Jose Mourinho the right choice for Spurs?

The majority of Spurs fans still appeared to be behind Pochettino and were willing to give him more time to halt the team's slide down the league. Levy decided otherwise and made one of his 'big' decisions removing Pochettino and replacing him with Jose Mourinho. The speed with which this was done points clearly to this being a considered decision and obviously some time had been spent negotiating with Mourinho during the last period of Pochettino's reign. A surprising decision for many of us nevertheless faced with the change we, like the players, have said our thanks to Mauricio and embraced the new reality.
Even though some of us will express thoughts about Jose being a strange fit for Spurs I am pretty sure most of us are quite excited by the prospect of one of the worlds top managers coming to Spurs and look forward to what he will do with this squad, that he has already expressed such confidence in. How many changes will he bring? Will he continue his amazing trophy haul at Spurs and is that why the club have chosen him in the first place. The rest of this season and next season looks to continue what have been very exciting time to be a Spurs fan. The future is surely bright! You cant spend millions on a world class stadium without producing a team fit to grace it. For me the determination of Daniel Levy is clear to see so I will remain deaf to the fans who want him and Enic out but is this the right decision for Spurs or will it all end in tears?

 

There’s no disputing his record. He’s won major silverware at every team he has ever managed. He’s a proven winner.

Ok, there is maybe an argument to say that some of his tactics are outdated, but he’s clearly an intelligent man and a deep thinker about the game, so I’m not necessarily buying that argument either. He’s more than capable of adapting tactics.

The end result will depend on firstly his commitment- which so far appears to be genuine. If he feels that he still has something to prove after being sacked by Utd and being out of the game for 11 months. Lastly, it will depend on Levy’s willingness to back him and to what extent.

Time will tell!...

 

For me, Poch over achieved with a weaker squad than his rivals, he extracted more than the sum of our parts for most of his reign, only during the last 9 months did things take and downward turn. Poch worked well with younger players and improved many of them, and all while working on a shoe string budget.

Mourinho on the other hand has a track record of working well with ready made players and big signings to fit into his team, which then enables him to win trophies. Whether Mourinho can be as successful as Poch and whether Levy will back him by showing proper ambition only time will tell. Our squad has gaping holes in quality in key positions along with an excellent core, whether Mourinho can coach them to be better is anybody`s guess, I see him as more of a tactician than a coach. So, Levy either backs Mourinho and shows ambition or we rinse and repeat.

It will all depend on Enic`s ambition (or lack of), though Levy must have outlined the clubs plans to Mourinho, which by all accounts he was impressed with, so maybe the board are finally preparing to have a proper go (I doubt it myself). The next couple of transfer windows will tell us a lot, and if they don`t go well Mourinho`s reign may well be a short one.

 

Depends on ENIC

He is a world class manager who wins everywhere...that actually means everywhere...if he bucks the trend at Spurs...it won’t be because of him.

It’s impossible to think ENIC/Levy don’t influence the strengths and weaknesses of our first team and impossible to separate them and remove any blame for anything from them in the long game

 

It's a weird one. His reputation in the game is huge and it's a little surreal to have him as our manager but questions do need to be raised as to whether he's still got the minerals in this day and age.

His success has been phenomenal but he's needed the funds to make it happen. He was spending £100ms at a time where just £30m got you a world class player, so his success has definitely been aided by money.

He's come to a club who are not notoriously big spenders but spend what we make. We saw in the summer that with the money in the bank we will spend it and I expect there to be funds to a certain degree for January/ Summer for him to utilise where necessary, although he needs to be smart. He can't go and buy a CB, see them flop, then expect another CB like he did at Utd (Bailly, then Lindelof, then wanting another before being sacked). He needs to prove himself as a coach as well as a tactician.

As with any new manager I'll always give them my full support until I feel they've given me reasons not to do so. In his first four games it's been a mixed bag. He's gotten Dele back to elite levels and he's tried maintaining an attacking style but with a more direct approach which I appreciate, however he's failed to sort out a leaky defence which has conceded twice in all of his games so far, whilst his CM decision the other night was appalling and something I expected of a declining Pochettino, not a newly appointed world class manager looking to make an impression.

I think if he and Levy work well, it can deliver success, I don't expect a league title or a CL trophy but I think I'm well within my right to expect domestic cup wins and top four finishes for however long he's here.

 

I don't agree with any of the choices in the poll.

Spurs have been underperforming in the League since 1965. We used to cover that up by winning cups but as money became increasingly important our failure to get into the CL was a huge handicap.

The first owners who saw the need for change were ENIC and they have put in place a long term plan that is aimed to put Spurs permanently into the global top ten.

The problem was that they couldn't afford to invest in the stadium, the training ground and the squad all at once. But they got a bit lucky with Poch who massively over achieved with limited resources. This created unrealistic expectations from the fans and the players that we could invest in the squad before the income from the new stadium actually arrived. Getting to the CL final and losing also seemed to have a demoralising affect on the players and Poch was unable to deal with thst quickly.

Levy chose to hire Mourinho. His record is very good but it isn't obvious he has ever over achieved given the resources he has had after Porto. He will have certainly learned a few lessons on the way and I liked his comments on the reaction to losing. Whether he will win things with us depends mainly on whether our current squad really did over achieve because of team ethics under Poch in the last few seasons or whether Poch actually turned them into better players. If the former I can't see Jose keeping the standards up. If the latter then Jose might be able to add a few ingredients that will move us onwards and upwards.

As for ENIC they have done wonders to get us into this position. I can't see why they would not back the squad to the maximum extent possible now, but it still remains the case that we've got further to catch up to match the financial firepower of our main English competitors.

 

I see why Levy's done it and it could be a genius move......or it could fall apart within a year.

For me, one is as likely as the other right now.

 

What question would you add to the poll PS?

 

A pragmatic choice who could turn out well.

 

I suppose 3 is closest to that.

 

Here's the thing: he's playing the exact same tactics that Porch was using, just with certain players bothering to give a **** - but also making the same mistakes, best demonstrated on Wednesday evening

 

Not exactly the same tactics, the shape of the back 4 has by and large been completely different, with Aurier pushing way up on the right and the LB tucking in on the other side. As I just mentioned on the match thread, the passing has changed too.

The players definitely seem more energised though, you can argue that’s inevitable after things got stale under Poch or you can argue that they are giving more for a new manager, it’s probably a bit of both.

 

The system is the same: 4231 when defending, switching to a 3421 when attacking, hence the asymmetrical fullbacks

This also explains THE BASTARD DIAMOND as that was effectively the beta phase of the tactics, which in turn shows that Poch panicked and switched back to 4231 too early (or didn't implement the system early enough, although a lot of those reasons were out of his hands as our pre-season was weird) even though he didn't have the pieces to do that due to Lo Celso and Sessegnon being injured and Eriksen ducking his responsibilities

 

We haven’t really played like that for years though, since before the switch to 3 at the back in the season we came second. Certainly, it’s a fair difference compared to the latter days of Poch, and especially compared to your favourite diamond

 

Our three best managers in the past 30 years have been Martin Jol, Harry Redknapp and Pochettino.

Martin Jol took us from relegation fodder to the top 5.
His sacking was kind of understandable but handled appallingly.
What followed took us back until Redknapp came.
Redknapp built on Jol's work and made us genuine top 4 challengers.
His sacking was understandable and was handled properly.
What followed took us backwards until Pochettino arrived.
Pochettino made us title challengers and regular top 4 finishers. His sacking was kind of understandable but I have issues with it...imho he deserved the rest of the season and I have huge doubts about Maureen.
I will still go when I can afford to and truely hope my fears are totally misplaced but I had the same feeling when we appointed AVB...it is a disaster waiting to happen.
We will not get top 4, nor will we win the CL and can see a clusterfuck of transfer windows in January and next summer.
We all know Eriksen, Jan and Toby are off but I will be amazed if kane and Son are still with us come August 2020.

 

If you watch us when we go forward, you see the transition happen: when Aurier/Rose go forward the two CBs drift over to that side and Davies/Vertonghen/Foyth become a third CB

When it works it works - the problem for a lot of the season is the system was let down either by key pieces not being available or key pieces not functioning properly, and the latter was responsible for our loss in midweek as the right flank fell apart yet the players kept passing to Aurier as he was the out ball

 

Yeah the system is quite apparent when you watch it. Midweek it felt like Aurier was pinned back by Rashford’s threat and Lucas didn’t put the work in, so Sissoko had to help Aurier a lot and that left Winks isolated in the middle - today we saw what it looks like when it works and I thought it was especially noticeable that Lucas worked extremely hard to win the ball back all over the pitch.

Ultimately it’s a stop gap for now I think because Mourinho doesn’t trust our fullbacks. Once he has payers he trusts in those positions and a functioning DM who is actually fully fit, I see us playing something a little more orthodox. For now though it’s about finding solutions with what he has.

 

What helps is allowing the players to play to their strengths

The shackles seem off.

Who stopped Toby from pinging the cross balls?

Who has stopped Kane from wandering too deep?

Why restrict the team? Poch had a death wish it seems

 

Agree totally, I've felt true sorrow at each of their departure.

Mourinho .. this guy has won more then three of our previous best managers put together. I've rated him highly for years. If it came down to a straight 'tactical head to head' with any other football manager on earth, I believe the smart money would still be on Mourinho.

We are Spurs and we are well known for our endearing style and quality on the pitch. Those of us that like to play/watch entertaining football were content. More recently, our style has been our handicap when pitched in against the top 4 or 5 clubs, With Mourinho on board our chances of winning something are improved however, Mourinho those not care much for stylish football. His mantra is to win at all cost therefor success, if it comes, will come at a price. Under Mourinho some of that price will inevitably be paid in pounds shillings and pence, but more importantly our style and entertainment value will be severely taxed IMHO.

 

If Poch were still manager I’d have agreed with the latter statement but I have a feeling Jose will have only accepted this job if there were assurances on Kane and Son’s future - as well money for transfers. No manager would realistically join a club if they knew they’d be losing the two best players in due course, it’d be borderline suicide for a manager to accept such a position, even one like Jose because there’s no way he can make Spurs better off without those two.

My opinion is if we don’t get CL and win anything next season, then both will be off in the summer of 2021. This season Jose’s name may have bought him a year with them regardless of whether we get top four or not but his name won’t hold weight the season after if we don’t do anything of note.