- Jan 28, 2011
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I think that's a fair and balanced stance. The football has been poor on the whole, I would agree with that. First half yesterday was abysmal without a doubt. I'm just taking the optimistic stance because I can't see how Mourinho would want us to play in such a disjointed way. I think he's just in survival mode at the moment due to injuries, fitness and confidence issues within the squad.
Southampton are no joke right now, they gave Liverpool a hell of a game for an hour. We might look at our team on paper and think we should dominate them but they are fit, confident and have fully adapted to their managers style, while we put out a patchwork side playing in a cobbled together 3-5-2 with two recognised attackers. Part of me wants to think we should be seeing obvious patterns of play by now but at the same time I don't think that'll come until Jose has more time on the training ground and the players have more time to gel. Under Jose I think it's more of an organic process than more modern managers like Poch or even Hassenhuttl. Jose is a very reactive manager which is why we are nicking games like this, it's that special sauce that was always lacking under Poch sadly.
The million dollar question is whether Jose can ever get our general play up to an enjoyable standard, and enable us to dominate lesser teams like we did under Poch. I'm hopeful he can in time, due to the talent we have in our squad, but I don't think we'll know for sure either way until next season, largely due to the Kane injury and us being unable to address key squad areas in January.
I do think however over the course of the two Southampton games there were more than enough counter opportunities spurned to justify the gameplan against them. Especially the first game when we missed two 1 v 1s and should have had the tie buried at HT. Yesterday was more about poor decisions killing great opportunities but there were always goals in the game for us, even though we were the inferior team. What I'm hoping for is us becoming more clinical in these counters, as well as more effective in our general play. A combination of resilience and ruthlessness.
One thing I don't think we can deny is that the players are playing for him and team spirit and confidence is (re)building. I watched his interview for the club's social media and he was talking about how GLC and Dele were both desperate to play and help the team but they had to be careful with them. Was great to hear.
I mean, if anyone looked at our team on paper before the game and though that based on form then they haven't been paying attention.