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Jose Mourinho

How do you feel about Mourinho appointment

  • Excited - silverware here we come baby

    Votes: 666 46.7%
  • Meh - will give him a chance and hope he is successful

    Votes: 468 32.8%
  • Horrified - praying for the day he'll fuck off

    Votes: 292 20.5%

  • Total voters
    1,426

piedpiper

Well-Known Member
Aug 14, 2008
3,758
6,763
I've always liked Mourinho for his comic relief in interviews and animated displays on the sidelines during games. I've found his brand of football in later years rather turgid and outdated. I actually dozed off in the first half of our game on Sunday and was bored to death against Everton.

He must though be given an opportunity to show with a rebuilt squad what he can achieve. As another poster put it, he took united to 2nd and won a trophy in his short time there. I truly hope though that we become more commanding in our displays because I no longer enjoy watching us play at times.
 

'O Zio

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2014
7,405
13,785
Mourinho Nov 2019: "“The best gift are the players who are here. I don’t need new players. I just need to get to know these ones better."
Summer window 2020 Spurs sign half a new team.

Would you prefer the Ed Woodward approach of announcing that you're in the market and have a massive wedge burning a hole on your pocket only to then be surprised when teams rip you off for their bang average players
 

E17yid

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2013
16,985
30,495
I don’t get people moaning about the style of football and saying we’re boring to watch. We had 70 odd % possession against Lokomotiv Plovdiv.
 

spids

Well-Known Member
Jul 19, 2015
6,647
27,841
I don’t get people moaning about the style of football and saying we’re boring to watch. We had 70 odd % possession against Lokomotiv Plovdiv.

Not sure if this is sarcastic humour or not, but we were so devoid of ideas and movement in that game it was like watching paint dry. In fact, thank god for the uplink failures that meant we got to watch some historical Serie A highlights instead!

If we look solid and can counter with precision and good movement (as we did first half against Leicester and second half against Southampton) no-one can complain about the style of football. But if we labour like we did i the first half against Southampton and the entire 90 minutes against Everton then fans will get the hump.

Personally, I feel that an attacking trident of Bale, Kane and Son alone will give us such an edge that we'll be very exciting.
 

E17yid

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2013
16,985
30,495
Not sure if this is sarcastic humour or not, but we were so devoid of ideas and movement in that game it was like watching paint dry. In fact, thank god for the uplink failures that meant we got to watch some historical Serie A highlights instead!

If we look solid and can counter with precision and good movement (as we did first half against Leicester and second half against Southampton) no-one can complain about the style of football. But if we labour like we did i the first half against Southampton and the entire 90 minutes against Everton then fans will get the hump.

Personally, I feel that an attacking trident of Bale, Kane and Son alone will give us such an edge that we'll be very exciting.

Yeah, that’s fair enough. This is the test innit, it won’t be when we play top sides or teams who want to have a go at us, it’ll be the ones who sit back and try and counter us where the real challenge will be.

Weirdly I’m still not optimistic about the league this season but I really do think we’ll win something this year which is weird when you think we’re still playing some awful football in patches.
 

BringBack_leGin

Well-Known Member
Jul 28, 2004
27,719
54,929
Encouraging for me is that the pass to Kane for each of our goals v Southampton was itself a threaded pass which split the Southampton team, and while Southampton’s high line benefitted Son and Kane, those first passes were through a pretty good press. Same for the offside moments. As I recall, one from Ndombele, one from Sanchez, two from Lo Celso.

Not saying it’ll always work, but there seems to be a will to build our attacks, despite all the fallacious cries of hoofball.
 

Nebby

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2013
3,363
6,377
People blame Jose for us being boring to watch, but you're simply not going to get expansive passing football with the squad and fitness issues he had last season.

With the squad he's building now we could soon be playing a hybrid of Liverpool under Klopp and Spurs under Poch (the early Walker / Rose years): Two fast and attacking fullbacks, a combative midfield two (PEH and Sissoko) and GLC would be disciplined out of possession, and a hard working rotating front three that now carries a genuine goal threat. If we can just add a fast and dominating CB to the mix, we're looking good.

And there's depth in the squad which would allow him to freshen things up without having to change the system too much.
 

Hakkz

Svensk hetsporre
Jul 6, 2012
8,196
17,270
Not sure if this is sarcastic humour or not, but we were so devoid of ideas and movement in that game it was like watching paint dry. In fact, thank god for the uplink failures that meant we got to watch some historical Serie A highlights instead!

If we look solid and can counter with precision and good movement (as we did first half against Leicester and second half against Southampton) no-one can complain about the style of football. But if we labour like we did i the first half against Southampton and the entire 90 minutes against Everton then fans will get the hump.

Personally, I feel that an attacking trident of Bale, Kane and Son alone will give us such an edge that we'll be very exciting.

The question is though, in a game like that, is it down to the manager or the players to make it happen with that amount of possession?
 
May 17, 2018
11,872
47,993
This is the bit that I can't seem to understand.
Why do people assume that you have to aggressively go at your opponent and pin them back into their own penalty box in order to play good football. Liverpool don't do that, neither do Bayern. For some reason people/pundits have fallen for this notion that pure football should be to win possession (as Brendan Rodgers would say) and pass the opponent to death. It's almost the only sport I can think of where there is this idea of holding possession and having less possession somehow means you're being less aggressive or you're being dominated.

When did fast forward passes become relegated to boring?

I appreciate you've not said that per se but I think we shouldn't assume that being patient and selective in our press somehow makes us less capable.

I can't specifically recall with detail, but I remember my observance of the Redknapp period was somewhat counter-attacking football. It generally must have been, because what use are rapid players on the wings if you are slowly passing the ball forwards (as, of course, passing the ball forwards quickly is pretty much enveloped under 'counter attacking' generally).

I remember loving our style under Redknapp, then hating it under AVB (possession based, 100% of the ball 0 shots on target stuff), and I still don't think I ever really enjoyed our games under Poch bar maybe one peak season where we were capable of high energy football.

I don't really get the 'boring' schtick either. I think counter-attacking can be pretty exciting - more so than pressing, pressing, pressing.
 
Last edited:
May 17, 2018
11,872
47,993
If his name was Sam allerdyce we wouldn't be having this debate as 99% of the forum would be screaming blue murder , and this football is every bit as bad if not worse than an allerdyce team

I hate the lazy Allardyce stereotype. The reality is that if his name wasn't Allardyce and it was, as he says, Allardicio, the interpretation would be different. He's always been forward thinking in football and he suffers from the same thing that Mourinho does - results over style.

A lot of it came from his time at West Ham where he managed to make a team of turds get results, but the delusional fans/board wanted Barca style football too.
 

Wheeler Dealer

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2011
6,863
12,282
Mourinho is the "Ronseal" of football managers - "Does exactly what it says on the tin". I'm surprised many think we're going to get something different.
 

Locotoro

Prince of Zamunda
Sep 2, 2004
9,327
13,916
I hate the lazy Allardyce stereotype. The reality is that if his name wasn't Allardyce and it was, as he says, Allardicio, the interpretation would be different. He's always been forward thinking in football and he suffers from the same thing that Mourinho does - results over style.

A lot of it came from his time at West Ham where he managed to make a team of turds get results, but the delusional fans/board wanted Barca style football too.
I agree.

But I actually think the Allardyce issue arose in his time at Bolton - a team that was tagged as long ball merchants when actually they played som really nice one touch football. You can't build a forward line of Davies, Jay-Jay Okocha and Djourkaeff and expect them only to play long ball
 

slartibartfast

Grunge baby forever
Oct 21, 2012
18,320
33,955
I agree.

But I actually think the Allardyce issue arose in his time at Bolton - a team that was tagged as long ball merchants when actually they played som really nice one touch football. You can't build a forward line of Davies, Jay-Jay Okocha and Djourkaeff and expect them only to play long ball
Lets not forget Anelka. Hardly a long ball man either.
 
May 17, 2018
11,872
47,993
I agree.

But I actually think the Allardyce issue arose in his time at Bolton - a team that was tagged as long ball merchants when actually they played som really nice one touch football. You can't build a forward line of Davies, Jay-Jay Okocha and Djourkaeff and expect them only to play long ball

Beyond the style too, they finished 8th, 6th, 8th, 7th under him between 03/04 and 06/07, 2 QFs, a League Cup runner up, and qualified for Europe twice in an age when Chelsea, United and Arsenal were very strong. Only one of the following 5 seasons (all bottom half, one relegation) after him had a higher scoring season, so I think there's a lot to be said for "knowing how your team can play". I don't remember anyone (particularly Bolton fans) say it was boring at the time, but it was at an age where I'd had to have had exposure to lots of their fans and I didn't. Either way, I'm sure they'd love to be back at that level again, regardless of the spectacle. That's the problem with managing at that level - you can try to play good football and fail beautifully (Brighton or, at times, Norwich. Cardiff did it under Colin Wanker) or you play to your strengths and accept you can't look like Pep's Barca and win at the same time.

With stronger teams I think it's easy to say the football is boring when you're not winning every game - it's either boring or you're unlucky really, if you're not winning, I guess. I think you have to judge the football when a manager has his own team and style nailed down.
 

slartibartfast

Grunge baby forever
Oct 21, 2012
18,320
33,955
After watching the Amazon documentary you have to question how much is down to the players because he did repeatedly ask them to press, close down and move up the pitch quickly. It just didnt happen so whose fault is it?
I also commented previously about his negative team talks, focusing on the opposition and how they're going to play. After watching the last episode I noticed he never did that and his pre match, half time team talks were actually very impressive. Whether that was down to the editing or not I dont know.
Particularly liked how he turned Lloris/Son spat into a positive. And it worked.
 

Kiedis

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2013
2,926
8,490
After watching the Amazon documentary you have to question how much is down to the players because he did repeatedly ask them to press, close down and move up the pitch quickly. It just didnt happen so whose fault is it?

We don't really know how well Mourinho coaches a pressing system. There's more to it than yelling "press" on matchday. Didn't watch too much of his Madrid team, but in his last five seasons of work, all he's ever been able to get any of his teams to do somewhat competently is a medium block like what we did during the restart period.
 

Albertbarich

Well-Known Member
Jul 4, 2020
5,082
19,484
I hate the lazy Allardyce stereotype. The reality is that if his name wasn't Allardyce and it was, as he says, Allardicio, the interpretation would be different. He's always been forward thinking in football and he suffers from the same thing that Mourinho does - results over style.

A lot of it came from his time at West Ham where he managed to make a team of turds get results, but the delusional fans/board wanted Barca style football too.

Allerdyce was just a name. Take any Northern English man producing this football and 99% of people wouldn't have this faith.

I guess the debate is a dead-end. You don't mind the football, I despise it. And I dont believe a lot of it is the masterplan many do.

I guess we will see. I hope I'm wrong but what prompted me to post was I cant see it right now.
 
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