played like we're scared and that's something that I'm not sure I can deal with.
I can't see him going yet but something's gonna have to change soon or we're going to stagnate and things will turn sour.

Im in a similar position.

I will defend somethings and I do think he needs his own midfielders before we can start saying he shoild go.

However, we cant continue to go 1 up and then see no further attempts on goal or of the team really getting at the opposition.

I dont think the first half was too bad, not stunning football but our FBs were getting high up and Ndombele was influencing play.

Second half was dreadful, because once again we just fall back and concede initiative.

And this is the pattern that is costing us.

I dont think weve started a second half on the front foot.

 

[jurgen]

We are in semifinal against Brentford and possibly in final against team we already beat this season and are just inconsistent as we are.

There's unfortunately not much evidence that Mourinho has really changed our mentality, we've fallen apart again yet again and are playing absolute turd football while doing it. Right now would you have much confidence in us winning a final against City or Utd under a modicum of pressure? We can't keep out teams with far less attacking talent than those two.

Fine margins perhaps, as if we'd hit our chances against Liverpool I think things may well be much different, and we'd be celebrating our grit and confidence, but of course we conceded late and everything's slumped since and Mourinho has gone from 'park the bus' to 'hide in the nuclear bunker' tactics.

Hopefully we will bring enough to beat Brentford and we don't set up like we're visiting the Nou Camp.

 

[holsten777]

is sabitzer any good at defending his 6 yard box?

I hope he's as good as Jose is at winning trophies.

 

[delawarespur]

I don’t really care if the team is playing like Barca or burnley, for me the best football is winning football. When the team isn’t winning (like at the moment), things have to change. Jose has shown he isn’t averse to letting his teams play with risk or freedom. Look at the beginning of the season for god sake. I think the west ham game really concerned him, and in the league since then we’ve been less ambitious.

I believe Jose when he says he didn’t tell the team to sit back, however he has to realize that it’s on him the way we’re playing at the moment, and he has to realize the wins aren’t coming at the moment so he needs to change something. He’s instigated this style of play, after west ham, which at first was working, and now not so much. It’s become natural to sit back on a lead probably because that’s what Jose preached caution after west ham. Now he has to allow the team to play with more risk. Jose as much as anyone knows that 1-0 isn’t enough in this league especially, so not for a second do I think Jose likes us sitting back after scoring the opener. It’s just become the environment the players are used to because of the new style after west ham. He can definitely get us playing with more risk, we saw it 3 months ago, and because results aren’t going our way, I think it’s time to change our approach. Just like if and when the risky approach fails, I am more than happy to change to a more cautious style, but 1 goal is never enough.

 

[Seafordian Spurs]

There's unfortunately not much evidence that Mourinho has really changed our mentality, we've fallen apart again yet again and are playing absolute turd football while doing it. Right now would you have much confidence in us winning a final against City or Utd under a modicum of pressure? We can't keep out teams with far less attacking talent than those two.

Fine margins perhaps, as if we'd hit our chances against Liverpool I think things may well be much different, and we'd be celebrating our grit and confidence, but of course we conceded late and everything's slumped since and Mourinho has gone from 'park the bus' to 'hide in the nuclear bunker' tactics.

Hopefully we will bring enough to beat Brentford and we don't set up like we're visiting the Nou Camp.

Yes.

Wouldn't feel in the slightest bit confident despite recent results against them if we played City or United in a final next week.

Luckily for us if we do get there it will be in Apri

 

[RikkiRocket]

If jose says he's asked the players to attack,and were getting this football, something is getting seriously lost in between.

 

[Hazelton]

I'm not there in terms of wanting him out, but I do want changes. Today we had the same result with fewer corners, more fouls and the same number of shots on target as West Brom against Liverpool. That's a relegation struggling team, managed by the often criticised Sam Allardyce, away to one of the best Premier League teams of all time. Not good enough.

 

[DiVaio]

Our only way of winning matches is Kane and Son passing to each other and scoring wonder goals. Other teams have got wise to the fact we have absolutely nothing else offensively and have completely negated that threat. Sit on Kane and we can't attack. Unless we come up with something a little more advanced we're not going to beat city, United, or indeed Brentford.

And United way of winning is to pass to Bruno and City way of winning is to pass to De Bruyne?

 

[thebenjamin]

And United way of winning is to pass to Bruno and City way of winning is to pass to De Bruyne?

No it clearly isn't. None of those teams are as one dimensional as we are. What other threats do we have other than Kane and Son? When do we ever get wide men to the byline? Midfielders piling into the box? Wearing teams down by penning them in for long periods with relentless attacking play? We have no attacking structure whatsoever other than get it into Kane and he tries a Hollywood ball into Son. That really is it.

 

[Mediocrates]

It’s interesting to hear more and more people agreeing that it’s maybe not worth it if this is the plan irrespective of opposition. It’s not football. It’s Allardyce but much more expensive and with less justification as we have good and valuable players.

I’ve tried to re-appraise the style but I just can’t see past it being a cynical massacre of football. As one poster said earlier, “if everyone played football like this, no fucker would watch it.”

 

[Shadydan]

 

[NEVILLEB]

I don’t want him to go but my god he’s got to
get us playing football. This is so dull.

 

[L-man]

 

[Crow]

Yikes...