The one thing that you will always get with Jose Mourinho is unabashed comments following a bad result and it was no different following the wretched 3-1 loss to Sheffield United last night.
Mourinho questioned the player’s mentality following the dreadful VAR decision to disallow Harry Kane’s goal.
This is a snapshot of what the Portuguese said as quoted by the Standard.
“We have to do better, we have to be mentally stronger to cope with what happened during the game,” Mourinho said afterwards.
“We cannot mentally die after Michael Oliver gives a decision. I know that it’s very difficult to take, I know the players around the situation know what happened, you celebrate and feel the goal.
“I know that kick it our teeth but with 50 minutes to go we have to be stronger. That’s my criticism to my team in the second half, in spite of control, ball possession, trying.
“We lost that – I don’t want to say desire – but we were not strong enough mentally to dominate so much but not with that sharpness and intensity that makes you create chances.
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Now, this is not the first time that Mourinho has questioned his player’s mentality, he did it with Man Utd once saying per SkySports ” We were a team that comes with that mental fragility of a bad result”
Naturally, there were some that criticised Mourinho for his comments on the Tottenham players mentality and when Football London journalist Alasdair Gold gave a Q&A earlier this evening it was obvious that someone would ask if the former Real Madrid manager was right to call the Spurs players out.
Gold was asked the following question, Do you think Jose was right in calling out the players mentality, is this the start of the decline we have seen at Utd with Jose and his players?
He responded quite simply “Yes, I think he was right. It’s been a real problem this season and longer”
I feel that Gold is absolutely correct in backing Mourinho on this one, the players do need to be called out, they were atrocious last night, they did bottle it and it is hardly the first time that they have been found wanting when a decision goes against them.
Let’s have it right. VAR got us to that final.
Our football under that manager was dire before and has been since. The same manager who chose to play a semi fit striker over a player who was not only fit but in form. The same manager who couldn’t beat a poor Liverpool side in the biggest club competition in the World.
People need to stop hankering after a manager who win nothing in his tenure.
The last coach got them to a CL final jusf a year ago. It is the only spurs team in history ever to have reached that level.
Always seemed pretty obvious which way it would go. He’d failed to get near Klopp and Guardiola at Man U despite spending world-record amounts. Yet levy and lewis thought he could catch them on an enic budget? Never made an ounce of sense.
There’s not a manager on the planet that could get a tune out of this hapless lot.
Until we have an owner that actually likes football and also wants success and prepared to invest to get it. This merry go round will continue at the same sorry pace.
ENIC OUT !
He won trophy’s at Utd. This can go one of two ways for Jose. The decks stacked against him. Not sure even Harry Houdini could get out of this mess.
And we play them shortly.Remember what they did to us at the end of the season when they were already relegated.
It don’t get any easier shipmates.
Watching Newcastle at Bournemouth do a fair impression of vintage Barcelona makes you realise how much needs to be done.
Not even the dimmest “clapper” would now say we have the right Chairman to get us out of this.
It’s called deflection.
Even when he was given all the players he wanted at Man U the outcome was the same.
That excerpt from Mourinho’s interview is pretty tame. The whole interview is well worth watching. He questions the players desire, their professionalism, asks do they respect themselves the fans and the club. I haven’t heard as hard hitting an interview about a teams integrity in years. It was all justified too. He’s a very intelligent guy but I think he realises now what the reality of this team is. All the stuff about being happy with the squad he inherited, happy with a very strong bench, not expecting many summer signings that was all for the birds. Said it before if he has any sustained success at Spurs it will be his greatest triumph.
It’s mid table mediocrity until they sell up…
Ok, we have lacked leadership for ages. I’ve been going on about it for about 5 seasons, Levy doesn’t sanction the signing of quality experienced players.
Despite all this is, this still a team that got to a Champions League final not a year ago, under another manager.
Nobody expects this group of players to win the league etc and there was always going to be a limit to what they could achieve with Levy’s meddling, but they can and have done better than they presently are, under another manager.
Jose may still have many redeeming qualities but doing a similar job to Poch working under the same strange chairman looks, at the moment a bit of a stretch…
I think someone needs to spell out to Mourinho what is wrong with this club. Our team, especially the defence needs a complete overhaul BUT!! Levy won’t spend the money to fix it. SO forget the champions league for the foreseeable future. We may have to wait to see the back of Levy, Lewis & ENIC before it’s sorted.
I think the thing we are missing most in the team is a true “leader” on the pitch. Sure Hugo and Harry have filed the void, but they are not the true leader types. We need someone that capable of picking up the other players when things go wrong on the field and one who will boss them around and keep them organised. We have not had anyone on the field like that in ages and I think it has to be addressed.
We need better coaches to train up our youngsters. Simple.