Jose Mourinho has returned to the Premier League after his spell at Manchester United.
Although that stint yielded three trophies, it’s hard to see at as a significant success
overall and the Portuguese manager will want to rehabilitate his reputation in English
football. At Tottenham Hotspur, he has an excellent opportunity – a squad of high
quality, a well-developed infrastructure, and a new stadium all mark out Spurs as a
club heading in the right direction, just in need of freshening up.
The Champions League is a good opportunity for Mourinho to show how he has changed things
quickly – as Spurs have qualified, this game can be used to test his principles against
high quality opposition. As these stats from OneFootball show, Spurs have scored a lot
but conceded a lot too, not least in the 7-2 defeat at home to Bayern Munich, their next
opponents. Mourinho will want to tighten up while not sacrificing the qualities his team
have going forwards.
Mourinho has assumed various tactical identities in his various managerial spells – he is
not just a dour pragmatist as sometimes painted – and this Spurs team should elicit a more
attacking version. Although it’s early in his tenure in North London, and so this is
a broad overview, there are a few noticeable features of Spurs under his leadership.
The clearest tactical decision Mourinho has made is to play his 4-2-3-1 with a lop-sided
build-up, with three at the back, the right back Serge Aurier pushed up, and Lucas Moura
staying more narrow while Son Heung-Min generally stays wider. If Aurier pushes up very high,
this can create a kind of square or rectangle in midfield, with one of Kane or Dele Alli
dropping off.
This achieves solidity across all areas of the pitch in case Tottenham are turned over,
and also allows any of the front four to make vertical runs to find space between the lines.
Mourinho has clearly decided that the long-range, penetrative passing of Toby Alderweireld is
a significant weapon in his team’s armoury, while also looking to maintain the rapid movement
between the lines that was a Spurs’ hallmark under Mauricio Pochettino. Spur’s build
up positioning allows them to advance the ball securely, with myriad passing options,
while Alderweireld assesses his options and decides whether to launch the sort of through
pass that yielded two goals against Bournemouth.
These kinds of passes rely on movement and here, Spurs have good form on which to build.
In Kane, they have a striker who can lead the line or drop off, while Dele Alli appears
to be rediscovering his form as a sort of shadow striker, making runs behind into space
created by his teammates’ movement.
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In addition, Son Heung-Min excels at runs from outside to in, attacking the channel
between the opposition full back and nearside centre back. Under Pochettino, these runs
were often the result of quick interchanges of passes in tight spaces – under Mourinho,
the same sort of runs instead are coming from more direct passes, although Spurs will still
be capable of generating attacking options in tighter areas between the lines. But this
tallies with Mourinho’s desire to transition more directly, and one could argue that there
are similarities to the fluidity of his front three at Porto, backed up by a more workmanlike
unit who won back the ball before shifting it quickly up to the attacking trio.
It’s no secret that Eric Dier was coveted by Mourinho when he was at Manchester United,
so he’s likely to be the fixture alongside Harry Winks in the double pivot. Generally
they’re playing pretty narrowly in front of the back three/four – Dier is obviously
a ball-winner, while Winks is a steady passer, capable of clever through balls but not generally
a go-to progressive passer from deep.
Mourinho has options: Christian Eriksen, Giovani Lo Celso, Tanguy Ndombele, and Moussa Sissoko
are all very different players and could add different things – creativity, high volume
progressive passing, ball carrying, and pressing – to varying degrees. It’s likely that
Mourinho has decided to build directly from the back in part because his current first
choice can shift the ball quickly to those who can do more damage, or be bypassed altogether
by Alderweireld. But a Winks/Dier double pivot isn’t exactly optimal, especially against
teams who sit deep and deny Spurs space between the lines.
And given that the front unit seem well suited to Mourinho’s style and preferred 4-2-3-1,
it’s unlikely that Spurs will shift to a system that gives three in midfield, especially
given that Dele Alli is well-set to become the key player under Mourinho.
Instead, the Portuguese manager will probably end up to choosing who works as a midfield
pair on a game-by-game basis and making frequent changes in-game in this area too. He has options,
but to retain speed of transition and the team’s shape, it’s not yet clear how he’ll
use them.
The new manager has got to work quickly. Spurs are playing with the sort of defensive compactness
that Mourinho wants, while pressing intensely, at least in the first half of games. A high
defensive line, direct, quick transitions, and a mobile front attacking unit with pace
and intelligent movement are also what one would expect of a Mourinho team – at Spurs
he has most of the building blocks to fashion a side capable of playing his preferred style
of football, which is probably why he’s been able to start his tenure successfully
and adapted the side pretty quickly.