More Mourinho Media Magic Following Tottenham Hotspur Win
By Aaron Coe
You can get a gauge on how happy Jose Mourinho is with his Tottenham squad based on his reactions with the media, following West Brom Jose was content.
Jose Mourinho is a presence into himself, even describing himself to Harry Kane as having a “big dimension” in the opening episode of All or Nothing Tottenham Hotspur. The truth is Jose Mourinho is a star in world football and as such draws more than his share of media attention. With media attention comes moments, some moments good, some moments not so good. However, when your team is winning there are more good moments than bad, so what did we learn from Jose.
Compensating for Home Form
Tottenham Hotspur have started the season in excellent form on the road. With the win at West Brom it is the best road start since the 2017-18 season and matches the road start from the title winning 1960-61 season. That road form is a good thing. Mourinho noted that Spurs were “compensating away for early home points lost” with their road form.
This is true for Spurs. If you look at the home table, Tottenham are midtable down in 12th place with only 5 points from 4 home matches. However, when you flip the table and look at road form, you find Spurs at the top of the table, unbeaten with 12 points from 4 road games. Only Leicester City, who currently sit above Spurs in first on 18 points have as many points on the road. Of course, 12th at home is something to work on.
Spurs Striker is a Player
Unsurprisingly Jose Mourinho was asked about Harry Kane, 200 goals, and what it was like managing him having managed against him as well. Mourinho, really failed to answer the question instead he shed some insight into his thought process on what makes a good striker. Kane – as noted in our player ratings – was of course excellent.
Mourinho said with strikers there are two measures, one is of course goals scored, the other is what did a striker “do for the team in the games where they did not score”. He went on to list the statistics of meaning, goals, assists, ball recoveries, defending set pieces; noting these are all things Harry Kane does because it is about being a player and Kane is a player.
Pain and Joy Building the Right Mentality
Connected to the good form on the road is the idea of building a winning mentality. While every season is different, we do know that it often comes down to who has the mental fortitude to preserve when things get tough. Mourinho noted that things have already been tough this season for Spurs.
Jose said that the team “felt pain against West Ham” having blown a three-goal lead to drop two points. He noted that it was feeling that pain that had the team focused so that they would not have to feel that pain again. Instead of pain and panic since the West Ham debacle Spurs have won three straight one goal matches. Two of those matches resulted in clean sheets and all of them required the defense discipline and focus to hold onto the lead late against a pesky opponent.
Just as Tottenham felt pain in the draw with West Ham, they felt triumph and the confidence boost that comes with winning in the three league games since. Building that winning mentality sometimes takes time or a fulcrum to make it happen, maybe, just maybe West Ham was that fulcrum.