Tottenham’s current system too dependent on error-free football

Tottenham’s current system, though it often yields positive results, is too reliant on perfection, a fragile setup that can come unhinged with a single mistake. 

Jose Mourinho knows how to win games. He’s shown it throughout his career. No matter where he coaches, he wins more often than not. The start of Spurs campaign has shown bundles of promise, with Mourinho’s men poised to challenge atop the Premier League table.

Of course there is a but; there’s always a but. Mourinho is a meticulous planner, a detailed-oriented organizer who puts those with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to shame. He keeps things tight, disciplined, dogmatic, even constrained. Score a goal on the counter to take the lead and barricade the shop. Simply batten down the hatches and absorb relentless oncoming pressure. That engineering works as long as individuals stick to their task and play unerring football. Unfortunately Spurs have players in their squad with a propensity to blunder every now and then.

Serge Aurier and Hugo Lloris have both made crucial errors in recent weeks that have cost their team dearly. Lloris, though, has saved Spurs’ blushes innumerably over the years so we’ll cut him some slack, but Aurier is a mistake machine, an erratic right back always prone to lose his head. He has improved substantially during his time at Spurs but is always a mistake away from losing all the ground he has gained over the years.

It’s too easy, however, to scapegoat individuals for the dropped points associated with their mistakes. Yes, those personal blunders are their fault for which they should be held accountable. But Mourinho’s system gives his players absolutely no leeway. When one mistake is committed in the current system, Spurs will almost certainly drop points.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Tottenham is blessed with a formidable attacking unit, one that has the collective nous to put opponents to bed early. It would, however, take a improbable decision from Jose to go against everything he knows by unshackling players who play in an advanced role. Logic, and history, says Jose isn’t willing to change what has been a decades-old winning formula.

So I won’t hold my breath. More realistically we’ll have to wait for Jose to find the personnel who’ll almost never commit errors. Which is what he did with the numerous teams he’s led to glory in years past. Aurier’s future, in that particular model, looks bleak. Collateral damage I’m afraid.

Even if Jose temporarily commits to an enterprising brand of football, it isn’t completely devoid of drawbacks. While you might not lose on a single error, attacking sides are more susceptible to repeatedly being split open. The idea, though, is to put a team to bed before shoring things up defensively.

It might be naive to assume that Jose could potentially be amenable to upsetting the current apple cart in favour of a risk-forward, pleasing-on-the-eye brand of football, but surely, with the embarrassment of attacking options at his disposal, it isn’t his worst option.