Furious Jose’s ‘idiot’ jibe at Saints coach
Snarling Mourinho is back after Spurs lose to brilliant Ings strike
THE leak got worse and so the great dam finally burst. Through 10 games and countless defensive blips, Jose Mourinho just about kept hold of that mask of affability, but in the 11th match, on the eighth day of Christmas, he perhaps saw a bit too much.
And so he ran his mouth, just like the Jose we used to know. The full Mourinho? Oh, it was close. Gloriously close, a bingo sheet of gripes which reviewed the time-wasting of the ballboys, the injustices and impotence of referees in the VAR era, an ‘idiot’ on the Southampton bench and a lament that Tottenham’s most expensive signing, Tanguy Ndombele, is ‘always injured’.
That brought it all flooding back, a reminder of why you love this guy or loathe him, a man who, in the most measured of tones, can whisper sweet venom.
We know what it is, of course. If only his defenders could deflect like he does, Tottenham would be in the top four and Mourinho would have maintained his calm into a 12th game.
But these are deep, pre-existing problems at Tottenham and in fairness to Mourinho, a gentler soul might have erupted before now. That said, it is enormously puzzling that for all his progress at Spurs, this pragmatist has failed to address the issue of conceding goals, be they soft ones or otherwise. The tally now stands at 13 in his nine league games.
The one that won this game was beautiful in its execution, given how Danny Ings looped a ball over Toby Alderweireld’s head before finishing on 17 minutes.
But such an assessment overlooks how Alderweireld bought a feint that was obvious to all in a 100metre radius. Watching Alderweireld drop to his knees in a failed challenge was a visual distillation of the individual duels Tottenham lost all day long, and indeed have lost for the better part of a year.
But that wasn’t on Mourinho’s mind afterwards. Other times, yes — he has been honest about those failings of late. Here, though, he had other things to discuss, so let’s start with the flashpoint of his booking by Mike Dean 10 minutes from time.
Initially it appeared he had wandered to the Southampton bench and peeked at the tactical notes made by Andrew Sparkes, the home side’s goalkeeping coach, except Mourinho explained his behaviour was a little more aggressive.
‘I think the yellow card wasas fair because I was rude,’ he said. ‘But I was rude to an idiot.’
It transpired that he had been een unhappy with Sparkes’s role in a substitution that may have e eaten up some time in the final quarter of an hour. On a similar theme, Mourinho said: ‘They were winning and they were defending basically with 10 players, fighting hard, being aggressive, a good aggressive.
‘There were lots of fouls and stoppages. The ballboys were well coached in the e delaying of the game and there re was not much play.’ Classic Mourinho. And a blinkwhich
blinkered appraisal of a game in which Southampton had all thee best chances, including clear openings enings for Cedric Soares and Nathan Redmond before Ings’s strike, which was his 13th of the season.
In other passages, Redmond and Ings made cones of Jan Vertonghen and Alderweireld, who not so long ago were titans in this league.
IInstead,td MMourinhoih bemoanedbd a penalty claim by Dele Alli that was not referred to VAR in the first half, and also brushed over what appeared a clearer shout in the second for one to Southampton, when Ryan Bertrand’s cross was handled by Alderweireld.
‘For me the referees are not the referees,’ he said. ‘It should be VR — video referee — because they are the referees. You see the refs on pitch and they are not the refs, they are the assistants.’
He added: ‘What I know is the Dele Alli penalty was a penalty and the VAR didn’t interfere.’
With 16 points since taking over, Mourinho has done a good job after picking up the pieces from Mauricio Pochettino. But you have to wonder if the defensive punctures are a precursor to the wheels coming off, given Spurs have taken one point from games at Norwich and Southampton and Harry Kane left the ground on crutches.
He will have a scan today on a hamstring strain he picked up in scoring a 74th-minute equaliser that was disallowed for offside — a decision supported by the VAR — and at this point, being snootily wise after the event, it would be fair to ask if it was sensible for him to play every minute of the seven Tottenham games in the past month. Ndombele was also injured and came off in the first half. Mourinho appeared less than supportive. ‘He’s injured, he’s not injured. He plays one match, next week he’s injured again, he then plays another match,’ he said.
For Ralph Hasenhuttl, nothing so inflammatory, just the relief of a corner turned since the horrors of that 9-0 loss to Leicester.
Southampton have taken 17 points from the ensuing 11 games and are gaining speed. ‘Everyone is doing his best job,’ he said. ‘We can score always but the key is the work against the ball and the clean sheet. This is the biggest difference from two months ago.’
Mourinho might have been well advised to look at those notes.
SOUTHAMPTON (4-4-2): McCarthy 6.5; Cedric 7, Stephens 7, Bednarek 6.5, Bertrand 7; Armstrong 7 (Romeu 90min),
WARD-PROWSE 7.5, Hojbjerg 6.5, Djenepo 6 (Long 58, 6); Ings 7 (Obafemi 75, 6), Redmond 7. Subs not used: Yoshida, Vestergaard, Adams, Gunn. Scorer: Ings 17. Booked: Bednarek, Ward-Prowse, Djenepo.
Manager: Ralph Hasenhuttl 7. TOTTENHAM (4-3-2-1): Gazzaniga 6.5; Aurier 6.5, Alderweireld 5, Vertonghen 5, Sessegnon 5.5; Sissoko 6, Ndombele 5.5 (Lo Celso 25, 5.5), Eriksen 5; Alli 6, Moura 6; Kane 6 (Lamela 75, 6).
Subs not used: Sanchez, Winks, Vorm, Skipp,
Tanganga. Booked: Aurier, Sissoko, Lo Celso. Manager: Jose Mourinho 5.5. Referee: Mike Dean 6.5. Attendance: 30,976.