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Jose Mourinho - SACKED

it was encouraging on many levels. He made changes, he started to see pairings which don't work, and I have to say our defending has improved. I am going to put the lemons away, take a deep breath and try again. He is actually endearing when he gets it right/things are going well. It is when they aren't...on a different note, I wonder what this means for Dele. I love him but am having a hard time seeing where he fits in this shape/formation, unless Son drops back and takes over from Sissoko, which would actually leave us in better attacking shape? I am eager to see the Dele/Kane resumption, but even when playing badly, Sonny is telly important.

I think the biggest thing is that the players know what he wants and what they're doing which I have not always been convinced by. You/someone made a great observation re: Moura that when he is given a specific role he is much much better!
Imagine that level of managerial focus applied to a CL final......
 
That's not true. Against Manchester United we played a 4-4-2 in defence with Lamela playing off Kane.

Here's a Twitter thread looking at this


He did similar against Liverpool


In phases against City


United back in December

https://www.coachesvoice.com/tactical-analysis-manchester-united-2-tottenham-1-rashford/

Context dear boy, context - as you are so fond of saying!

We were playing 4411 at best ( Lamela is not a striker) or more like 451. Against Bournemouth, with H coming deep, it was more like 460.
 
Context dear boy, context - as you are so fond of saying!

We were playing 4411 at best ( Lamela is not a striker) or more like 451. Against Bournemouth, with H coming deep, it was more like 460.

I've been following the discussion loosely and sadly think it'll generally come down to semantics, you won't acknowledge Lamela as a striker in a 4-4-2 but it could be a 4-4-1-1 at best? Not having a go but more emphasising how differently we all understand labels in football that are either subjective or open to new interpretations. How do you explain the difference between the 2nd striker in a 4-4-2 and the 1st 1 in a 4-4-1-1? Like you say with Erik, not a striker but in the right team he could defo play as a false 9, and the false 9 at the end of the day is a striker role, just not in the orthodox manner so I don't think it can be said that he's not something or other. To me if you take average positions of most of our attacking players in the last couple of seasons, they'd be all over the place as we've had times of playing a 3 behind the striker where the player's had certain attributes; but not set positions geographically on the pitch in an inflexible approach.

I recall seeing that Sissoko "isn't a defensive midfielder" not so long ago on here but do then seem to recall the following game where he hustled and harried opponents in front of our back four and kept distribution simple (with the added odd charge forward of course). What else is a DM meant to do? Folks may say he's not an out and out DM, a traditional enforcer type but even then it depends on where you get your idea of what is traditional.... What then gets interesting (I mean...meh..but kind of...) is if everyone put forward who they considered the proper DMs in the premier league for example and there'd be a few common answers but then a lot of "well he's playing there but he's not really that position" or "I wouldn't call him a DM he's a box to box"..

Not trying to say there's no point in the discussion either but I feel like an easy way out before things get to a "you're wrong" stage is that slight lack of clarity in terminology.

What I will say is that you get a profoundly deeper appreciation of this side (formation and shape) of the game at the stadium as broadcasters wanna show you that replay of a crunching tackle 5 times in slow mo but won't ever actually give you perspective of the game. I mean real perspective of seeing what options are available at all times, quite often if we're honest up until the cameras pan we have no idea if it's a pinged beauty that's been lasered right in to the path of a forward or a CB has just gone "fudge it" and got rid as far as possible.
 
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We will never know what might've happened since we got fudged over in the first minute. I do agree that in a Final, Mourinho's experience and guile are incredible.
But would he have got us to the final in the first place... possibly but not probably
Certainly not in the manner we did and I can say had on heart the city away and Ajax away games I’ll remember for ever
 
it was encouraging on many levels. He made changes, he started to see pairings which don't work, and I have to say our defending has improved. I am going to put the lemons away, take a deep breath and try again. He is actually endearing when he gets it right/things are going well. It is when they aren't...on a different note, I wonder what this means for Dele. I love him but am having a hard time seeing where he fits in this shape/formation, unless Son drops back and takes over from Sissoko, which would actually leave us in better attacking shape? I am eager to see the Dele/Kane resumption, but even when playing badly, Sonny is telly important.

I think the biggest thing is that the players know what he wants and what they're doing which I have not always been convinced by. You/someone made a great observation re: Moura that when he is given a specific role he is much much better!
I was thinking the same about Dele. I’m a huge fan but if Kane doesn’t have the legs to play up on his own then they could be competing for the same position? Under a low possession strategy I think Son is wasted playing wide.
 
But would he have got us to the final in the first place... possibly but not probably
Certainly not in the manner we did and I can say had on heart the city away and Ajax away games I’ll remember for ever

Not sure if Mourinho would have got us to the CL final. But I'm convinced he could have helped us win it in the Final. Pochettino just doesn't have the winning formula which Mourinho has.
 
Just because I like this kind of thing, here's a graph showing our rolling 5-match-points-average under Mourinho. Y-axis is points average. X-axis is number of matches.The horizontal line represents achieving 76 points in a season - a somewhat arbitrary benchmark of a decent points return. The first vertical line represents Kane getting injured. The second vertical line represents the covid-enforced break.

upload_2020-7-15_17-34-17.png
 
Just because I like this kind of thing, here's a graph showing our rolling 5-match-points-average under Mourinho. Y-axis is points average. X-axis is number of matches.The horizontal line represents achieving 76 points in a season - a somewhat arbitrary benchmark of a decent points return. The first vertical line represents Kane getting injured. The second vertical line represents the covid-enforced break.

View attachment 8965


Didn't think anyone used etcha sketch anymore.
 
I’m sure he’s desperate to get players in here, none more so than a striker as a threat to be able to drop/rotate those that are not passing.

we can’t continue to play like that
 
Agreed. And 14 points from 7 games too. Should be 16 without the dodgy ref at Bournemouth
If we’re re-evaluating points had VAR done it’s job since lockdown then, you can add 2 points for us and 1 point off Utd, also arguably 1 more point for us and 2 less for Sheff Utd. So 5 extra! Not that performances necessarily deserve that, but it wasn’t a pen v Utd, we should have been 1-1 v Sheff Utd and 1 up vs Bournemouth.
 
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