April brings something new to Tottenham under José Mourinho

The exit from Europa League stung greatly. However, the fact Tottenham Hotspur is not playing midweek in April will give José Mourinho something he has not had since joining Spurs, time to practice. A mixture matches, the timing of Mourinho’s hire along with unexpected events in the world – i.e. Covid – has meant José Mourinho has never had real time to training his team.

Training time hard to find for Tottenham

Some may read that José Mourinho has not had time to train his team and may immediately scoff at the notion given the Portuguese coach has been at the helm of Spurs since, November 2019. However, training a team during the season is much different than training without matches, which is something Mourinho has never enjoyed with this squad.

Immediately upon hire, Mourinho was trust into the grind of weekend Premier League and midweek Champions League matches. The frequency of matches, something Spurs players should know all too well from this season, makes training difficult and limited.

When a team is playing every three or four days there is not adequate time for proper training, only time for recuperation and recovery for the next match. This season has been particularly difficult with Tottenham playing 48 matches over the Span of 176 days from their opener against Everton September 13, 2020, until their most recent win over Aston Villa on March 21, 2021.

48 matches over 176 days is a game every 3.66 days. Basically, the players have just enough time to recover and simply think about the next opponent, not actually train. This is why we end up with videos of the players playing basketball and ping-pong with footballs because they are not in a position to do much else. Frankly, this has been the case since the day Mourinho arrived, right up until Aston Villa, with Covid costing any other time he might have had.

Circumstances cost Tottenham this time last season

We need to remember, this time last season, the campaign was being halted and people were being quarantined across the globe. Instead of having time to train with his team, Mourinho was making videos and learning Zoom to get in touch with his players, then getting in trouble for meeting up with his players to boot.

The issues with the lack of full access continued all the way until really August when the team came together and trained for a couple of weeks and started playing. Even in the preseason, the team played four matches in 10 days, a true precursor of things to come.

José Mourinho Finally has time to train Tottenham

All this brings us back to the current. Following the painful loss to Dinamo Zagreb, the midweek commitments of Tottenham Hotspur are no more. For the first time since the season began, José Mourinho will spend Wednesdays practicing, not simply preparing for a game or traveling.

After all of these games, things get slow in April for Tottenham with only 4 games in the month, including the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City. Even then, those are over 21 days between the 4th and 25th. The least matches Tottenham has played in a month this campaign was six in November. Spurs played 8 matches in the 28 days of February this year and only have 10 matches left over the final 49 games of the season.

Tottenham only has a single midweek game currently scheduled for the rest of the season on Wednesday Mat 12 against Wolves.  The league does still need to reschedule the match with Southampton which will likely fall on a weekday meaning Spurs will have two-weekday games over the last seven weeks of the season, giving José Mourinho five full weeks to coach.

This time is Mourinho’s chance to prove his worth

It is hard to believe that Mourinho has had such few opportunities to really coach his side and still has not had a true preseason with this team. This little break in what had become a non-stop onslaught of matches is an opportunity. It is an opportunity for Mourinho to coach and the players to be coached.

If Tottenham is going to win a cup and if Tottenham is going to make the top four and earn a spot in next season’s Champions League they have to win over this stretch. With ample and proper time to prepare the team and frankly with ample and proper time for stars to rest, both Tottenham and José Mourinho have a chance to show us something. Let’s hope the time is well spent.