Jose Mourinho

[Japhet]

This is like a game of Snakes and Ladders and we've just slid back to where we were before a mini run of easy games. Weird starting line up given that Tierney and Smith-Rowe were going to get after us down that side. Hard to understand that Mourinho did absolutely nothing about during the first half when they created havoc. First half was just awful and we carried on sitting back until were behind and down to 10, and then we somehow spring into life. I don't believe for 1 second that is not on Mourinho. Yes, Bale was anonymous but subbing him for Sissoko - seriously? There's a slim chance Bale might create something versus absolutely fuck all chance Sissoko will. We just capitulated to the worst Arsenal team in living memory.

 

[ralphs bald spot]

Can’t play out from the back. That’s the biggest problem with this team and where this and many other performances stem from. Don’t look like they know how to do it, doesn’t look like they’re being encouraged to do it. so many passes backwards when under any sort of pressure which results in one of our centre backs or GK launching percentage balls. So frustrating watching the same problem all season when up against teams that will come on to us and press us more.

There is more than one way to play football you don't have to play out from the back. If the other side are pressuring you go long for a bit make them defend put the ball in the corner turn them around a bit make them think. Get in their faces they can't defend and we just let them play exactly the game they bar two miniutes at the end

 

[barry]

I can accept shit football if we're winning consistently, and good football with inconsistent results, but poor football with poor results...Marone.

He's got to go. I actually like Jose as a person, and I'll miss him, but he's done.

 

[Centrocampista]

Tried to wait for the furore to die down, and hoping the mob have moved on. I don’t necessarily begrudge the criticism Jose gets, infact a lot of it is justified, it’s the unfair standards he’s judged by that annoys me. We’ve won 1 in 15 at the Emirates but apparently it’s a sacking offence for not picking up 3 points, even after one of our best players went off injured in the first half.

Objectively it seems like many have made their minds up on Jose, no matter what we do.

I don't think people are saying its a sackable offence to lose 1 derby match... its the results over the season and the football thats been played. To be fair his players have let him down on numerous occasions but the buck stops with him

 

[KingKay]

Oh Kingkay is going to be childish.

You still whinging? ?

 

[Japhet]

Tried to wait for the furore to die down, and hoping the mob have moved on. I don’t necessarily begrudge the criticism Jose gets, infact a lot of it is justified, it’s the unfair standards he’s judged by that annoys me. We’ve won 1 in 15 at the Emirates but apparently it’s a sacking offence for not picking up 3 points, even after one of our best players went off injured in the first half.

Objectively it seems like many have made their minds up on Jose, no matter what we do.

This is the worst Arsenal team during that run by a country mile.

 

[Jamturk]

Even the commentators couldn't believe what they saw from us today, and laid it plainly down to strategy.

 

[andrewt]

I'm pretty on the fence about him he has great qualities, but some serious floors... that being said today was shambolic and disappointing to say the least.

It was clear that even before the game started Doherty was going to be in all sorts of trouble for obvious reasons.(cause he is useless mainly) plus bale being on that side. Mou could have easily swapped bale and son, sonny is much better defensively than bale (that being said serge should have started) anyway then when son goes off mourn goes on the left again why not put moura to help Doherty out? Bit the real icing on the cake was taking bale off a major goal threat Arteta was probably as shocked as anyone but mainly just relieved and pleased his opposite number made such a strange error!

Anyway I understood the system change but the personnel change was baffling to say the least, actually felt sorry for bale odd...(does he not trust Bale?)


Anyway that's before you get into any of the other stuff that went for and against and some truly shocking performances from key men I feel he wasn't helped by the players today .....not sure who's fault that is were the players pissed they had to play like that again after playing so well in pervious weeks or are we just that crap not sure

Anyway thats my observations on it

 

[Indisguise]

Has he been sacked yet?

Not a chance. Management isn't going to admit that it's wrong on this one for quite some time yet I reckon.

 

[VancouverSpur]

Tried to wait for the furore to die down, and hoping the mob have moved on. I don’t necessarily begrudge the criticism Jose gets, infact a lot of it is justified, it’s the unfair standards he’s judged by that annoys me. We’ve won 1 in 15 at the Emirates but apparently it’s a sacking offence for not picking up 3 points, even after one of our best players went off injured in the first half.

Objectively it seems like many have made their minds up on Jose, no matter what we do.

Was the performance more than the result. Our record at the Emirates is shit but today’s performance was fucking abysmal.

Losing football matches is part and parcel of it but today was a lot more than that. Tactics were non existent as was the effort...it was as bad as we have been all season and that’s inexcusable in a NLD

 

[teok]

This is like a game of Snakes and Ladders and we've just slid back to where we were before a mini run of easy games. Weird starting line up given that Tierney and Smith-Rowe were going to get after us down that side. Hard to understand that Mourinho did absolutely nothing about during the first half when they created havoc. First half was just awful and we carried on sitting back until were behind and down to 10, and then we somehow spring into life. I don't believe for 1 second that is not on Mourinho. Yes, Bale was anonymous but subbing him for Sissoko - seriously? There's a slim chance Bale might create something versus absolutely fuck all chance Sissoko will. We just capitulated to the worst Arsenal team in living memory.

The best summary of the game.

 

[KingKay]

I don't think people are saying its a sackable offence to lose 1 derby match... its the results over the season and the football thats been played. To be fair his players have let him down on numerous occasions but the buck stops with him

I can see the logic, I suppose it’s also the fact that people see anything other than top 4 as a failure for us. This despite the fact that history, investment, pretty much any barometer, suggesting we’ve no right to expect 4th every season.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

And in the first derby this season we are sitting here with the same tactics for the game and name it a masterclass. I demand more offensive football too, but its not always that easy esp. in a very long season against a side who is best when you give them space. If Sanchez doesnt jump into Lacazette, who knows how it would have gone, Arse hasnt done shit in the 2nd half.

I dont want to defend a bad performance by the team, but this overreacting now I don't like at all...

Like I said, this ‘overreacting’ and yes, I accept some may be, is very much fuelled by disbelief that he’s had a few weeks of seeing what our cards are capable of with the handbrake off, and then he put it back in because he got a bad case of yellow fever for the big one.

As for it having worked first time round, since then that particular tariff has been gloriously found out by every team we’ve faced. You know that it’s not the same now as it was back then.

 

[KingKay]

This is the worst Arsenal team during that run by a country mile.

It is, but when was the last time either team won home and away in a season? You might aswell toss a coin in the air for most derby games.

 

[bho]

Tried to wait for the furore to die down, and hoping the mob have moved on. I don’t necessarily begrudge the criticism Jose gets, infact a lot of it is justified, it’s the unfair standards he’s judged by that annoys me. We’ve won 1 in 15 at the Emirates but apparently it’s a sacking offence for not picking up 3 points, even after one of our best players went off injured in the first half.

Objectively it seems like many have made their minds up on Jose, no matter what we do.

This is by far the worst arsenal team in my lifetime, we should stop using historical arguments from when they were actually good.

 

[KingKay]

Was the performance more than the result. Our record at the Emirates is shit but today’s performance was fucking abysmal.

Losing football matches is part and parcel of it but today was a lot more than that. Tactics were non existent as was the effort...it was as bad as we have been all season and that’s inexcusable in a NLD

Can’t disagree with that, but we’ve been shit in NLD’s before, and we’ll be shit again. Not sure it’s justification to bin off all the progress in the last few games?

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Surely you save him for the NLD and play Doherty against Zagreb then.

I certainly don't disagree, but it's possible that Mourinho hoped Aurier could handle both...only to find out after the Zagreb game that it wouldn't be viable. Theoretically, Aurier could have been the fresher of the two, as Doherty had played 3/4 games while Aurier had missed the previous 2. Hindsight is always 20/20

 

[bubble07]

So what's he saying ,the players don't listen to him now....then he's lost them.lose lose.
What utter bollocks.

The players didn't execute the plan which can happen

 

[rossdapep]

He should see the season out, as it's pointless making a change and we still have two cups to compete for. However, his record vs the other modern coaches is very worrying.

I've tried to include coaches who manage the best teams, as well as modern coaches who look like they have a bright future.

THE MODERN UPCOMERS


vs Parker - D 1-1; W 1-0 - First game we started well but Parker made a few tweaks and Fulham got control of the game, second game was a similar story but we were able to prevent a goal.

vs Arteta - W 2-1; W 2-0, L 1-2 - You could look at the results and say it's an overreaction. Yet each of these games Arsenal have largely had control over the game and been the team with initiative. Whilst I agreed with Jose regarding Arsenal having no answer to get a goal in the 2-0 win against them, it also set a bad precedent as it basically said "We have no intention of attacking you, you need to break us down' ...when another coach may have gone for a third or fourth (If Pep was our coach we'd have routed Arsenal that day). Today it was all there to see.

vs Potter - W 2-1; W2-1; L 0-1- In each of these games Brighton have had a really good spell and we've generally looked out of sorts - our quality and Brighton's lack of quality has generally won us these games. However, the last game finally exposed the flaws.

vs Lampard - L 0-2; L 0-2, D 0-0 - I realise that this is from last season but we really did FAIL TO SCORE AGAINST a rookie and poor coach such as Lampard. Totally insipid football each game.

vs Nagelsmann - L 0-1; L 0-3 - Yes we were missing players but the performance was generally uninspiring and not at any point did we cause them problems, or did you feel we could turn the game. It highlighted how much Jose had to do with improving his strategy. At the time I put it down to players been out but we are seeing this pattern too often.

vs Farke - D 2-2; W 2-1; Lost on pens - Last season in the PL, Norwich were comfortably beaten by a lot of teams as their defence was very weak. Yet, somehow they caused us enough issues and once again we had no real control over these games.

vs Rodgers - W 3-0; L 0-2 - Fair play to Jose because the first game was perfect tactics, even though we did but back, we weren't playing well and needed some stability so it was a fair strategy. Yet, the same fixture this year and Jose paid for not taking the game to Leicester. They didn't catch us out on the break so much, it's because we really didn't get on top of them and cause them issues. Then, when the game went away from us, Jose went berserk on the substitutions and ended up fixing nothing.

THE BIG TEAMS/COACHES

vs Klopp - L 0-1; L 1-2; L 1-3 - The excuses from last season were perfectly reasonable as Liverpool were the best team and we had key injuries as well as poor form. This season however we've rocked up against a Liverpool team with makeshift defenders and hardly put them under any pressure. Every other game of their's has seen the opposition have a go, and get something. Even when Klopp has been at his weakest Jose hasn't found the key.

vs Rodgers - W 3-0; L 0-2 - Fair play to Jose because the first game was perfect tactics, even though we did but back, we weren't playing well and needed some stability so it was a fair strategy. Yet, the same fixture this year and Jose paid for not taking the game to Leicester. They didn't catch us out on the break so much, it's because we really didn't get on top of them and cause them issues. Then, when the game went away from us, Jose went berserk on the substitutions and ended up fixing nothing.

vs Pep - W 2-0; W 2-0; L 0-3 - The record is actually pretty good and the second game was certainly a much better performance in terms of strategy. But was that cause City were slow out of the traps? The first game we were very lucky to not be 2 or 3 down before we scored and the last game was just pathetic as once again Jose had no answer to take the game to City.

vs Tuchel - L 0-1 - Didn't look threatening at all and had zero periods in which we were in control.

vs Solskjaer - L 1-2; D 1-1; W 6-1 - The 6-1 win was incredible and from when we scored the first to the fourth we looked well up for it. But did we catch United cold? They'd had a bad start to the season and were late in preseason too..... The other previous fixtures, were pretty poor and Jose let Solskjaer dictate these games as we barely threatened or had any period of possession.

Summary

Whilst there are a few good wins here and some decent performances, those have mostly been because we sat deep and caught the opposition out. The worry is that in each reverse future (vs Chelsea/City/Arsenal/Liverpool/United) the same strategy has been massively exposed. It just doesn't seem sustainable to go into every big game like this, you may get a win here and there but you will certainly lose the next one.

Also, if you look at the games vs the modern/up coming coaches, we have either had a poor draw or narrowly won due to the quality we had over the opposition. In none of these games have we looked imperious or had as close to 90 mins control as possible, each time the other coach has been able to impose his strategy on his team, whereas we've relied on moments of brilliance or counter attack play to win.

If you were then to look at our most comprehensive victories under Jose, they would be.

Burnley 5-0; 4-0 - Against a passive team, therefore our quality shows. Whilst I admire Dyche, he isn't a coach who focuses on taking the initiative or attacking strategy.

Palace - 4-1 - Against Hodgson - I think those opening 10 mins of the second half were the best we've played under Jose but again look at the quality of Kane/Bale/Son - wouldn't you have expected to see that more and earlier in the game?

Leeds - 3-0 - Bielsa is the yang to Jose's ying but we know that Leeds are so weak and open defensively I'm not so sure it's a great win. We will see how we fair in the return fixture.

Southampton - 5-2 (L 0-1 last year) See above - as Southampton played a suicidal high line and again we had no real control over that first half.


Other than Leeds, you could look at our reverse/previous fixtures against these teams and you'd find uninspiring performances and poor results.

So, is there a team and coach out there in which Jose has fully been on top of and been able impose an attacking strategy on in each of the match-ups? I'm not sure if there has....at some point a coach has been able to impose his style on us.

Even Solskjaer has been able to get it more right than wrong against some counterparts.

 

[stov]

Oh, we’re back to Jose out again?

I never changed my view that he is not the right manager for spurs and never will be.