Jose Mourinho leans on turbulent season to inspire drastic Tottenham turnaround

The managers’ graveyard derby takes place at White Hart Lane tonight. Thomas Tuchel, the new Chelsea boss, is safe – for the moment. Jose Mourinho is on the brink. Again.

Mourinho is in his first full season in charge of Tottenham Hotspur. A mere seven weeks and nine games ago Spurs were top of the Premier League. Back in those distant days of yore, some were even suggesting that something special was happening in north London. There was excitable, whispered talk about the title.

At the same time things were starting to go wrong at Chelsea. Frank Lampard was coming off an unbeaten November when the general consensus was that things were improving at Stamford Bridge, with the Blues also top of the league in December.

Chelsea, in fact, had the chance to leapfrog Tottenham at the top of the division when they travelled to Goodison Park to play Everton. They suffered a 1-0 defeat and 44 days later Lampard was sacked.

READ MORE: Jose Mourinho claims it’s not ‘very difficult’ to win trophies at Chelsea

A side-effect of the pandemic has been to condense football’s narratives - and the game’s collective memory. Wild changes of fortune are becoming common.

Pep Guardiola was a spent force in the autumn and now Manchester City are going to win the Premier League by 10 points. Liverpool were top at Christmas and romping to a title defence but now need to beat City on Sunday to maintain a foothold in the race.

Manchester United were briefly back on their perch last week until Sheffield United nudged them off it. When they were spanked 6-1 at Old Trafford by Tottenham in October it looked like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would do well to remain in charge until Christmas. Now he appears secure in his job. For the moment.

At Christmas Arsenal were in 15^th place in the table, just four points above the drop zone. Many people got overexcited at the thought of relegation. It was silly. Arsenal were always a comfortably mid-table side. That is ugly enough.

Coronavirus has made living for the moment a necessity. Football has taken this to extremes.

So back to Mourinho. Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion ended a bad week for the Portuguese. Four days earlier the 58-year-old got his tactics spectacularly wrong in the 3-1 home defeat by Liverpool. Injury was piled on insult when he lost Harry Kane. Tottenham’s talisman will be out for most of this month at the very least. Yet writing Mourinho off would be an act of stupidity in this of all seasons.

Spurs are already in the Carabao Cup final and remain in the FA Cup and Europa League. Tottenham, who have not won silverware for 13 years, would be thrilled by any trophy. They are seven points off Liverpool and the top four and nine points beneath Leicester City after their win over Fulham at Craven Cottage but in such an erratic campaign closing that gap might turn out to be little more than two weeks’ work.

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Mourinho’s methods do appear to be increasingly anachronistic. During his first, glorious spell at Chelsea he used to talk about creating a ‘band of brothers’ ethos in the squad, a siege mentality that made each player battle for his team-mates. “It doesn’t matter who they hate,” he used to say. “You…” meaning the media, “or me. As long as they hate together.”

These days it is too often him. Part of his technique for keeping the dressing-room on their toes is to make sure the players are never quite secure about whether they are in the manager’s good books. At Tottenham he has alienated too many of the squad. The Lane is brimming with frustration.

Serge Aurier storming out of the stadium at half-time after being substituted against Liverpool is a bad sign in itself but it is a symptom of something deeper. Dele Alli has been sidelined, Harry Winks is exasperated by his lack of playing time and even Eric Dier, one of the manager’s favoured few, was unhappy about being downgraded to the bench against Brighton.

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If Mourinho is expecting a clutch of “I’ll show him!” performances from his players, he has picked on the wrong squad. Blaming the team after a poor display rarely works in the modern game. The Portuguese should be old enough and experienced enough to know that.

All is not lost, though. Even without Kane, Spurs have the personnel to put together a run of victories that will lift the spirit of their fanbase. Unhappy players find it hard to justify their complaints when a side is winning. Backbiting spreads at underperforming clubs, especially when the manager makes strange decisions like playing Moussa Sissoko wide on the right against Brighton. Some of Mourinho’s selections have seemed perverse and his strategy needs to improve quickly.

The Chelsea game is the start of a month of fixtures that could define Tottenham’s campaign with FA Cup and Europa League ties and away matches against City and West Ham United in the Premier League. A run of good results would dispel all talk of the manager being in trouble.

In a season as turbulent as this one, anything could happen. Rapid turnarounds have been a characteristic of the Premier League and Mourinho needs one now.