According to reports from The Athletic, which have been informed by ‘multiple dressing room sources’, some Tottenham Hotspur players are “increasingly unhappy” with Jose Mourinho’s approach.
Tottenham were top of the table in December, but they have slipped to ninth in the league table after suffering five defeats in their last six games.
Mourinho insisted that the methods that he and his coach staff use are “second to nobody in the world”, and the Athletic claims he has not lost the whole dressing room yet.
“Some of the attacking players, who feel that Mourinho’s training is too focused on defence and on not making mistakes, are unhappy with how little focus there is on coaching complex offensive patterns.
“Some attacking players have even remarked privately that they are still reliant on moves and finishes in the final third that they learned and honed under Pochettino because there has been so little detailed attacking work under Mourinho.”
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Unless results improve, Mourinho could find it hard to keep his job.
Mourinho priorities result over style. Under Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs played an attractive brand of football.
They focused on retaining possession with a dominant style of football being preferred.
Under Mourinho, the focus is not on improving their own game but to exploit the weakness of others. The reactive football has worked well at times, with Spurs recording impressive wins against Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal based on a counter-attacking strategy.
Needless to say, when the focus has been on how to nullify the opposition, Spurs’ attacking football has looked limited. They rely heavily on Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min and there’s very little imagination in their play.
