In Defence Of Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho is doing a good job. His record when he first came in was good, but the style of play was maybe uninspiring. Since then, his sides form has dropped off. So, why do I still think he’s doing a good job?

The first point is long term vs short term. It’s hard to argue that Tottenham could and maybe should be higher in the league than they are. It’s the cost of being higher in the league that’s the concern for me. Short term success vs long term success require different approaches. For short term success you look at what you have and maximise it in the moment which is what people are used to seeing from Mourinho and assume he is doing that now. I disagree.

Mourinho has a core principle his won’t compromise on. Hard work. For Jose, the amount of effort a player puts in is more valuable than the players skill level. He will not accept a player putting in less effort than his teammates. Both because it’s unfair and sets a bad example. He can’t have the idea in a players mind that they don’t have to run or put in a challenge because they’re more skilful or a good finisher. You can see it in Kane and Son, Spurs two best players. Both run hard and play hard. You can see when they play, they want to win and they’ll give it all to win.

The three players who show this well I feel are Alli, Bale and Ndombele. Alli is good example of a talented players who doesn’t get many if any chances under Jose because of his work rate. Watching him play you can see doesn’t always put in the same amount of effort as they players around him and in practice is means his teammates have to do extra work because he is on the pitch. So, if Alli isn’t having a good game, he is only having a negative impact on his side. At least if he runs around and gets stuck in, he’s still having an impact on the game. This is likely why Lamela starts at 10 ahead of him. I don’t think many people would argue Lamela is better footballer than Alli, but it’s obvious he’s willing to put in a tough challenge and get a little dirty.

A player that has earned his way into the side is Ndombele. When Jose first came in, Ndombele’s chances to play games dried up. There were stories of arguments between the two and that Tanguy’s attitude wasn’t great. Unsurprisingly from Mourinho, the player rarely played. This season though, Ndombele has rarely not been on the pitch. You can see the tenacity in his play which when combined with his skill level that made him Tottenham’s most expensive signing, they’ve got a player there.

Bale is the awkward one. When on the pitch he tends to make a difference and can singlehandedly win games. Not many people can say they’ve scored the goal that won their side a Champion League, and he can say he did it with an overhead kick. Given that is the case, then surely Bale should be a regular starter, right? No. The issue with Bale is his fitness. If he isn’t putting in the effort in training to get his fitness levels up, he physically can’t play regularly, and it sets a bad example in training.

Jose Mourinho is contracted to manage Spurs until 2023, two seasons on from the time of writing. The team he was given, in his opinion, wasn’t good enough to win trophies and it is his job to get them there. The first step is to get a unified mentality and attitude. If we compare them to the Liverpool side Jurgen Klopp took over in 2015 we see a couple of differences. First is the reputation of manger they bring. Klopp was a manger that was going in to his second big job after winning two league titles with Dortmund. Mourinho had won multiple league and Champions League titles with teams in different leagues. The second difference is the perception about what the sides need to do next. For Liverpool, it was to reimagine the side under Klopp and build something. For Spurs, it was win a trophy.

The similarity between the sides is more important though. Both sides at the time the manager took over are challenging for the Europa League positions and want to get to top 4. Also, both sides had a level of success not too long before. Spurs getting to the Champions League final and Liverpool being close runners up in the Premier League. Despite this, for one manager it was decided they are building a future and the other needs to win now. Jurgen Klopp was rightly hard on his players when he first arrived, demanding huge work ethic from the players. Lallana was a great example on the pitch for what Klopp expected. Lallana wasn’t a key player when Liverpool were at the top of the table chasing Manchester City for the league and winning the Champions League. Klopp was allowed by those looking in to struggle for the sake of building a team with one mindset. Win. If you look at what Jose is doing in the same way we look at what Klopp did with Liverpool, you see a similar principal.

If Jose Mourinho is given the time to build a squad to his liking of hard working, gritty players that are still skilful. That team with one of the best striker the Premier League has seen and the only thing that can stop them is this new Man City team with their new centre half signing. A proper centre half who’ll throw his body in front of shots and high five his teammates when they shove Aubameyang to the floor. Sounds like a Mourinho player, right? I say we give Mourinho this chance to build a side and not ask him every other week why he isn’t as good as he used to be. He’s a manager with a great history in this sport who deserves respect and a chance. Let him be the rejuvenated one.