Have Your Say: I’m not here to defend Mourinho at all costs but…

Writer: BelgianSpur

Whether anyone thinks Jose was the right choice for Tottenham Hotspur or not, is entitled to his/her opinion. That’s fine. What I don’t understand, however, is anyone looking back fondly at the Mauricio Pochettino era. Yes, from 2015 to 2018, there were a lot of good memories. But what people are conveniently forgetting is the horrid performance levels from Jan 2019 onwards. You can’t separate the two. MP’s legacy is just as much the honeymoon period from 2015-2018 as it is the downfall from early 2019 until his sacking.

Had MP stayed, we may well be in a relegation battle right now. We dropped as low as 14th, only two points above the relegation zone, under MP earlier this season. It’s no good reminiscing about when we were 2nd under MP – that was years earlier. That just was no longer the reality when MP was finally sacked. Something had to be done to stop the rot.

Personally, I can see the reasoning behind appointing Jose – a strong name to convince wantaway players to stay (it worked with Toby, and no manager would have convinced Eriksen to stay, if his recent interviews are anything to go by). Some players have also found a new lease of life under Jose, when they were a shadow of themselves previously (Dele Alli, Lucas Moura among others). I think the objective was to appoint someone diametrically opposed to MP, to give the players a jolt and give them a different message (when MP’s messages seemed to have gone stale for parts of the squad).

This being said, I also understand why some fans would have preferred a younger, more dynamic manager as well – it could have made some sense too. But if MP’s messages had gone stale, maybe there was a worry that a manager too similar in style wouldn’t have provided that jolt? I don’t know, I am just speculating here.

I think that before we can assess Jose’s performance fairly, we need to see how he operates with a full squad at his disposal and some backing. There is no guarantee that the current squad under MP would be doing better.

For all of Leipzig’s domination, they only managed to score via a penalty, and no matter how bad the performance, it’s still only a one-goal tie.

Under MP, maybe we would have played better/the football would have been more pleasing to the eye, but I don’t think we’re ever going to get crushed 7-2 with Jose, like we were by Bayern under MP. We still have a chance in the Leipzig tie, whereas a more open style of play may have effectively knocked us out on the day. We live to see another day, at least.

Listen, I’m not here to defend Mourinho at all costs but I think he is being judged unfairly. No manager is going to succeed at Spurs if he isn’t backed more than what the club has been willing to do so far (not just Jose and MP, but going back to AVB, Redknapp and others). That’s where the real problem is at the moment, in my opinion.

I’m pretty sure Jose would be more daring in his tactics if he had enough quality players at his disposal. He’s having to make do with the same four attacking players over and over again, all of which are desperately short of fitness and/or fatigued. The back four is a work in progress, with very few reliable options there as well.

If you can’t take the game to the opposition with confidence, you may as well pragmatically try to do damage control. I don’t think that’s stupid.

Previous Article:

“Very Repetitive” – Jose Makes His Point As Spurs Slip To Another Defeat – Match Stats