With three Premier League defeats on the spin, Tottenham Hotspur fans are again asking serious questions about our style of play and the spirit in the dressing room under marmite manager Jose Mourinho. No doubt for some, one big question is will this simply get worse on Sunday afternoon as we welcome Sam Allardyce’s struggling West Bromwich Albion to White Hart Lane.
Our style wasn’t too bad at the beginning of the season but whether or not it’s Mourinho’s instructions, the sheer number of games that we have played or something else, it long hasn’t clicked now and our attempts at grinding out 1-0 victories is completely undone by our failure to remain tight at the back.
We go into Sunday’s clash sat in eighth place in the PL table and irrespective of the fact we are again missing Harry Kane through injury, there can be no doubts that we have regressed as an attacking force.
It’s been a strange old season when you look at results across the division, but we look half the side we were even a month ago. On paper, West Brom sat almost bottom of the table should be the perfect boost we need to get ourselves up and running again, but after the Brighton showing, few will be confident of that.
Ho hum, I’ll be hiding behind the settee with a stiff drink.
Difference……we clearly are now a one man team, just as we were under AVB with Bale.
It was a good result …. but changes absolutely nothing about what went before.
I was certainly glad Spurs won today. But more than that I was relieved. But what really annoyed me was the way they played after the second goal. It looked like they decided they didn’t want to score another goal. They never really seemed to be trying. Two was enough. We will just pass the ball around between us. Safer that way. Don’t want to take any chances! Against WBA for Christ sake. WBA who have scored all of 18 goals all season and conceded 54. 54!!! Was that JM or the team decision?
I am hoping this is an indication that we have turned the corner. But even so, like TK, I still want JM to go. He is not the right person for Spurs in my opinion.
DoncasterHotspur – “so many people on this site have mentioned managers who they think would be better than Jose”, really ? I don’t suppose you would like to list some of them and who they recommended ? No thought not because they don’t exist. Lots of people saying Mourinho must go, no one saying what happens next.
Jod….if you check back through the threads you’ll find that I suggested both Rafa and Tuchel before he joined the Chavs, he hasn’t started out too badly has he?
You do embarrass yourself frequently.
wentworth – Its not so much supporting Mourinho, its not being impressed with people whose thought process ends with firing someone with no thought of what happens next.
TK
Tell ya what I won’t tell you how to feel. You don’t tell me what’s funny.
So much praise given to HK10 (and deservedly so) and Sonny with a mention of Moura by Jose but the unsung hero of this performance was Hojbjerg, he bossed midfield and made a number of defence splitting passes, one of which resulted in Kane’s goal.
Jod, you seem to be suggesting that the only man to manage Spurs is Mourinho. Ad that there is no one else. And yet every club he has managed since Porto have fired him long before his contract was to expire… What did they know that you don’t know?
The man who needs to know what happens next in any given scenario at Spurs is Daniel Levy. And if he wants Jose to stay, then Jose will stay. But eventually he will want a change. And, he’ll have a contingency plan… But I, we, don’t need one…
Meanwhile, when any of us say we want Jose gone, it’s because we feel we could do better. Just as many supporters and players of his previous clubs came to the same conclusion. But crucially the chairman and/or owners were of the same mind… They fired him and they hired a new guy. Simple. Just as Levy would do…… It happens all the time in football. Some would say too often… But it happens. Managers are hired and fired on a regular basis.
Not only is Jose not the ‘special one’ he is also not the only one….
Anyhow, I agree with TK on this… Give the tea-lady the job!
Niall, I read your earlier post in response to TK and his gravediggers humour, he was trying to be amusing, the problem is that we have worldwide posters from all countries, and in that process there will be offence taken by some because thought process/own humour cannot cover every single one of us, thus offence can and does get taken, but it is not meant to be.
I know where you live or rather where your from, so I do feel for you because I myself have family over there, who for one reason or another have lost contact with me over the years, some will have passed, others dislike/resentment passed on, I have no bloody idea, I have tried to reach out.
I was actually born in a Belfast Hospital, father, god rest his soul, was stationed there, Mother is NI, thus I came back as a 5 month old baby to N London, travelled with Father, assignments/tours, globally, when I was 15 I followed my family into the Military, and in late 70’s early 80’s did a number of tours in NI, Belfast, Armagh, Omagh, met up with family but that’s when the dislike/resentment started for some, I also met and still have some great friends from your lovely part of GB/the world, but I will say again I know where your coming from with your feelings and believe it was nor said by the poster to be malicious/hurtful in any way.
I hope you do not think I am lecturing you, just trying to be helpful, hope I haven’t failed.
By the way how are you and your kin keeping, safe I hope.
Keep loving the “Blues mate”
An oppo of mine with his wife has just had a month over in NI, 1st time, couldn’t praise everything enough, ie people, countryside etc.
So just for you Niall COME ON YOU SPURS.
Py
No m8 don’t feel that you are giving me a lecture m8. As you know being where I’m from we have the darkest of humor, I tend not to use it here on this site.
Just felt that TK was quoting me quite a bit lately “trying to correct” me then trying to say I was telling him and others how to feel.
He could have said you may feel this way but I don’t.
As I said we(Spurs) had been so poor lately I was trying to enjoy the the result for the “team” and encouraging(not telling) the rest of us to enjoy the result. I feel TK (not for the fist time) I feel called me out on this.
What I was doing is that we could, if we wanted pick things out in each others posts that could be annoying or offensive.
Don’t want to get into it really.
I know TK meant nothing by his “joke”.
I don’t like people trying to make a c#nt of me, I will defend myself. PY. Please excuse my tone.
Yep m8 re the blues Listening to a guy Marcus King, more modern stuff but an odd jewel in there, Beatiful Stranger good track.
Your heart is in the right place m8.
Now back to football
I hope the game against Man U has sapped a bit OF Evertons strength, or they’ll be focusing on a decent league position, either way hope its, a win for us COYS.
Niall, no probs here mate, glad all is well with yourself n kin.
Plus great minds, my missus bought me, via Amazon I think, the CD/Soul Insight by The Marcus King Band, I love it.
I hope you are right regards Everton being sapped, and yes we will win, ever the optimist me. COYS
Listening to a continuing debate on TalkSport about VAR, this weekends game highlight once again how it is failing in it’s intended purpose.
It has just been announced that Thomas Soucek’s red card has been recinded, this after Mike Dean reviewed the incident on the pitchside screen before giving it. My own view? I can’t see why he raised his elbow to head level before spinning round unless it was intended and therefore it was dangerous play.
On the opposite side of the argument, there was no check of the penalty awarded to Salah when he clearly threw himself to the ground as soon as he felt minor contact, the guy really has got this perfected to a fine art to con referees!
TQ2S, agree there, there was no reason for Soucek to raise his arm, unless ? and as for Salah, 10/10 for the perfect dive. COYS
Such a dive from salah, hate cheating players like that, would it if been a free kick ifbitbwas outside the box
Salah was an impressive dive and a poor decision to award the penalty since there was minimum contact with the ref being tricked . However I thought all penalties were viewed by VAR as a matter of course because if so this decision would have been overturned with Salah being booked for diving ?
Allan…..that is the point, it’s about the inconsistency of VAR, many situations are still subjective and the VAR official (assuming he reviewed the incident) didn’t think the referee made an error when many thought it clearly a dive. I’ve seen salah do this so many times, as soon as he feels a hand on him he throws his shoulder backwards to make it looked like he has been pulled strongly when in fact there has been only the slightest of touches in the main.
I agree that Salah dived. But It doesn’t mean it wasn’t a foul.
Players (especially forwards) do this all the time. Harry and Son do it as well.
It’s a way of making the most of a ‘clever’ or subtle foul, and to get it noticed by the ref. It may be unsporting but it’s nothing new. The only thing that’s new is VAR, and so there is all the more controversy. With the endless replays etc. And In slow and stop motion, things can get distorted by the viewer in many ways. By the ref, VAR or supporter. So it’s still so often about the subjectivity of the viewer. Without necessarily really knowing the true fact of the matter.
And sometimes (quite often in fact), what seems obvious to one is not so obvious to another. With or without VAR…
So we see that VAR cannot stop a cheat from cheating… We just see a more advanced kind of cheating. Or may be as Jose would put it, in his own caveman terms… Don’t be a stupid ****, be an intelligent ****!
Harry Kane ‘cheats’ all over the pitch, all of the time… Or as the pundits will often say, “That was clever play by Harry (or whomever). He bought the foul there. He knew what he was doing,”.
Is this kind pf cheating just part of the normal game of football? Yes, it is. Can it be stopped? probably not.
HT, on reading your post, you are right there, it is cheating in a way and clever, so it will never be stopped. COYS
Jod. I have heard so many names mentioned as potential managers for Spurs on this site. You should really read the posts more thoroughly before hurling your insults. For what it’s worth I would suggest, Brendon Rodgers, Graham Potter, Ralph Hassenhutal (despite the nine nil defeat) would all do a far better job than Jose. I am sure there are several managers on the continent too such as Negellsman.
Of course no one knows if these managers would be available or willing to come to Spurs but that doesn’t mean we are not allowed to ask for Jose to be fired because it is patently obvious that he doesn’t know what he is doing. In case you are not aware this is a site for supporters to express their opinions.
As a matter of interest, do you think that Jose is the right man to take us forward. I would be interested in your opinion (you don’t have to mention a potential replacement if you don’t think he is).
I think you have nailed it on the head.
Even if we were to replace JM, we don’t even know if any of the names you listed would be remotely interested in taking the job.
And of course, sacking a manager mid-season, while the team is in a cup final and just a few points off the top 4, isn’t really going to make the job more appealing.
I’m not sure moving on is the right decision yet, and I disagree on some of the names you list (not a lot of real winners there) but there are definitely available, quality managers out there who could handle the job (Allegri?).
Regardless of what anyone thinks about JM, I just think that if the club decides to move on, we’re much better served waiting until the end of the season to do so.
Without checking I think it was Wentworth who gave our so called coach the name Mourinhosaurus Pastus, love it, made me laugh so much. COYS
If you ‘buy’ a foul it’s still a foul even if you have offered the opponent the opportunity to do so, exaggerating the level of contact in order to deceive the referee and win a penalty or free kick is cheating pure and simple.
TQ, I wasn’t saying otherwise. I wasn’t making the distinction. I was just saying that this is what happens all the time in football… In a way, it’s the cleverest cheaters that benefit from it. And Salah and Bruno Fernandes for example, are very good at it, as are others. Son is not so clever. Kane tries but doesn’t always succeed.
Also, I’ve seen many a player that convinced me that he dived, but then the defender, who did actually try to obstruct them, hasn’t then complained about the free kick or pen being given. They know that they tried to disguise their obstruction in their own slight version of cheating… Fair cop, we might say… 😉
I actually think that the City defender attempted to obstruct Salah. It doesn’t mean that I agree with it being a pen. I don’t. But sometimes the ref will see it as I did and give the defender the benefit of the doubt. Or its vice versa. Hence the subjectivity that we both pointed to.
If a defender doesn’t want to risk it then perhaps they shouldn’t be trying it, no matter how soft the obstruction/foul is. But Salah diving is also buying the pen in a way. He may have felt put off by the arm across him, or slight pull or whatever……. I don’t know. But next time one of our players ‘buys’ a foul/pen, I’ll probably have a slight dig at them too, but be glad of the free-kick anyway…. As long as we score! 😉
But buying a foul is a form of cheating too. Because it is using ones cunning to tempt a player into an error. Or variations on that theme. It’s subtle but it’s still unsporting and just not cricket… Anyway what does that mean? ….. As if cricketers don’t also cheat and deceive…
HT, TQ some good points here re – fouls, pens VAR and diving.
My only wish would be that those caught diving were given a straight red, it might actually lessen the attempts by these players to “cheat” as it were.
I know Bale in his earlier days with us often got the name of a diver and at times wasn’t given some obvious pens because of this, no replays for Refs in those days.
But we all know em, Salah, Mane, Pogba, Fernandes have all been guilty of the odd “Double Soukahara” when touched in the penalty area. Another issue I’ve just started to hear now since no crowds is the yell or scream from players when a possible foul takes place.
What’s that all about if only to try to make it look worse for the other player.