LONDON STADIUM — Jose Mourinho‘s 50th Premier League game in charge of Tottenham came against the same opponents inside the same stadium as his first.
A 3-2 win over West Ham at the London Stadium in November 2019 got the Mourinho era at Spurs off to an encouraging start. Fast forward 15 months and the reasons for positivity at Spurs are diminishing by the week. So too is the case for keeping their manager.
Daniel Levy’s appointment of Mourinho was the fulfilment of a long-held ambition and the esteem with which Tottenham’s long-serving chairman holds the Portuguese quickly became apparent in the fly-on-the-wall Amazon documentary aired on the eve of the season.
Nevertheless, Levy’s decision to hire Mourinho in place of Mauricio Pochettino, by some distance the best manager the club has had during ENIC’s 21 years of owning the club, was a considerable gamble. It is a gamble that has backfired.
Mourinho had never lost to a David Moyes managed side in 15 attempts but a 2-1 defeat in the 16th condemned Spurs to their fifth loss in their previous six Premier League games. They have taken only 11 points from their last dozen matches.
Moyes might have failed to beat Mourinho prior to this game, but he certainly would have had fonder memories of the previous meeting between the two when West Ham became the first team in Premier League history to avoid defeat having trailed by three goals in the 81st minute.
Tottenham started this game as badly as they had finished that one. Michail Antonio capped his return for West Ham by scoring his customary goal against Spurs within the opening five minutes, bundling in from close-range after Hugo Lloris had denied his first effort. It was Antonio’s fifth Premier League goal against Spurs, more than he has managed against any other side in the competition.
Antonio’s individual duel with Eric Dier looked a mismatch from the outset. A hallmark of Mourinho’s best teams has been the solidity and consistency of his central defensive pairings, but in each of his last two jobs, he has failed to find the right balance in that area of the pitch. Tottenham’s foundations are built on sand.
Central defence is far from the only puzzle Mourinho has been unable to solve. Picking the right starting line-up seems a challenge at the moment, judging by the glut of half-time changes being made on a near weekly basis. There were two substitutions at the break here, Gareth Bale and Matt Doherty introduced in place of Erik Lamela and Japhet Tanganga.
If Mourinho is looking to make a point to his players by hooking them after 45 minutes, the message appears to be falling on deaf ears. Just 75 seconds into the second half, Jesse Lingard doubled West Ham’s advantage and he was given two opportunities to celebrate his third goal in four games for his new club when a VAR check deemed him to be onside after the linesman’s errant flag.
Mourinho’s Plan A seemingly revolves around going in front and then defending that lead but when that fails there is little clear sense of what comes next. Trailing by two goals, Spurs naturally became more adventurous in their approach, out-shooting their hosts 10:1, but Mourinho’s system is utterly reliant on moments of individual brilliance rather than any cohesive strategy going forward.
Harry Kane sought to provide it, firing two exquisite low crosses across West Ham’s six-yard-box. The only problem for Kane was that he wasn’t the one attacking them. Lucas Moura’s goal also came out of nothing, a bullet header from Bale’s inswinging corner. Bale then rattled the cross-bar with a sweetly struck half-volley, while Son-Heung-min also hit the post.
Spurs ended the game with Kane, Son, Bale, Lucas, Dele Alli and Tanguy Ndombele on the pitch, yet failed to find an elusive equaliser. The damage was done. Mourinho may point to the presence of that sextet as proof of his ambition; in reality it was proof of his desperation.
Tottenham’s current issues can all be traced back to the 2018 summer, when they were the only club in Europe’s top five leagues to not make a single signing. Pochettino’s calls for a “painful rebuild” didn’t come until it was too late. Every move that Levy has made since has been to try to set Spurs back on the path they were on in the peak-Pochettino years. Too little, too late.
A new project is required. And a new manager is needed to oversee it.
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