Jamie Carragher analyzed Tottenham’s current form and explained why he believes Jose Mourinho won’t succeed in London.
It has been a while since Jose Mourinho’s teams exceeded expectations in their respective leagues, or even met the existing ones. Therefore, the Portuguese manager has faced a lot of criticism in recent years, some even calling him a has-been.
Although Tottenham’s impressive start of the season had Spurs’ fans and football pundits hailing Mourinho’s work, the situation has recently taken a darker turn. Tottenham currently occupy ninth place in the Premier League after losing four out of their last five fixtures. According to Carragher, this has much to do with Mourinho’s style.
“Jose Mourinho is a manager brought in to get results and if he does not get results there is not much behind it in terms of the spectacle or how they play. At times, we have lauded it. He is a results manager. And at this moment he is not getting results,” Carragher told Sky Sports.
“It is fair to say that the top managers in Europe play a proactive game. Jose Mourinho is reactive. The top teams take calculated risks. Jose is risk-averse.”
Jose Mourinho’s ‘reactive’ style has given him some incredible victories over his career. However, Jamie Carragher believes there is a big difference between his former teams and this Spurs side.
He has had success doing this. He would get in front – and I have played against his teams – and you are not even getting a draw. The draw was the best you were getting.
“At Chelsea, he had John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho. At Inter, he had Walter Samuel and Lucio, two of the best center-backs you will ever see. Tottenham’s defenders are nowhere near good enough, and neither is the goalkeeper, to hold onto leads.”
Tottenham are worse off now than when Pochettino was the boss.
The former Liverpool defender also claimed that while Mauricio Pochettino put the Spurs in the map, Mourinho has left them further away from getting any silverware.
“What Pochettino did that was special was that he made Tottenham supporters believe they could win the biggest trophies out there in terms of the Premier League and a Champions League final. That is what he did.
“So when people criticize him for not winning – and Pochettino used to say he was more interested in the big trophies than the little ones – that criticism for me was a little bit invalid,” argued Carragher.
“I do worry for Tottenham because I don’t think they are good enough for the top four and I don’t think they will get top four for that reason. I think they are a long way from being a top-four club and the way they are playing, you have to have results if you are going to play like that, and they are not getting them.”
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