BEVERLY HILLS, February 05, (THEWILL) – In the first battle of wits and coaching chops between the technical benches of the London-based English Premier League sides Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, the new manager, Thomas Tuchel, it was who triumphed over the old timer Jose Mourinho.
Ahead of their meeting, Mourinho began his good old mind tricks to pile some psychological and mental pressure on Tuchel with claims that it was not as difficult as people presumed to achieve success at Stamford Bridge, having had two successful coaching periods with the Blues, first from 2004 to 2007 and then again from 2013 to 2015.
However, after 90 minutes, the pressure had completely fallen back on Mourinho’s head. Spurs suffered another defeat to make it their first three successive EPL defeats since November 2012 when they had coach André Villas-Boas in the Spurs dugout. It was an honestly woeful performance by the north London team, earning Mourinho his first back-to-back home defeats as a manager.
Though the visitors dominated the early exchanges and got their winning goal as a gift, Tottenham offered next to nothing in attack. The meekness of the Tottenham side was by all standards the most unusual performance of a team coached by the tactical-minded Portuguese and it will have been forgiven to think Mourinho’s team was Chelsea and not Spurs.
Tuchel was the one celebrating at the end. His side saw out a second win from three so far, while the pressure increasingly mounts on Mourinho, as Spurs stay seventh, 14 points off the top making it seem like ages ago when they were at the summit of the same table in the EPL.
There are no easy paths to a resurgence for Spurs. Harry Kane’s absence forced Mourinho’s hand to play Brazilian Carlos Vinicius in attack as the Welshman loanee from Real Madrid, Gareth Bale failed to rise to the occasion the last time out. But, other than a few bright sparks, even the Brazilian was a bystander, starved of any service in the first half and failing to have that mutual connection with Son Heung-min that Kane conjured.
The obvious fact is that Mourinho’s tactics are failing to raise the level of the club that is now at a point where it is matching negative records from eight years ago, which was the last time Spurs lost three consecutive matches. This decline was not so apparent when Kane and Son mesmerised defenses and scored scintillating goals but these losses have provided evidence that the team cannot progress with these counter-attacking, pressure-soaking style of football.
If the tactician that Mourinho has shown himself to be in the EPL cannot create a pattern of play more suited to the quality in the entire team so as to take the burden off of the shoulders of their striking pair and so that even in the absence of Kane and Son, they can continue to be successful at winning matches, then it will be a tough sell to bet on Tottenham going far this season.
Spurs fans can console themselves by pointing to that bad late miss of Vinicius as a moment when they might have snatched a point, but, in reality, the team got what their performance merited: nothing. It is not the first time they will look desperately short of creative ideas and attacking threats without the injured Kane and with Son struggling in front, but starved of support.
There will be a couple of matches ahead that Spurs will play next that will make their fans quickly forget a match like Thursday’s fixture against Chelsea at their own stadium. They might go on to inflict serious defeats on less stellar sides and celebrate the points gain in their climb up the premiership standings for the season.
But, none of that will remove the fact that this Mourinho’s side is in dire need of a tactical and morale boosting overhaul to spur them to produce the type of quality that took them to the UEFA Champions League final in the 2018/2019 season, prior to Mourinho’s contact with the side.
Without that, the rest of the season might be painful to watch. At least, until Kane’s ankles allow him return to action.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
