Jose Mourinho

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I didn't see anyone not trying, they might have bad games, make mistakes, be rusty, lack some confidence, but not trying is bollocks. You throw together an irregular team, away from home, with players some of whom don't play much and it's hard to expect much else.

It's my fault but now you know why I don't pick certain players? Hmmm, doesn't sound like he's taking full responsibility to me. The buck stops with the manager - by all means let the players have it behind closed doors but never throw them under the bus in public. He's got the squad he wanted by and large, now get on with the job of coaching them.

The movement and final ball was piss poor tonight in both halves and it wasn't any better on Monday. I suggest he works on that in training before anything else.
Jose struggles against defensive sides, he prefers to counter attack attacking teams but tonight they suckered us at our own game and should've scored 3.

The squad is a team that must come together, I don't wanna hear petulant outbursts from manager or players, shut your gob and do you job. It's ok to say 'the performance wasn't good enough tonight '.
It's not ok to say 'now you know why I don't pick some of these lot'. That's not unity, it's separation and it should be dealt with behind closed doors.

We all want him to succeed and in pushing Levy and helping to attract players he has in large part. But there's always the ego with Jose, the charisma as he calls it, but charismatic types often tend to be selfish/self centred types too. And they're not often the type to suffer criticism very well but rather deflect it - and that wears thin after a while. He's got 2 maybe 3 seasons max to do the business before his shine fades and becomes dull and tired. Quicker he gets on with it the better.

There was a serious lack of intensity.....

1-to-1 pressing is a 2 way street.... We were 2nd to way too many challenges and loose balls.

Edit: Seems Hugo agrees.
 
A team of internationals should beat Antwerp. End of story.
Yes, you can comment on tactics; yes, there’s a question mark about changing so many but - no- a team of international footballers should be able to go to the Belgian League and not lose, at the very least.

When you then bring on £150m + of attacking talent for 45 minutes, they should score - and certainly fashion more chances than they did.

This is not a new problem: Chelsea have had players downing tools every season since Terry played for them; Pogba doesn’t give a shit if he plays or not (or would appear to); Redknapp called Spurs out on it way back in some game I can’t remember; someone posted the same comments made by Sherwood in his time. Some players - for whatever reason - play badly.

At least several of those players are now our B team, and not our A team as they were last season and the seasons before. At least Eriksen is sulking elsewhere; at least Rose is sulking with the U-23s; at least Dele won’t be guaranteed a starting spot on Sunday; at least Dier gives a shit when he plays and makes a mistake (same for Davies)...

This is not all on Jose.
 
While i don't disagree with his comments for one moment, I do wonder if this is where the rot starts to set in.

We know many of these players feel self entitled and feel normal life rules do not apply to them. They need and want an arm around their shoulder, rather than the public managerial criticism. Hopefully, our players are big enough to see the criticism for what it is and kick on, but if a couple of strong characters take issue with it, will he start to "lose the dressing room". We all know the cycle, it is there for all to see with Jose and the clubs he has been at before.

Again, not criticising his comments, needed to be said, just that will be interesting to see how the players react. That team should have been good enough to get the job done last night without a panic mass substitution. It isn't like they were all just thrown together, they see each other and train with each other every day.

Many of these lads had the cuddly approach from Poch..... Where did that get them?

It's universally recognised that Jose is here to change the mentality as a whole; the culture of the club.... Perhaps that's at the price of a few bruised egos.

Our very best players are amongst those we can count on to graft and be self critical so I see no reason why any B-team options should be any different nor why a manager shouldn't hold them to the same standards.
 
It is easy to blame those taken off at HT but it was only marginally better in the 2nd half and they did not turn it around. The alternative of what Mourinho is doing is to go back to playing our first 11 in all matches leading to tiredness and injury and being forced to play fringe players rather than selecting them for the Europa and not PL. Yes they were crap but we cannot play the same 11 for the next 3 matches.
 
While i don't disagree with his comments for one moment, I do wonder if this is where the rot starts to set in.

We know many of these players feel self entitled and feel normal life rules do not apply to them. They need and want an arm around their shoulder, rather than the public managerial criticism. Hopefully, our players are big enough to see the criticism for what it is and kick on, but if a couple of strong characters take issue with it, will he start to "lose the dressing room". We all know the cycle, it is there for all to see with Jose and the clubs he has been at before.

Again, not criticising his comments, needed to be said, just that will be interesting to see how the players react. That team should have been good enough to get the job done last night without a panic mass substitution. It isn't like they were all just thrown together, they see each other and train with each other every day.
I think the difference may be that’s there’s enough players on board the Jose train that he can make these comments and they’re not affected so he keeps momentum. His A team ‘get it’ and buy his ideas; they’ll be self-critical and realise we played badly.

One or two on the cusp of A/B (Winks, Davies, Bale at this point, CV) may struggle to learn where they fit in to this message.

In any large group, you will get people that look like ‘coasters’ - sometimes they’re doing the right thing and it will pay off down the road so need a comforting word and confidence built; sometimes they are genuinely not working so need to be cut free if you’re able to do so.

In reality, it means that the ‘second string’ won’t be trusted in such entirety again. That’s it, really - better to learn this in EL group stages than a quarter-final somewhere.
 
Its all well and good Mourinho saying what he said but we all know players like Davies and Dier are not included in it. They can stink up the place and he will still consider them to be important players.
 
Its all well and good Mourinho saying what he said but we all know players like Davies and Dier are not included in it. They can stink up the place and he will still consider them to be important players.
Because they are. Dier playing last night means Sanchez or Davies doesn’t, which probably means no goal for them. Blame Davies for the mistake, yes, but our left was targeted because Reggie had wandered off upfield all the time and Davies is slower as a CB chasing back and Sanchez doesn’t drop in to cover because he struggled for position if he isn’t instructed by Toby / Dier. Aurier is more defensively minded so it’s a no-brainer for RA to lump the ball into the massive space on our left. Sometimes it will be picked up by MF or CB, sometimes not. Few CBs facing goal in that situation are going to look particularly brilliant. (I guess you could also ask where was the communication from the other players for the need of urgency?).

There’s no point calling out individual players - the whole team was poor. No player led by example; no player tried to control the pace or tempo; no player tried to corral the others or communicate strategy. Dier wasn’t even playing and you’re bringing him into it. Like Davies, Coco, Lucas, Son, Moussa - whether they have a blinder or are terrible, at least they look like they care. We had a group of players who didn’t even look like that last night.
 
Its all well and good Mourinho saying what he said but we all know players like Davies and Dier are not included in it. They can stink up the place and he will still consider them to be important players.

Davies isn't a first XI player..... Dier didn't play.
 
At half time i was shocked but also bloody happy!, that first half was dreadful and even tho we didnt score in the 2nd half we were a hell of alot better! Antwerp played great, very organised, pressed our weak side on the left and had the best chances..
If we had toby and dier as cb partnership tho we wouldnt of conceded that goal full stop! Defence is our weakness and we tried to jose tried to address it, problem is our midfield didnt help out at all, it was basically no existent.

Dele was walking near enough the whole game, i dont know if thats just his style of play but he slows it down too much and doesnt even try to make an effort, steven B wasnt smart enough with the ball, he would smash it from outside the box instead of looking to put in bale or vinny.
Davies isnt a cb at all, especially with regulion basically being an atacking full back.

Bale i cant exactly fault, the management see him everyday, they know how fit he is, the problem wasnt him it was the midfield not giving him service, i wouldnt of subbed him off, he needs the minutes and it was only 1 nil, thats not going to be great for his confidence.

We all knew we would lose eventually and the haters would come back out but its up to the team to respond against a tough brighton, Mourinho knows how to win, they can bitch and moan and down tools or listen and actually win something this season.
 
So only our wins need context? Blimey.

Oh well. I hope you can find some pleasure in our form this season. We are both Spurs fans after all. COYS!
Is it the word Euphoria you're struggling with? From it you could deduce my.....yes yes.... PLEASURE. Oh look this post looks more astute on the Friday morning than when you actually misinterpreted it on Thursdaymorning. Hold off on canonising anyone folks we are seriously a work in progress. We are a model of inconsistency. I'm pretty sure I know where it stems from and so Jose will, is he up to fixing it 🤔
 
This is a funny and endearing comment, but it shouldn’t detract from the fact that he picked the team and set out the tactics tonight. He is at least partially culpable.

I’m gonna get pelters for this, but there’s been far too much Jose love over the last week for my liking. Yes, he says all the right things, but this has been a season of mixed performances so far.

We’ve played well in patches (Utd, Newcastle, Soton 2nd half, against some sub-par EL competition), and poor in others (Everton, West Ham 2nd half, Burnley, tonight).

We have a squad capable of competing in every competition IMO, and I truly do trust Jose to get tactics and team selection right against the big teams.

But we are not great against poor sides. Going back to last season with performances against Bournemouth and Sheff U, if we don’t get an early lead we really struggle to impose our will onto opponents. For me, my frustration with Jose has never been about possession or lack of attacking intent, I just wish he played higher up the pitch. I truly believe that would help us “impose” ourselves on the weaker teams more.

Burnley was a perfect example of this; they had no pacey threat in behind and 2 CM’s without attacking intent, and yet we still sat too deep for me. It meant we never won the ball high up the pitch and allowed Burnley to “shape up” defensively against us, that suits them perfectly.

We’ve had a big influx of new players so there were always likely to be some teething issues, but performances like tonight and Burnley (yes I know we won) are as much because of Jose as the great Utd performance was.
No from me you won't I was brve/mad enough to say it before the game. People only see what they want. I get euphoric like every one else but we also need to be honest. Once we have done the fantasy.
 
This is similar rant to what i have read on united forum , but having a manager who take full responsibility , never slate players publicly and have no ego because he has a bad cv, too afraid to be sacked and just feel very grateful to be there , won't bring you anything, United were trophyless since Jose left and will remain like that for awhile. A top manager have to set some level of standard and have to set some level of ambition and they shouldn't allow anything to lower the level. Only a loser said anything is their fault. Those player being paid handsomely because they are also a public figure so they must also be able to handle public criticism, it's not manager job to pamper their ego on public, this isn't kindergarten where a one of the teacher job is to clean all the shite and pamper the children. If you don't like your favorite player being blamed for putting shite performance then that's your problem.
In fairness you don’t see Klopp throw players under the bus in public so let’s not make out it’s some prerequisite to winning trophies, because it isn’t.

Having said that I don’t really have much of an issue with what he said yesterday, he has a tendency to go over the line but I don’t think yesterday was that. I don’t want to see him call individuals out in public though, it achieves zero. Lay into them in the dressing room if you must.

There may come a time when that player is needed because of injuries , and you don’t want him playing with a sense of dread that one bad 45 mins and his manager is going to criticise him to the press....
 
One of the things I really still struggle with is his attitude of just chucking a player on the scrapheap if they play badly for 45 minutes.

It puts players into a downward spiral - as if they are scared to make mistakes they tense up on the pitch and play safe all the time.
 
I feel he proper panicked last night with those half time changes.
Why couldn't he give the players that played in the first half a chance to get their act together and turn it around along with him tweaking tactics
Embarrassing players after not even giving them a chance to put things right is not good
 
I feel he proper panicked last night with those half time changes.
Why couldn't he give the players that played in the first half a chance to get their act together and turn it around along with him tweaking tactics
Embarrassing players after not even giving them a chance to put things right is not good


I'm sure we will still qualify anyway - the result last night didn't matter too much.......but by bringing on Kane, Son, Hojbjerg he made it look like it really did matter

You are right it was absolutely a chance to allow the fringe players the rectify the situation and if they didn't he could still say "its one match in a 6 game mini league"
 
In fairness you don’t see Klopp throw players under the bus in public so let’s not make out it’s some prerequisite to winning trophies, because it isn’t.

Having said that I don’t really have much of an issue with what he said yesterday, he has a tendency to go over the line but I don’t think yesterday was that. I don’t want to see him call individuals out in public though, it achieves zero. Lay into them in the dressing room if you must.

There may come a time when that player is needed because of injuries , and you don’t want him playing with a sense of dread that one bad 45 mins and his manager is going to criticise him to the press....
i think there are certain players who keep asking for playing times and that was the shite they served after he gave them chances. To be honest, i would have thrown them under the bus as well if i was him.
 
I'm not talking about this game...I'm talking generally.

Dier and Davies can do no wrong in Mourinhos eyes. Yes Davies has finally been dropped but he literally couldn't do anything else as Reguillon looked so good.

In Davies, in particular, he seems to value character far more highly than ability.

I'm not really sure how being a good lad makes up for all those times he plays us into trouble at the back though.
 
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