Jose Mourinho

[fishhhandaricecake]

I also like how he’s handling the squad, the line-ups he’s picking etc are much more in-line with what we’d like to see than under Poch. It seems like he has a clear plan whereas at times toward the end of poch era he seemed to have unfortunately run out of ideas.

Jose can tell Rose is a bad egg and is not playing him unless absolutely nessercary, hopefully forcing his hand to leave the club.
He’s slowly integrated Lo Celso but knew that with injuries etc he’d need to use Eriksen until Lo Celso was more up to speed and we’d signed extra bodies in midfield.

I also love how honest he is in his press conferences yet at the same time hiding bits of information where needed.

onwards and upwards and getting more optimistic that if we can get him 4-5 signings over next few windows we could be in great shape.

 

[Real_madyidd]

I think there are signs of the Jose plan emerging now and we’re becoming harder to beat and create chances against. If we can get a striker and a few more additions I can see us going from strength to strength.

Small problem with your plan...

 

[Ronwol196061]

Dont you think Mourinho would have had enough of Deles brother?
Can we sell him and buy Dele

 

[carmeldevil]

 

[dagraham]

Thankfully for him his birthday isn’t deadline day. That would have been a real shitter.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Small problem with your plan...

do tell..

 

[ajspurs]

As others have mentioned, the thing I do like is that you can see areas that are improving, even if we're still deficient in others. One of the main frustrations I had with Poch in the last year or so was that we kept going out and doing the same wrong things over and over, making the same wrong decisions over and over and I remember repeatedly asking myself what on Earth we were doing in training in the week because it looked like we must have been doing very little.

It was frustrating to see Poch say all the right things in the media, all the things that as a fan you'd want to hear but to then go out and see the exact same poor football being played.

It's refreshing to see us improving bit by bit.

 

[Dirtysanchez6]

Have to say with the signings we are making gedson and SB its already clear to see Jose is going to make this squad direct and Pacey looking forward to the summer window and to see it all come together next season we could be a big big threat

 

[TheVoiceofReason]

next season we could be a big big threat

Heard that one before

 

[Dirtysanchez6]

Heard that one before

Haven’t had a manager who knows how to build a title winning side before though ....

 

[JayB]

Heard that one before

To be fair I think there's a lot of truth to it. Ndombele and Lo Celso are going to be the heartbeat of the team, have shown themselves to be massive talents, but have taken time to adjust to the physicality and pace of play in the Premier League. By the beginning of next season they should be fully settled and firing on all cylinders, whereas this season we've scarcely seen them play together at all. Imagine how many more points we'd have gained if Lo Celso had been playing at his current level all season and if Ndombele were able to cope with the physical demands of the league. Unless their progress gets completely derailed I don't think it's unrealistic to expect that they'll be fully settled come next August.

Add to that the fact that we appear to be much more proactive in the transfer market than we have been in the past (assuming we get the deals for Bergwijn and a striker across the line), there's real cause to believe that we will go into next season in a very strong position.

 

[spids]

Finally our stale squad is getting the shake up it needs. There will be massive competition for places when everyone is fit, and training sessions, especially in the summer pre-season, should become incredibly competitive. Under Poch in the last 18 months I think everyone knew that Lloris, Verts, Toby, Rose, Winks, Sissoko, Dele, Eriksen, Son and Kane we’re starting, even though 4 of them had contract situations, and others had no realistic competition. Now we have lots of battles for jerseys all over the pitch:

Lloris vs Gazza
Toby vs Dier
Sanchez vs Vertonghen
Tanganga vs Davies*
Aurier vs Foyth
Ndombele vs Winks
Gedson vs Sissoko
Lo Celso vs Lamela vs Dele
Son vs Sessegnon
Bergwijn vs Moura
Kane vs Piatek

* I have a feeling Tanganga and Davies will be battling for the LB/LCB role with an aggressive RB on the other side.

I appreciate not all the above are in direct competition, but it shows how hard it will be to win a place in this side moving forwards when all are fit.

 

[spursfan77]

It's interesting to see lots of people think Davies will be the saviour to our defensive problems when he returns. He always used to get a lot of (unfair in my opinion) criticism from a lot of people. That was mainly the season he played the whole campaign injured. The season he kept Rose out the team, he was really good. Lets hope he can get to the latter level, but lets not discount the injuries he's had. As we have seen with Dier, sometimes they can really take their toll on a player.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

It's interesting to see lots of people think Davies will be the saviour to our defensive problems when he returns. He always used to get a lot of (unfair in my opinion) criticism from a lot of people. That was mainly the season he played the whole campaign injured. The season he kept Rose out the team, he was really good. Lets hope he can get to the latter level, but lets not discount the injuries he's had. As we have seen with Dier, sometimes they can really take their toll on a player.

Davies has been better than Rose since the 16/17 season, he just isn’t as quick nor does he have fun haircuts and beards so he doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

Fun fact, 2017/2018, probably the last time our attack was really fluid, Davies was the top assisting full back (or defender of any description) in the league with 6 assists in 26 league starts (and 3 apps off the bench). Only Azpilucueta and Walker matches him that year, but both started over 30 matches.

Rose has never achieved this total.

I know the assist stat is fallible, but when you consider the nature of how a full back needs to assist, I.e. by being in a dangerous part of the pitch and delivering the ball well into an even more dangerous part of the pitch, the stat has more meaning.

Davies is far from perfect and very upgradeable but he is treated very unfairly on here and I believe it’s primarily down to his Mr Ordinary persona. I suppose he needs to mouth off more to the press....

 

[zx81]

Am I the only one thinking ( and hoping ) that JM will be here much longer than his usual 3 years and move on.

 

[chelmyid]

If he’s backed and winning things what’s to say he won’t want to claim his own legacy? He’s done everything else and won everything else - maybe now he wants to be known as the greasiest of all time by turning a sleeping giant into a powerhouse again. Everything is set up to do just that - the last piece of the jigsaw as I see it is correct player recruitment

 

[longtimespur]

If he’s backed and winning things what’s to say he won’t want to claim his own legacy? He’s done everything else and won everything else - maybe now he wants to be known as the greasiest of all time by turning a sleeping giant into a powerhouse again. Everything is set up to do just that - the last piece of the jigsaw as I see it is correct player recruitment

Bit strong????? ?

 

[chelmyid]

Bit strong????? ?

??

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Finally our stale squad is getting the shake up it needs. There will be massive competition for places when everyone is fit, and training sessions, especially in the summer pre-season, should become incredibly competitive. Under Poch in the last 18 months I think everyone knew that Lloris, Verts, Toby, Rose, Winks, Sissoko, Dele, Eriksen, Son and Kane we’re starting, even though 4 of them had contract situations, and others had no realistic competition. Now we have lots of battles for jerseys all over the pitch:

Lloris vs Gazza
Toby vs Dier
Sanchez vs Vertonghen
Tanganga vs Davies*
Aurier vs Foyth
Ndombele vs Winks
Gedson vs Sissoko
Lo Celso vs Lamela vs Dele
Son vs Sessegnon
Bergwijn vs Moura
Kane vs Piatek

* I have a feeling Tanganga and Davies will be battling for the LB/LCB role with an aggressive RB on the other side.

I appreciate not all the above are in direct competition, but it shows how hard it will be to win a place in this side moving forwards when all are fit.

Great post, if we can get these signings over the line then a lot to be optimistic about.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Am I the only one thinking ( and hoping ) that JM will be here much longer than his usual 3 years and move on.

I was thinking this the other day, although my tune could change depending on how performances and results are say next season when hopefully we will have a completed a big part of the re-build.

One thing I’ve said before is that I think Jose is very good at identifying areas of weakness in a squad and if backed astutely in the transfer market he is very good at moulding a squad to achieve above its means, he looks for a mixture of playing characteristics and also leadership and mentality aspects in a squad.

The main criticism I had with Poch was I don’t think he had a clear long-term plan, I know his hands were tied but the squad,transfers and formation seemed very reactive and changeable and scattergun, with Jose he has a clear vision and is confident and direct in trying to get what he wants to achieve that vision and in that respect I think he and Levy will actually get on very well, I think someone ambitious like Levy will trust Jose’s judgement whereas with poch he kept changing his mind about our best formation etc etc so plans for players will have changed and the squad got stale.

If we can get Bergwin and a Striker I’ll be very optimisitc with the squad building we are doing with/for Jose and yes if he’s happy here and he’s still got that magic touch which I don’t see why he wouldn’t as he’s recharged and rejuvenated and he’s one of the most successful managers of all time so I’d be very excited about a say 4-5 year period under him like Klopp has been given for Liverpool.

COYS.