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Harry Kane MBE

So what’s the answer?

Move the team up by 10-15m. Have him do this brick well in the opponent's half, with runners either side to turn and spray the ball to, and with the opponent in their shape sitting deep. Take the game to them, be brave, instead of this cowardly defeatism.

Okay, maybe beyond Mourinho and his craven approach. Fine.

Play Ndombele next to Hojbjerg. Make him the outball, to draw players to him and beat them before passing to Kane on the turn, so he can look up and see the players ahead of him. Play Kane as a 10, play Vinicius up ahead of him to keep the opposition defense pinned back and make quadruple-marking Kane and Son a lot harder.

Okay, maybe still too daring for Mourinho.

Play Bergwijn near Kane, and *keep him there* with Son - have them both ready to run within a close 5-10m circle of Kane, instead of chasing back to the goal line covering Davies/Reggie and Aurier/Doherty. Gives Kane options to release the ball to, prevents quadruple marking.

Okay, still too much for Mourinho. Fine. Have Bergwijn and Son defend. Move Aurier and Reguilon up by 10m to be closer to Kane and provide an outball/runners beyond him.

Do *something* instead of miserably sitting in our box like crabs hoping to nick a 1-0, Mourinho, you coward.
 
Move the team up by 10-15m. Have him do this brick well in the opponent's half, with runners either side to turn and spray the ball to, and with the opponent in their shape sitting deep. Take the game to them, be brave, instead of this cowardly defeatism.

Okay, maybe beyond Mourinho and his craven approach. Fine.

Play Ndombele next to Hojbjerg. Make him the outball, to draw players to him and beat them before passing to Kane on the turn, so he can look up and see the players ahead of him. Play Kane as a 10, play Vinicius up ahead of him to keep the opposition defense pinned back and make quadruple-marking Kane and Son a lot harder.

Okay, maybe still too daring for Mourinho.

Play Bergwijn near Kane, and *keep him there* with Son - have them both ready to run within a close 5-10m circle of Kane, instead of chasing back to the goal line covering Davies/Reggie and Aurier/Doherty. Gives Kane options to release the ball to, prevents quadruple marking.

Okay, still too much for Mourinho. Fine. Have Bergwijn and Son defend. Move Aurier and Reguilon up by 10m to be closer to Kane and provide an outball/runners beyond him.

Do *something* instead of miserably sitting in our box likes crabs hoping to nick a 1-0, Mourinho, you coward.

10-15m higher with Toby and Dier as the CB’s would be suicidal imo.
 
10-15m higher with Toby and Dier as the CB’s would be suicidal imo.

Fair enough, drop one of Reggie or Aurier in alongside them, or maybe both if you're really worried, as classic FBs - straight line of four, to cover for Dier and Toby's lack of pace. Or play Japhet instead of Toby. Or Rodon. Or even Sanchez, brainless though he admittedly can be.

We have options that would allow us to play more attacking football. We're not Burnley.
 
Move the team up by 10-15m. Have him do this brick well in the opponent's half, with runners either side to turn and spray the ball to, and with the opponent in their shape sitting deep. Take the game to them, be brave, instead of this cowardly defeatism.

Okay, maybe beyond Mourinho and his craven approach. Fine.

Play Ndombele next to Hojbjerg. Make him the outball, to draw players to him and beat them before passing to Kane on the turn, so he can look up and see the players ahead of him. Play Kane as a 10, play Vinicius up ahead of him to keep the opposition defense pinned back and make quadruple-marking Kane and Son a lot harder.

Okay, maybe still too daring for Mourinho.

Play Bergwijn near Kane, and *keep him there* with Son - have them both ready to run within a close 5-10m circle of Kane, instead of chasing back to the goal line covering Davies/Reggie and Aurier/Doherty. Gives Kane options to release the ball to, prevents quadruple marking.

Okay, still too much for Mourinho. Fine. Have Bergwijn and Son defend. Move Aurier and Reguilon up by 10m to be closer to Kane and provide an outball/runners beyond him.

Do *something* instead of miserably sitting in our box like crabs hoping to nick a 1-0, Mourinho, you coward.
How do you get the team to do that?
The team are the ones retreating IMO
He wants them defensively but not on our goal line
What your saying is I believe gamble on having players on for out balls and play higher and hope no one with real pace gets behind... we saw today the damage that Neto did with pace and he barely had any room to play in
We’re crying out for another CM to play with PEH. I’d live to see him stick with tanguy in there but if he is deemed to only be able to last 70 mins we have a problem
 
How do you get the team to do that?
The team are the ones retreating IMO
He wants them defensively but not on our goal line
What your saying is I believe gamble on having players on for out balls and play higher and hope no one with real pace gets behind... we saw today the damage that Neto did with pace and he barely had any room to play in
We’re crying out for another CM to play with PEH. I’d live to see him stick with tanguy in there but if he is deemed to only be able to last 70 mins we have a problem

The team play the way he wants them to. If not explicitly to what he tells them (he moans about them not following his instructions enough), to his philosophy of absolutely risk-free football, which just isn't ever feasible.

It's the way he sets up that creates this problem. Think back to Alli and his careless flick against Stoke - Mourinho tore into him on that, on the touchline and after the game.

The thing is, what that tells players is 'never, ever take a risk unless it's 100% guaranteed you won't concede a chance in doing so.' And that has knock on effects - like when Kane gets the ball deep in our own half, turns left or turns right, and sees no runners because no one wants to leave their defensive zone to support. And then he gives the ball away.

He can't have his damn cake and eat it. Either he encourages some element of risk taking from the team, or they will play the way his cowardly tactics tell them to - with fear, sitting deep and hoping to nick something.

Christ, it doesn't have to be Barcelona, but expecting us to be better than Wolves, Crystal Palace (who have shipped what, 15 goals since playing us?) and Leicester when we have far better players than all of them isn't asking for too much. If he wants to play like this against City and Chelsea, fine (although Chelsea are also a lot weaker than our draw made them seem). But if he's cowardly and craven when facing Wolves and Palace, we have a problem.
 
The team play the way he wants them to. If not explicitly to what he tells them (he moans about them not following his instructions enough), to his philosophy of absolutely risk-free football, which just isn't ever feasible.

It's the way he sets up that creates this problem. Think back to Alli and his careless flick against Stoke - Mourinho tore into him on that, on the touchline and after the game.

The thing is, what that tells players is 'never, ever take a risk unless it's 400% guaranteed you won't concede a chance in doing so.' And that has knock on effects - like when Kane gets the ball deep in our own half, turns left or turns right, and sees no runners because no one wants to leave their defensive zone to support. And then he gives the ball away.

He can't have his damn cake and eat it. Either he encourages some element of risk taking from the team, or they will play the way his cowardly tactics tell them to - with fear, sitting deep and hoping to nick something.

Christ, it doesn't have to be Barcelona, but expecting us to be better than Wolves, Crystal Palace (who have shipped what, 15 goals since playing us?) and Leicester when we have far better players than all of them isn't asking for too much. If he wants to play like this against City and Chelsea, fine (although Chelsea are also a lot weaker than our draw made them seem). But if he's cowardly and craven when facing Wolves and Palace, we have a problem.
I agree with the overall point. I think a case can be made that we had to cut back on the errors, shore up a bit defensively and play with more caution. But there has to be development from that into more and better attacking play and it's up to Mourinho to make that happen.

I disagree somewhat with how bombastic you are making that point. Ndombele regularly takes risks, he's been an automatic starter. Aurier takes more risks than Doherty imo and Aurier has become first choice. Dier keeps making some fairly risky passes out from the back, nailed on starter. Hojbjerg too plays with some risk in some situations, both forward passes through the lines and keeping possession in tight areas.

We're not finding the right balance though and I think you're probably right and the players are becoming risk averse, perhaps due to his reactions when the risky attempt leads to a chance or goal against. Perhaps the players aren't quite able to integrate his ideas on when that risk is acceptable and when it isn't?

We definitely need to find a better balance. Perhaps some of the answer can be found in the January window, but I doubt that alone will fix our problems. It's up to Mourinho to get that message across, though I can understand that it takes some time.
 
His reaction on Wednesday said to me that he cares and is trying. He’s being flogged. The tactics and the amount of games are killing him.

Same as it's been for the last few years, gets played every single game and is never subbed off which ends up with him knackered and an injury in the spring. Now we have some decent cover we should use it or even play both at times to lighten his workload up top.
 
10-15m higher with Toby and Dier as the CB’s would be suicidal imo.

I'd like to see us do it. You'd save a few goals by simply pressing the opposition more. Can also get Lloris to take up positions 5-10 yards further out so that you reduce the additional space created behind the defence.

Whatever the solution is, our current tactics just wont work and will drive fans away
 
How do you get the team to do that?
The team are the ones retreating IMO
He wants them defensively but not on our goal line
What your saying is I believe gamble on having players on for out balls and play higher and hope no one with real pace gets behind... we saw today the damage that Neto did with pace and he barely had any room to play in
We’re crying out for another CM to play with PEH. I’d live to see him stick with tanguy in there but if he is deemed to only be able to last 70 mins we have a problem
How do you get the team to do that?..... by ‘managing’ dear boy.
 
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