Tottenham Hotspur lost to West Ham today, their fifth loss in their last six games. Since the start of the new year, they have only scored seven points out of the 24 available points, putting them firmly in the middle and almost certain that their only way to the Champions League next season will be by winning the Europa League .
Afterward, Spurs manager Jose Mourinho made even more news for all the wrong reasons, blaming the poor results on his players and sticking to his coaching methods even as Spurs continue to slide down.
This is what he said to the BBC just after the sidelines game that caused such a bunch.
“I feel like we are not in the position of our potential. Even though I have thought for a long time that we have problems in the team that I as a coach cannot solve myself.
“Our potential is higher than where we are, so of course there is frustration. We should be in a better position. “
Sounds bad at first, right? That certainly sounds like he’s not just throwing his team under the bus, but also backs up a few times just to make sure.
Anyway – if you want to read these quotes amply, and let’s do that for the sake of discussion, you can close your eyes and tilt your head to say that what Mourinho was trying to convey is that the team failed to reach his potential even with some staff shortages, but he also hasn’t maximized the talent he has is doing have at his disposal. It’s artfully said, but he isn’t a native English speaker either. So maybe in some weird way, under his leadership, he’s taking some responsibility for the results
But then at the assembled media press conference he said this when asked about his own methods:
What gives you so much faith [in your methods] at this point, taking into account the set of results?
“Because sometimes the results are the result of multiple situations in football and mine and the methods of my coaching staff are second to none.”
Lol doesn’t matter. That circles right back to him and throws his players under the bus. Why should he take responsibility when his players are clearly not good enough to do what he asks?
Now if we continue to be generous to Mourinho and we have gone this far, so why not, he’s not all wrong. Tottenham has been plagued with individual mistakes in this series of bad form, mistakes that have had pretty disastrous results. He’s not entirely wrong either because some of the players he has at his disposal may not be good enough for what he wants to achieve with this Spurs team. That’s not entirely crazy to think, especially as Spurs still seems to be recovering from the “painful rebuild” that never happened all year without any player purchases. Tottenham needs quite a bit of help, especially in defense! It is without a doubt a concern.
But to speak publicly to the media and say so while simultaneously defending the same tired tactics and methods that led to Mourinho being fired from his last three jobs is just deliberate ignorance and the height of hubris right now. Throwing your players under the bus won’t do anything to somehow motivate those same players to magically change things. And I’m not the only one who thinks that.
This does nothing more than try to serve its own image at the expense of the players. Place themselves in front of the club.
Have some respect for yourself Spurs fans.
– NathanAClark (@NathanAClark) February 21, 2021
Plus, it’s curious that some of the same players who currently disdain them for their achievements – Davinson Sanchez and Eric Dier chief among them, but even Toby Alderweireld hasn’t escaped criticism this season – were mostly considered solid defenders on the rise. under Mauricio Pochettino. You can even extrapolate and notice that the whole team looked less like an organized unit and more like a collection of individual players being told to “go out and make magic happen”. When that organization breaks down, it puts extra stress and pressure on the defense, and any mistakes increase.
Good players rarely suddenly become bad players. It can happen, but it’s uncommon. Strange that it keeps happening to Jose in his last few jobs, isn’t it? The changed variable in this case is Mourinho himself.
I’m tired of shouting about Jose Mourinho. I wish I didn’t have to do it that often. People, in turn, are going to yell at me in the comments for this and say very well that I am being unfair and prejudiced against a manager I admittedly never wanted to start with. But anyone who thinks of situations like this – criticizing players for failing results, relinquishing personal responsibility – is unique to this season and hasn’t given much thought to Jose Mourinho’s career. The same has happened over and over.
When Mourinho was hired, he explicitly said that he was happy with the squad at his disposal, that it was an excellent group of players that had the potential to win the Premier League under his leadership. He was hired as the master manager who can maximize this talented group and immediately take them to where they can win things. Fifteen months later, he’s arguing with players again, throwing his team under the bus and saying, “Hey, my methods are great, it’s these bastards underperforming.” And if that’s true, then why did Mourinho take the job to start with, and why are we paying this master tactician £ 15 million a year when we literally could have hired someone else to start a new five-year project and the squad rebuild under vastly different expectations?
In all likelihood, until the end of the current Premier League campaign, Mourinho will have something to save something from what has turned into an absolute season train wreck. He has the Europa League and the Carabao Cup final in April as the best chances of winning silverware. Maybe he can. I honestly hope he can and I will make sure he does. But he certainly doesn’t make it easy.