It’s important with games like these that we don’t seek to evaluate matters in splendid isolation. Tottenham’s track record against this lot is resoundingly poor. We’ve lost more Premier League against Manchester United than any other side in the competition (34).
Further context can be readily found from talking to any Man United fan you might know who will willingly tell you that last night was one of the best starts, and best overall performances this season.
Considering these two boring elements, some hysterics doing the rounds this morning, about the ‘Honeymoon’ being suddenly over, look a bit risible, which is what they are.
Breathing life into an extremely stale squad is what Jose was drafted in to do, and last night, the Portuguese was shown in no uncertain terms that this particular set up – is a non starter.
My guess is that Jose watched us play under Poch, and felt that if he could reach out to the boys and develop the mindset of the collective, then the squad limitations could be eased.
Already we’ve seen Dele Alli turn into a genuine superstar and Toby Alderweireld talk about Jose in glowing terms.
Alas, 3 bad bets exist in this Tottenham side Mourinho which has inherited, and this trio, like the witches in Macbeth, are bad enough to bring about the downfall of anyone.
The Winks/Sissoko axis is a horrible one. One glance at the Influence graphic reveals a midfield one could drive a horse and cart through. And Manchester United did just that. One several occasions.
This in turn placed a terrible amount of pressure on our backline, which neither Toby nor Davinson survived whilst smelling of roses.
Then we had Lucas Moura on the park for far too long doing far too little. 18 attempted passes, of which 14 were successful.
Which all too uncomfortably, leads us onto Giovani Lo Cleso who is looking decidedly like a mystery. This is a player who stinks to high heaven of bemusement that he’s with us.
Watching Jose go ‘full Poch’ and toss him on for the last few minutes without any obvious plan more than suggests that this boy won’t be in February.
Conclusion
Once can cope with a duff performance as Mourinho finds his feet, but know this. One cannot cope with a manager of Jose’s dimensions repeating such mistakes again.
Tactics Shmactics. They out got stuck in’d us. They could have bin playing in an upside down pentagram with bells on formation and they would still have suffocated the life out of our mob of confused Keystoners.
Woolwich are even worse than us…
Time will tell, one thing is for sure, that any manager trying to get this stale squad with half of them knowing their future is elsewhere into the top 4 looks more and more like climbing Everest with each passing week.
This is why my position of; firstly, why sack Poch in the first place and then replace him with his polar opposite in style of play, working with youngsters, personality etc?
The answer is that Levy does not have a plan for the football team at Spurs and never has had. Jose and Levy have become employee and employer for one reason, desperation.
Jose desperately wanted a big job after his stock had dropped to an all time low. Levy desperately wants Champions League qualification and the Amazon story to advertise the new gaff as a globalised theatre of Champions League dreams.
Right now it looks like Ropey League and visits from Kazakstan’s finest is now on the cards rather than Juve, Barca and Madrid. Unless Jose sorts it out then Levy’s gamble of not backing Poch, sacking Poch and employing Jose will have completely failed.
I want Jose to win stuff with us, he’s a ‘winner’ as they say, so get on and win.
Make the squad suddenly the reason for our woes now now Jose’s here? Thats just blatant anti Poch garbage… he wanted a rebuild and never got it.
Yeah, they’ve just been talking about that. Haven’t seen the incident yet.
See the shelvy goal for toon? What a joke. Everyone stopped because flag went up, I am not sure how that can be given. He was clearly onside but the flag stopped play,I know you should play to whistle but how long until some one gets injured playing after the flag has gone up.
On a brighter note Brighton have just done the Goons at their place 1-2. Will be tuning in to Talksport for the inevitable meltdown.
Of course they’re premier league standard, come on. Both extremely hard working capped internationals. Sissoko was arguably our best player for much of last season.
Iniesta😂😂
Its time for Spurs fans to face the truth. Winks is a nice chap , with a sensible Haircut etc etc. Unfortunately he is not up to it when it comes to PL Football . Sissoko, Ditto.
Even before we get into a tactical analysis a team has to compete from minute one, get in the opponent’s face, deny them time and space, fight for every ball. We did none of these things. Then we come to unforced errors, these are top international players at Spurs, yet we saw Sanchez caught in possession, Gazzaniga beaten at his near post, and Sissoko dangling his leg at Rashford who was going nowhere, all he had to do was show him down to the endline. Sheer mindless, witless stupidity, you’d get a bollocking for doing this in parks football never mind the Premier League. You’d think Sissoko would be on his best behaviour after the penalty in the Champions League Final.
Yes, tactically all wrong last night, with Kane and Moura almost non-existant, as evidenced by the touches map.The Winks/Sissoko axis, on it’s own, is neither dynamic enough nor creative enough to service our highly dangerous front four. Sissoko can’t pass and Winks mainly passes sideways, leaving no creative impetus. As Dier’s passing is also woeful, that only leaves Ndombele and Lo Celso, who even on limited evidence so far, can surely pass better than the other three.
The only problem, given their respective levels of fitness and EPL experience, is that you cannot currently risk playing Ndombele and Lo Celso as a midfield double pivot, so you must play them in front of a sweeper/DM. Sissoko cannot play that role, so that leaves Winks or Dier, neither of whom is ideally suited to the role, but of the two Dier offers the best defensive shield. With Son also covering back defensively, that formation would have given us better balance and shape in midfield, with more creativity and countered Utd’s 4-5-1 formation more effectively.