Premier League Next Manager To Leave: It is time for Mourinho to go

Just when we thought Tottenham Hotspur had turned a corner, they hit rock bottom.

Thursday night's 3-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb was among the greatest shocks in the history of the competition. Dinamo's manager was sentenced to four years in prison in the run-up to the game. They were 54/1 to qualify for the next round. Tottenham were 1/99 favourites to progress.

But this is far more than just an isolated upset.

The defeat last night had all the hallmarks of the Jose Mourinho's tenure: nervously dropping deep; hesitant in possession; clueless in attack. It is a caricature of the Mourinho archetype, and an aesthetic made worse by the backdrop of the pandemic. Lockdown is not the time to play football that reflects back boredom, pointlessness, and crushing disappointment.

And the defeat last night - a bitter nadir that will be remembered for years to come: 'the Zagreb game' - is made all the more unpalatable by the speed of Tottenham's decline since those five consecutive wins that preceded the Arsenal defeat. It has showed, once and for all, that there is no progress being made, no foreseeable future in which Spurs can build something lasting under Mourinho.

They were in electric form, then suddenly collapsed completely. That is surely the final damning confirmation that things cannot continue under the current management, a feeling reflected in Mourinho's odds on being the next manager to lose his post being slashed from 4/1 to 1/1 overnight.

Signs of the endgame

There is no way back from here. The fan base has been approaching mutinous for many months, their absence from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the only reason a mass revolt has not been felt more keenly.

Even beating Manchester City in the League Cup final next month might not be enough to save Mourinho, and while it would be deeply embarrassing for Daniel Levy to sack a man he clearly reveres - to admit he made a grave and costly error - failure to get top four would surely force his hand.

And Champions League qualification next year is looking hugely unlikely - Spurs are 5.85/1 to finish in the leading quartet, and trailing the current fourth placed side, Chelsea, by six points.

All the signs are there in Mourinho's demeanour and his increasingly bitter press conferences: the self-preservation, the angry calling out of his players, the casual shrugs that tell us it isn't his fault and the players aren't listening to his instructions.

This latter accusation is particularly interesting. If indeed Mourinho is preaching attacking football, then what the last few months have shown is that he comes with too much baggage for the players to ignore. The psychological power of the Mourinho brand is too strong, and Tottenham cannot help but cower and hide, playing in an assumption of his requirements as opposed to direct instruction.

Then again, it is hard to really believe what Mourinho is saying. This is a tactical issue and it is inconceivable that the players are outright ignoring his plans. Instead, they are feeding off his indirect messaging, from cautious substitutions to team talks and tactical plans based entirely on nullifying the opposition. Mourinho creates a culture of being under-dogs, and that inevitably infects the players with an inferiority complex.

Why Mourinho's approach hasn't worked

According to the Athletic, there are also signals of the endgame coming from inside the dressing room. They report that players are unhappy with lack of coordinated attacking play in training sessions and dislike Mourinho's focus on how to stop the opposition. In other words, they want a proactive figure, not a reactive one.

Which is all tediously predictable, and in keeping with the widely-held belief that Mourinho's methods are no longer suited to the modern game. Levy, in fact, was one of the few people in the game who didn't see that a reactive tactician who fails to coach attacking patterns is out of step with modern trends - and who didn't foresee a problem with turning so sharply away from Mauricio Pochettino's approach.

Perhaps there was a glimmer of hope this Spurs squad was better suited to Mourinho's deep block, his improvised counter-attacks, and his siege-mentality management than Manchester United. Those maverick attacking performances in recent weeks, inspired by Gareth Bale and Harry Kane doing whatever they want on the break, were examples of the alternative universe in which Mourinho's tactics were still relevant.

But we are long past that. The best managers in Europe all prescribe to a high line, a high press, and structured attacks choreographed precisely on the training field.

Mourinho's approach leaves too much to the whims of confidence, and without clear instruction from the dugout it is inevitable the players will eventually shrink into themselves; low morale is anathema to creativity.

And that's exactly what we saw in Zagreb. No energy, no plan, no confidence. A team drilled repetitively in a cautious defensive shape that invites pressure and therefore invites low self-esteem. A team with no attacking instructions, who therefore look completely lost whenever the opposition is well organised. A team bereft; a shell of the energy, youthfulness, and purpose that defined the club when its modern incarnation was built by Pochettino.

What comes next for Spurs

Mourinho may limp on for a while, at least until after the League Cup final, but surely Levy would not risk further damage by letting this continue into the start of next season. Hugo Lloris's telling interview in the aftermath of the Zagreb game hinted at a toxic atmosphere developing, at players not working hard enough when they are outside the first 11.

It is an environment entirely of Mourinho's making, and one we are all familiar with by now. The biggest question for Tottenham fans is whether Levy understands this, or whether he is hypnotised by Mourinho and buys into his idea that the club, not the manager, is poisonous.

One would hope Levy hasn't been drawn too deep into the Mourinho vortex, and that the star-struck awe with which he appeared to see Mourinho in the Amazon documentary has worn off. If so, then Max Allegri - a free agent and struggling to land the elite jobs - looks a good fit, especially given Levy will need to save the pennies. Sacking Mourinho will be very costly.

But just as Levy spared no expense in hiring his first choice back in November 2019, he must be equally bold and decisive now. Life is draining out of the club. The football is anaemic, and, in the midst of a pandemic, frankly soul-destroying for Spurs fans who still vividly remember the joy of the Pochettino era.

Football is not about winning silverware. It is about the journey. It is about how it feels to support your team. Getting rid of Mourinho might be expensive, but the real price of keeping him is too high to bear.