Tottenham paying price for Mourinho’s ‘fear of failure’
▶ Manager is right to set his team up to avoid defeat, but needs to have a game plan to go for the win
It was Arsene Wenger who first claimed Jose Mourinho had a fear of failure. Seven years ago the then-arsenal manager stoked the feud that led to Mourinho referring to him as a “specialist in failure”.
But there is nothing wrong with that fear. Sir Alex Ferguson, the most successful manager in British football, referred to it in his book, Leading, as “one of the things that drove me”, adding: “I always had that fear of getting humiliated. I kept saying to myself, ‘Failure. Don’t fail’.”
The problem comes when the fear takes over. Mourinho will no doubt say he fears nothing, but he no longer sets up his teams to play that way. Tottenham Hotspur approach games like a team whose intention is to avoid defeat rather than try to win, even when they field their attacking players, as they did in the north London derby.
To Dare is to Do? Mourinho is a long way from that Spurs motto and from the bold early substitutions, switches in tactics and dominating games as he did when he first burst on the scene at Porto and then with Chelsea. Then, he would predict the outcomes of matches in advance and order his players to focus on him if they wanted to win. There is nothing fresh. Nothing daring.
The Arsenal loss was a case in point. It marked a fifth successive Premier League defeat against others in the “Big Six”. Spurs had started the season in those contests with three wins and a draw, including the 6-1 humiliation of Manchester United at Old Trafford. At times the tactics were relatively negative, but the results were not.
But since then? No points and a sense that he does not believe his team can win. Mourinho rails against this and criticised some “important players” for “hiding” in the wake of the Arsenal game while predictably blaming the referee, Michael Oliver. It was clear he was not going to take responsibility.
Mourinho hit out at the officials for the penalty that handed Arsenal victory, suggesting they might be “tired”. But it was Mourinho himself who looked tired on the touchline as he grew increasingly frustrated with his players during a first half that he admitted was “really bad”.
But why was it so bad? Mourinho has always set out to nullify the opposition in big games but would also develop a game plan to beat them. Can we still say that is the case?
Arsenal were there for the taking with Pierre-emerick Aubameyang, their captain, dropped to the bench for disciplinary reasons, the pressure on Mikel Arteta rather than Mourinho and Spurs, surely, enlivened by Chelsea, Everton and Aston Villa slipping up in the race for the top four.
And, yet, nothing – apart from Erik Lamela’s goal, the brilliance of which only highlighted the banality of Spurs’ play until the Argentine was sent off – which, perversely, prompted a late rally.
There was no sense of Mourinho seizing the initiative and going for the kill. In his heyday, he would not have been like that.
The chance to open up a 10-point lead on Arsenal has collapsed into just a four-point advantage against rivals who have spent most of this season soulsearching. This happened following five successive wins for Spurs and talk that Gareth Bale was forming a thrilling attacking triumvirate with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, who went off injured.
But those wins were against Burnley, Fulham, Crystal Palace and two Europa League fixtures. Is that now Spurs’ level under Mourinho? He is not alone in having a disappointing record against the others in the Big Six. It was also the focus that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer faced in the build-up to United’s win over Manchester City. That comparison would annoy Mourinho, as would the accusation Spurs choked at the moment when they could launch themselves as serious contenders for the top four.
Just as they did when they went top of the table by beating Arsenal in early December only to take two points from their next four games, including failing to capitalise on Liverpool’s vulnerability at Anfield.
They can still finish in the top four, but it will require a shift in mindset for the final 10 league games and the League Cup final against City. When Mourinho won that trophy with Chelsea in 2015, he spoke of his embarrassment at having gone two years without silverware. Now it is four, including 11 months out of the game after being sacked by United.
Spurs have to start collecting points when it matters most and the onus is on Mourinho to hammer that home, rather than the players.
As the best managers have proved, the fear of failure can be a motivation. It is what prevents them from resting on past success, from staying ahead of their rivals. They have to have iron-belief, also, although nothing is as powerful as that fear. But it can be a negative when the desire not to lose overrides the determination to win.
When the saga as to whether Pierreemerick Aubameyang would sign a new contract at Arsenal dragged on last summer, the striker posted a picture of an egg-timer on social media. Maybe that explains why he was dropped to the bench for the north London derby? Aubameyang would do well to invest in a more up-to-date method of timekeeping. Apparently it is not the first time he has been late this season, which must be all the more frustrating for manager Mikel Arteta because he is his captain, he is 31, it was a huge game and he is supposed to set an example to others. It is, undoubtedly, unprofessional. Aubameyang posted on Instagram: “North London is Red and that’s it!!!” That’s it? What about an apology to the fans? The greater concern, though, has to be that Arsenal were better without him. Hopefully, unlike the huge deal Arsenal handed to Mesut Ozil in 2018, Aubameyang’s contract is not one they live to regret.