The Jose Mourinho Turnaround with Tottenham Hotspur
By Aaron Coe
Mourinho and Tottenham Post-Lockdown
Everyone that was supporting Mourinho, despite the poor results, were saying just wait until he has an offseason with the club and an opportunity to instill his system. Well fortunately for Tottenham Hotspur, the lockdown provided a sort of in-season offseason and jumpstarted Mourinho’s Tottenham transformation. A transformation that continued into the summer and now into this new season.
Whereas Tottenham played 26 games under Jose Mourinho prior to the lock down, the have played 24 since the lockdown. Where Spurs had only won 11 in 26, they have now won 16 of their last 24 matches, an incredible 67%-win percentage. Add in 5 draws and only 3 losses in all competitions since June, and Tottenham are earning points at an 88% clip and dropping all 3 only about 12% of the time.
The struggles Tottenham were having defensively have been mostly rectified as Tottenham have conceded at .96 goals per match since the restart. This is much closer to Mourinho’s lifetime marks as he has never managed a team that gave up more than a goal a game on average over his career. Not only are Spurs now conceding less, but they are also scoring even more, at 2.16 goals per match since the restart.
That 2.16 per match is still far short of Mourinho’s 2.67 per match at Madrid, but it is moving in the right direction. Suddenly, where the goals for/against difference was only .11 over 26 matches, that total has grown a positive 1.2 goal difference per match. That 1.2 goal difference is slightly ahead of Mourinho’s Chelsea teams who scored some 1.12 more goals per match than they conceded.
The 1.35 points per match Spurs earned from Mourinho’s first 26 games is dwarfed by the 2.21 points per match in the 24 games since. Spurs have scored 8 more goals in two less matches while giving up 18 less in that time – not including the 4 shootout goals versus Chelsea. What all this means is that Tottenham is improving under Jose Mourinho. Despite his overall points per match and his overall win percentage still be slightly below Mauricio Pochettino’s career marks with Spurs.
It is clear it is only a matter of time before those marks are passed by and Mourinho has the best win percentage for Spurs. A percentage so high, maybe Tim Sherwood is no longer tops for the club, and maybe just maybe we get that silverware we are looking for and Mourinho shows he is still the Special One. After a year at Spurs, things are looking up.