Credit score Jose Mourinho regardless of loss to Liverpool

An underappreciated issue within the many successes Jose Mourinho has had is that he was at all times such a sizzling commodity within the job market that he might select ascending groups to handle. Then he’d put the ending touches on a core of standout gamers approaching their prime and declare the spoils. 

That is the prerogative of the super-manager. Very like Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp will most likely by no means once more accept a job that doesn’t place them for quick success, there’s a self-fulfilling prophecy on this cycle. Tremendous-manager takes over a budding super-team; collects a bunch of prizes; raises his stature even additional; ensures that he’ll solely work for super-teams, and so forth.

The difficulty is that when Mourinho took over Tottenham Hotspur in November, he was completely happy simply to have a job with a giant Premier League membership in any respect. His inventory had plummeted after one more sad finish with Chelsea and a disappointing spell with Manchester United. Subsequently he couldn’t be fairly so picky.

So this time, he needed to accept a workforce that had already peaked with final 12 months’s shock run to the Champions League remaining – shedding to the identical Liverpool Spurs confronted Saturday, a workforce that has now set a report for many factors by means of 21 matches within the historical past of Europe’s high 5 leagues – earlier than falling precipitously in type this season. 

What’s extra, Mourinho wouldn’t be getting a lot cash, if any, to plug the numerous holes within the workforce he’d inherited from Mauricio Pochettino, who was himself pushed to despair by the shortage of funding. 

But regardless of Saturday’s 1-0 house loss to runaway league leaders Liverpool, Mourinho deserved substantial credit score for Tottenham’s efficiency. Even when Klopp’s Reds elevated their result in a staggering 16 factors whereas Spurs fell to eighth place – under Wolves and, extra painfully, Sheffield United. 

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Mourinho, for his half, has now received simply one in all 11 head-to-head matchups with Klopp, shedding 5 occasions. It was additionally his eighth profession loss to Liverpool in 29 matches. In his private rivalry with Liverpool, which dates again to a mid-2000s feud with its then-manager Rafa Benitez and apparently originated with the Reds passing Mourinho over for a job, the Portuguese’s finest days had appeared far behind him.

He as soon as shushed the Liverpool followers as his Chelsea stormed again for a win after which, years later, celebrated wildly when his Blues derailed Liverpool’s finest hope for a title since 1990 with a win on Steven Gerrard’s slip in 2014. However in his final job with United, Mourinho had been unable to compete with the reigning European champions.

And within the first half, that pattern gave the impression to be holding.

Tactically, Spurs didn’t precisely pack it in, placing out a lineup that urged they wished to take the sport to the presumptive champions with a number of playmaking choices within the squad in Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Harry Winks. However they had been however pushed all the way in which again by a Liverpool workforce that was dominant in each line.

Within the first half, Liverpool claimed a staggering 82 % of possession – away from house, no much less – and compelled Spurs to accept counter-attacking. However with out the injured Harry Kane, the assault lacked a reference level to swivel round in that trademark Spursian motion. 

At occasions, it felt like Liverpool was merely toying with its host, like when Klopp inverted his world-class wing backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson, simply because, effectively, he might.

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