Jose Mourinho was back to his old tricks after Tottenham’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City, with the gaffer diverting blame by resorting to two wanting excuses.
Jose’s hubris and grandiose sense of self-importance renders it almost impossible to take accountability, no matter the level of culpability. He usually relies on his tried and tested tactic, plucking from his limitless excuse well. He’s accumulated more excuses over the course of his storied managerial career than he has money in the bank.
He drew two excuses from that bottomless well to deflect attention from Tottenham’s disjointed, demotivated and unambitious performance against City. Jose has created a culture of excuses at Spurs, which becomes more entrenched with every defeat.
The penalty called on Pierre Hojberg was as unjust as it was untimely. There’s no denying it was an incorrect call that changed the complexion of the game. But one cannot, in the grand scheme of things, blame that poor officiating decision for Tottenham’s loss. The away side were dominated in every facet, rendering the penalty decision inconsequential.
It’s weird to say that an unjust penalty decision at 0-0 can in any way be inconsequential. But that’s exactly what it turned out to be. But we’ve come to expect that behaviour from a manager who doesn’t know the meaning of accountability. He’s a mind games’ sorcerer and has always had an innate ability to shift attention away from the principle underlying issues.
The second excuse he pulled from the well was fatigue, partly blaming the loss on exhaustion. Yes, Spurs played a gruelling 120 minute FA Cup match midweek versus Everton.
Yet again, though, it’s an excuse that doesn’t live up to cross-examination. Tottenham, even with current injuries to three first team players, have one of the top flight’s deepest squads. The whole point of having a deep squad is the ability to rotate players, thereby keeping your best assets fresh for the most important matches.
Did Jose need to start Tanguy, Hojberg, Son, Lamela, Lucas and Ben Davies in back-to-back encounters only three days apart?
Of course not.
Son should have rested on Wednesday, offering Carlos Vinicius a chance to play. Harry Winks or Moussa Sissoko should have started in Tanguy’s place at Everton, while Steven Bergwijn should have started today and not on Wednesday.
There were questions about Dele Alli’s fitness midweek, but he appeared ready for today’s start. Sure, he’s out of form but Jose cannot use fatigue to cover up his side’s uninterested display at the Etihad. Even Gareth Bale was available for yesterday’s match.
Jose’s excuses just don’t fly. But you have to give him credit for trying. He’ll have to be more resourceful next time, extracting more creative excuses from his bottomless well if he has any hope of pulling the wool over our eyes.