Beyond the frankly facile ‘it’s all Mourinho’s fault‘ line, if you actually listen to what Hugo Lloris says in this interview, it’s obvious that there are players in the squad playing up. Specifically, those that can’t behave professionally when not starting games.
Look, we’ve discussed this at length, and because nothing has changed, here we are again. No manager could fix the debris of a squad that has been allowed to fester as this one has. Eric Dier has been with us for 7 years, he’s 27-years-old and still hasn’t decided what his best position is. This is beyond parody.
Depends on if by cultists you mean the – hypothetical – people who say Jose can do no wrong, or just people who think blaming him for most of our shortcomings is missing the point 🤔
I know. Just poking fun at the 15M a year argument, as if the money he’s earning would make a difference at all.
Do they? Can’t recall hearing that from a single cultist, you’re probably right. Pretty rare though… it’s everything and everyone else apart from Jose! 😂
Do they do more on or off the ball work in training? Attacking football has never been Jose’s default tactic so what we get is a slightly insipid version of it. Neither Pep like high intensity pressing or defensive, just something odd in between…
They didnt listen to Poch either 🤷🏻♂️
But he’s paid 15M a year, which should somehow make them listen more to him!
I have yet to see a person who is saying Jose is completely blameless. Even the people you call “Jose cultists” agree that he has his faults.
Fear is an attitude, not a tactic – I maintain that the NLD line up was probably the most attacking team selection Jose has made so far, I don’t believe he picks this team if he is intending to defend.
If I were to have a guess, I would say Winks looks like he’s got a solid ‘the world is against me’ moan in him, plus Aurier, probably Dier, definitely NDom
Errm… even if Mourinho tells them to play a certain way, errrr Collectively they can ignore him, errr and play how they know they should play errr…
Perhaps Hugo is one of the few actual adults involved in this whole fiasco? 😂
Hugo for player manager? 😂
” Give Me Eleven Bad Losers And I Will Win You The League”, Bill Shankly.
Well said, you just can’t go from the approach of the last 5 years to a manager like Mourinho and expect it to work.
Like most things ‘Levy’, there is very little consideration towards the finer points of what the team or squad need, either in terms of players or management brought in.
Jose is at the club purely because Pochettino and the squad were flogged to near death with the lack of transfer churn over three seasons or more. The Amazon thing was obviously a pressing matter and a high profile name like Jose available was a quick way to set things up for the tv show.
Levy only cares about the stuff around the football and not the football itself.
So Daniel, 22 years at the helm, one League Cup over 13 years ago. Pochettino created the impression and the hope we were going somewhere with a young team. The reality is that if it weren’t for him we would never have been in the Champions League at all, let alone to even have the chance to finish runners up!
Jose’s stint shows just what a remarkable job the previous managers did his staff did. Yes we have some squad issues but there’s no way this team should be playing he dross we have been. Especially under a new management brought in to give them a shot in the arm. All they’ve done is demotivate and divide them…
Nobody with any sense is blaming only Jose, it’s the view that he is completely blameless that I have an issue with. He’s the MANAGER ffs…
“There used to be a football club down there.” A heartbroken Keith Burkinshaw who left after board interference meant he could no longer do his job. An honourable man. “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santanyana. “I want this, I want that, wah, wah.” A spoilt brat who may be touching on narcissm and thinks he owns the world who hired Jose in sheer panic soon after grabbing the glory following a Euro Semi-Final success with a manager he refused to back and now has pots at another club, as his failing empire began to reveal titanic sized cracks and THFC may just go down with him. Heartbreaking. The same as when Keith said no more. COYS! 🙁
“You cannot let it down, if you play or don’t play. To behave as a team is the most difficult thing in football, whatever is the decision of the manager you have to follow the way of the team.”
He he also said that we played with fear in the NLD, this is clearly a dig at the tactical approach. Loris is being the right kind of captain, expecting players to put a shift in regardless of the circumstances. However, it looks like a chunk of the dressing room have been lost.
The players have let everyone down here and Loris is right to let it be known. Also it’s just not rational to continue to assume that Jose has nothing to do with any of it. In fact it’s bonkers.
Well done Hugo for a dig at both players AND management. He’s spot on.
This seemed a leader-like speech from Lloris, and it’s good to hear. When Mourinho calls out some of the players, he’s divisive and alienating the dressing room, but lo and behold, the team captain has done just the same. Could it be that there is really something wrong with the players and it’s not just all Jose’s fault?
It’s a lack of responsibility, just like what Kane was wondering about in the Amazon doc. Not that he did much better than the others yesterday, but still. Too many people hide. And if you hide in the NLD, or in a knockout game with a 2-0 aggregate lead from the first leg, you can’t be trusted, period.
There are too few leaders in the squad, the sorts who make you afraid to perform badly, who always raise expectations, like Roy Keane and Vidic at MU or Vieira for the Arse. We have Lloris, who is, at his angriest, soft-spoken, Kane, who’s not too vocal, more of a leader by example, and Hojbjerg who wasn’t there yesterday. We need more guys who whip the others into shape, who help the manager – whoever it may be – establish authority and make sure there’s no letting up in a game.
I can only recall another pair of Amazon quotes:
JS “They say Sissoko is a leader.”
JM “F–king hell”.
Tottenham resembles Butlins – a place to get away. Top class facilities, training ground and stadium.
I suggest blasting out Two tribes over the Tannoy all day. Two men enter, one man leaves. Whomever hails victorious plays on Sunday.
It’s not all Mourinho’s fault and it’s never all the managers fault but they carry the can. However Mourinho is responsible for a lot of it. Good teams have a pattern and a structure and you can see what they are trying to achieve – just look at West Ham at the moment FFS. Mourinho has no idea what his best team is and he has no idea what his best formation is. He rotates the full backs; he has tried every centre back pairing (where has Rodon gone in league games?); Lucas fills holes across the front 4 because he is such an honest team player; Sonny has been flogged to death; Bergwijn played as an auxiliary left back during the ‘ultra defensive stage’ and no longer features now that we have moved to the ‘no idea what we’re doing stage’. The whole thing is chaotic. If Mourinho is coaching them he is not doing a very good job; if he is organising them he is not doing a very good job; if he is motivating them he is not doing a very good job. We need to get rid of Hart, Gazzaniga, Rose, Aurier, Doherty, Dier, Winks, Dele, Sissoko, Lamela and Davies for starters becasue they have been there too long and/or they are simply not good enough. We need to buy hungry young players in the way that Leicester do. We also need a hungry young manager with fresh and innovative ideas. Whatever we think of Mourinho he definitely doesn’t have fresh and innovative ideas. There are lots of managers who have a way of playing and don’t deviate from it and end up ‘being a dinosaur’. Who knows, football may move on and Pep may continue playing the way he does right now and become a dinosaur at some stage (although I doubt it!). Mourinho has reached that stage and the players are not buying into what he is doing. Going forward we now have one game a week. If this squad has anything about them they need to get it together for 10 games and end 4th. Just pick the following XI every game (when fit) Lloris; Tangana, Sanchez, Toby, Reggie; Ndombele, PEH, Gio; Bale/Moura, Kane, Son. Only include players on the bench who care (whoever they are) and if it means having kids then have kids. I suspect Rodon, Davies, Lamela and Bergwijn might just care but don’t let Winks, Dele and Dier anywhere near the team.
There are clearly issues in the dressing room and the likes of Dele and Bale are not pulling their weight in trainning and last night is the result.
However, Mourinho knows this yet set a team up away from home with Sissoko, Winks and Dele in midfield. One of them is enough.
Mourinho is fuelling the disharmony in the squad by constantly singling out players. They are mentally not tough enough for him.
Mourinho won’t be sacked just yet. He is Levy’s dream manager – he might be the only one who can convince Levy that this squad is rotten.
You’re bang on with everything else though in my opinion.
Kane was going to do it but he was on the phone to his agent
I agree with you Harry. There is still this lazy rhetoric that it is all Mourinhos fault and he is too negative. It’s the players fault. The same players that were phoning in performances during Pochettino’s last few months.
The advantage of watching matches without fans is that you can hear the managers. Mourinho is constantly telling the players to pass forwards, to push up, to wake up. They are incapable of doing so.
Mourinho has won more trophies himself than we have won in our entire 140 year history. And we think he is the problem?
We should back him and get rid of the dross. Getting rid of players is more important than getting new ones in.
The team lacks a leader. Even Kane is too quiet and passive.
I expect Mourinho will be sacked but that is a step backwards. Any change will give short term benifit only and we will be left with the same players. At least Mourinho now knows exactly what this team needs; a mass exodus of players.
Ironically most of this players are still worth a lot so we could rebuild just by selling the players we don’t need.
And as for Dele……all the hype and moaning around him not playing. Now we see why. Offers nothing.
Finally, someone shows some moxey and tells it like it is. Way too overdue. It’s official, the cracks no longer have paper covering them.
From an outside looking in perspective, I think it’s quite easy to spot who the professionals are within our club and who looks like they have a tendency to become petulant.
My keep list is shorter than my sell list so I’ll just mention Sanchez, Rodon, Toby, Davies, Reguilon, Ndombele, PEH, Skipp, Lo Celso, Son, Moura, Lamela, Kane, maybe Bergwijn (his work rate impresses me but there’s obviously a reason why he isn’t playing).
The cynical side of me says that Lloris has only been vocal after the last two games because he’s planning on jumping ship in the summer. Whilst it’s refreshing, he is the club captain and I wonder if he is as open with his team mates as he was with the press?
Everyone has an opinion on Mourinho, I’m indifferent about him to be honest. My only argument would be that he doesn’t seem to be specifically asking the team to sit back (judging by him and JS constantly screaming “Press” in the NLD) and I don’t believe there is a manager on the planet that could get a tune out of this squad (don’t even bother making an argument for Pochettino, we were playing worse and doing worse in his final half season)
Wow. Bang for the buck from Hugo
You can back Diego Maradona at 100/1 to be our next manager
Says everything about Spurs
How refreshing for a Spurs player to speak with a passion and a clarity that leaves you in no doubt that there are problems within the club.
We all know the continuing saga relating to how the club has been run for the past twenty years, but Hugo highlighted quite clearly that there are issues between players and management.
There is clear evidence that some players have not been good enough to wear the shirt and a rebuild is required, but it is an inescapable fact that Mourinho and his managerial style which includes his negative and controlling tactics, have not worked.
The very same Eric Dier that Mourinho was so keen to sign for Man United… I wonder what it is he sees in the player that we don’t.
On the Amazon doc Jose’s team identified Sissoko as being a powerful presence in the squad. Is it a stretch to think alongside aurier, probably dier, Alli etc are the poison?
Look I have said many times dier best position is in the stands with his brother. As for the rest well where do we finish when we cut the ones who don’t try.