Tottenham started the season off woefully at home against Everton and deservedly lost 1-0, however, from that point onwards things changed for the better.
An impressive 5-2 win against Southampton released the all-new Son Heung-min and Harry Kane partnership on to the world, that was followed by a very unfortunate 1-1 draw at home to Newcastle before that visit to Old Trafford.
Spurs destroyed Man Utd 6-1 in their own backyard and the signs were there that this Tottenham team had finally clicked under the special one, they were far more energetic and confident than we had seen in a while.
That intensity and ambition continued into the following game against West Ham when Spurs shot into a 3-0 lead and then it started to unravel.
We all know what happened next, the lads folded quicker than a pack of cards in a thunderstorm and ended up drawing 3-3.
From that point onwards we got to see a completely different Tottenham, one that would no longer be so adventurous.
Narrow wins over Burnley, Brighton and West Brom would follow, none of those matches was entertaining or even convincing, they were drab affairs.
There was, of course, the brilliant win over Man City but that match suited the pragmatism of Jose Mourinho and to some extent, the same applied to the draw with Chelsea and win over Arsenal.
But it was clear that something had changed since the West Ham debacle, Tottenham regressed, they looked afraid to attack and Mourinho took his park the bus mentality on to another level.
It became clear that he was frightened of a repeat of the West Ham game and decided that defence at all cost, regardless of the opponent would be the tactic going forward.
It backfired against Crystal Palace, it opened the door for Liverpool and it cost us dearly against Leicester City.
Tottenham changed after the West Ham game or should I say Mourinho did, he has allowed that West Ham result to take hold in his mind and we are now paying a price for that.
There is a place and time for counter-attacking football and there is a time for playing on the front foot, Spurs have immense attacking talent and against certain opponents should be unleashed but the fear that has enveloped Mourinho is now handicapping the team.
He is a very experienced manager and hopefully, he will realise what has happened, if he does not then it could get ugly.
My comment was about his tactics v West Ham this season.
No you’re both wrong.. It was Big Sam who parked the bus with Jose accusing him of playing 19th century football. 10 defenders in the box. They ground out a 0-0… Chelsea and Jose went on to win the league that year 2014 I believe? Where is Big Sam now? 🤦♀️ I have never once heard a chelsea fan complain about Joses negative tactics..
Spurs were not as driven.
JM terrified me by clapping and shouting ‘come on’…
Dier turned himself into attacking midfielder after we went 2-0 down. He could see no one else was capable or bothered about making something happen.
You mentioned one of my pet hates, which is players receiving the ball when facing back. So many of our passes are to a player who is tightly marked; the response is to run towards the teammate making the pass, and all the while the defender is snapping at their heels. Often the result is that the ball is simply returned to the original passer with absolutely nothing achieved. In the last 3 games, Palace, Liverpool and Leicester have simply schooled us in the art of passing in front of a player who is moving forward. This creates movement and impetus and makes defenders turn or back pedal, and gets the ball upfield. The passes don’t have to be long, look at how Leicester just strolled upfield with a series of short passes.
Bill Nicholson knew this 60 years ago!
I personally wouldn’t include Dier in that assessment. I think he has done pretty well at centre half this season and Davies is not in the starting XI but is a useful squad player. I think the biggest issue is the Hojberg-Sissoko midfield axis. There us not enough creativity there, Hojbjerg has got to play as he is so good at breaking up the play and is never afraid to show for the ball. Sissoko for all his good defensive work is just too limited a player. Trouble is what are the options? I’m not convinced by Winks and who else is there?
Yesterday was absolutey dire. Aimless lumping the ball forward. Bale showed nothing again. Lucas Moura is living off the glory of his Ajax hat-trick. Almost everytime he received the ball yesterday it was with his back to goal – why not in the half turn so that forward options are open as well?
Freezing Dele out looks foolish when we dish up utter garbage like that.
You are spot on.. “he knows they are simply not of the standard required”. We simply do not have the ball playing creative midfielders any more to effectively play a possession game, that is since Eriksen and the real Dele departed. JM knows this and is making the best of a bad lot.
We have too many players who are individuals, by such I mean their first instinct when receiving the ball is to dribble and take on opponents at close quarters.I mean Bergwyn, Lucas, Bale, Lamela, Ndombele, even Son. HK is different; you can see him scan the pitch while a pass is reaching him, looking for a productive pass on to a more forward player. The dribblers close the ball more often than not rather than get a pass away. So we resort to the long ball from Toby, sometimes good, and Dier, rarely good.
Then we have Sissoko and Winks; when do they ever produce anything that Harry and Son can use. Lo Celso has it in him, but JM is forcing him to be a defensive midfielder.
Leicester were fluid, fluent, sharp and smart. Vardy is 2 years older than Bale, he looked 5 years younger. If I were Brendan Rogers, the only Spurs player I would take is Harry Kane.
Fine margins, played dele earlier hung on for a win against palace, played dele earlier hung on for a draw or win against Liverpool, played dele and bale earlier and could have beaten Leicester
Jose is setting up with four across the back and two defensive midfielders. That is seven players including Lloris who are forming a low block and hardly getting out of our last third. Normally we have either Ndombele or Lo Celso in the middle but as a result of the low block, they are falling deeper to get the ball. Son and Kane are isolated at the front around the halfway line with Kane falling deeper to pick up the ball to try and release Son. The problem is that this allows the opposition to push up its two center-backs towards the halfway line and flood the two-thirds of our half with up to eight players. That is why Son, Kane, and Lo Celso or Ndombele are just chasing shadows running themselves around surrounded by opponents forming triangles of possession, Then because our defence is so deep we revert to long hopeful punts upfield from Dier who is unable to pass with accuracy and Aurier, Sissoko or Davies when he plays who also have very poor distribution. Even Requilions game is being affected as his strength is his attacking pace wide down the left and he is being forced deeper by the concession of the midfield to the oppoistion. Aurier is an accident waiting to happen when deployed deep defensively.and as a resuly Sissoko drifts out to the right to cover but they are both very poor at transitioning play in tight situations and get in each others way.the low block with counter attack may work against the top teams because most of them have better technical players but for the rest home or away we should be much more offensive releasing our attacking players and pushing our opponents back in their own half. The problem I fear is that Jose does not have confidence in a number of players as he knows they are simply not of the standard required. This would include, Aurier, Sissoko, Dier, Davies and Winks even possibly Docherty.So he has reverted to this approach to negate those weakness’s as much as possible. We are still lacking possibly four or five new additions. A more offensive approach would also help Bale who needs to play more games with better players around him in a more attacking formation.
You have near enough always beat us and especially at your place. Unfortunately this is what you get with mourinho from time to time (remember Sam allardyce saying he parked the bus at Stamford bridge). As much I like to see your demise, I know spurs, like us, have always opted for positive attacking football and wouldn’t wish negative football (again remember allardyce) on anyone.
If I remember correctly he also deployed a deep lying counterattacking strategy in that game against West Ham. Probably the only time in the club’s history such a strategy has been deployed at home to West Ham.