For me, this performance highlighted how important it has been for us to have Hojbjerg bossing the midfield and setting the tone. Without him, there was a lack of leadership in midfield and Jose was right in saying the tone was set and it was hard to get back.
You cannot underestimate the effect that someone like Hojbjerg has on the rest of the team; standing up to be counted, barking orders etc. When I saw the team sheet I was worried and said to my mates we have no steel in midfield. Players like Giovani Lo Celso and Stevie Bergwijn can have a role to play in our team, but it’s clear they need someone around them with a dominant character. In fact if you look throughout that starting line up, where was the outfield leadership?
Sanchez: not much
Davies: has some leadership
Aurier: none – needs instruction
Reguilon: new, young, language barrier
Winks: very little
GLC: very little
Bergwijn: very little
Dele: very little
Bale: still settling in
Vinicius: new, language barrier
Almost all of these players needed a leader to look to for inspiration and instruction last night, but they didn’t have it. That doesn’t make them terrible players, but you can only afford so many in a team.
I’d say this was a failure of Mourinho not to recognize this. Even just Moussa Sissoko for Harry Winks could have made a big difference.
We need another CDM badly to cover him. Winksy needs to take a trip to the C-ship.
You’re a legend in your own lunchbox.
Well put DannyG.
I’m published! Am I famous now?! 😂
On their day they are very tough and can get a result against anyone. They don’t have the squad to “have their day” very often and that’s why they are a mid table team rather than a top team. Last week was an excellent result.
PEH has an important role and we’ve had nobody in that role for two years before he came. However, win, lose or draw against the Belgian League leaders the overall performance was the problem.
Jose can’t get totally off the hook here, he’s the manager and not being able to get his team competitive without one player just isn’t an excuse, certainly not in this instance.
Jose is the ‘born winner’ who has brought the any notion of winning to Spurs, when we win. When we lose it’s the players simply ignoring him?
He’s been at the club almost a year now and has been backed so whatever transformative powers he has must surely extend further than relying on one player.
We are in a good position to win something, the excuses need to stop. Both from the ‘born winner’ and those that rate him so highly….
Err, I sort of agreed with you that nine was probably too many but I can see why he did it. We do like a debate on here don’t we.
Not sure I agree (well I don’t actually). Burnley finished joint 9th with Sheffield Utd and only 2 points below Arsenal last season. They had their best players out injured earlier this season and now they will move up the table. We didn’t win there last season and it was an excellent result as I said.
no way by any definition would that be classed as “an excellent result” good at best. Burnley will not be top half team, they are a team we should be beating regardless. WE should not have had only 3 shots on target. Yes, was a decent result, wil never be “excellent” and was still a very bad game to watch.
I agree about too many games, and needing to rotate…but last night was too much, no player would have done well treated like that. I am surprised if we dont start hearing whispers of discontent from the squad like at united soon if he does it again. that Antwerp team are on a great run of form, all playing well with each otehr, well organised. They are a team rather than individuals. It was hardest game in our group, and considering the games either side, should not have been the game for that level of rotation as we may find our selves needing to win with City weekend before and Chelsea weekend after.
In an ideal season scenario I would agree that rotating two or three players is the way to rotate. This was the Europa League (not CL) and maybe nine is too many but two/three would be too few.. we have far too many games to not rotate more players in both the Europa and Carabao cups. The right number would probably have been four to five but that team (even with nine changes) still should have beaten Antwerp.
Burnley had all their players back from injury and, make no mistake, wasn’t the same Burnley team that had only scored 3 goals so far. They will start picking up points now and you will then realise the win was an excellent result.
That’s the way forward keeping the spine of the team and familiarity.
I can’t see beyond Hojbjerg ,Sissoko & N’dombele playing most games or trying LoCelso instead of Sissoko.
Not being funny, but that is not the way to rotate…you simply expose players. To rotate them in and out fairly you need to play 9 of the same players, and add 2 new. Like he has in many other games to good success. That setup was a suicide for no real reason.
Agreed Jay Gee- Mourinho is very smart and he was sick of constantly being berated for not playing this player or that player etc. He left the players enough rope as the saying goes… maybe now everyone (especially the media) will just let him manage and see where we end up come May (no chance of that I know)…
Brighton and Hove at the weekend. I for one think this game will define the type of team Jose wants. We have had 3 very poor performances in quick succession (with an avererage performance against LASK mixed in). I know er beat Burnley, and the team did what they needed to, but lets not forget, we faced a team that has scored only 3 goals all season, and they had more shots against us than they have had in all their other games combined…We failed to register a shot on target until about the 75th minute, and only had 3 all game…yes we won, but it was a BAD performance. So will Jose line up for a win…or a line up to not lose like he opted for against Brighton? We have a few games to find our “groove” because 21st Nov we have City, chelsea, Aresnal, Palace, Liverpool then Leicester…we can not go to those games playing like we have played in the past 4.
You make extremely good points, both about Holberg AND the team Mourinho put out to start. In fact, if I didn’t know any better I would say Mourinho did it on purpose to see who can and cant be trusted in very important games, knowing a loss in last night’s game wasn’t the end of the world.
A good article, by Danny G, with a very good point about the lack of leadership yesterday.