Mourinho woe at Watford’s muscle
Jose Mourinho refused to discuss the performance of the officials, and he was equally reticent when it came to the injuries to players of his better suited to match the challenges of a tough team such as Watford but, as ever, the message was there if you looked hard enough.
Another result that means Tottenham Hotspur slide further from the top four, and yet a draw that Mourinho could just about explain away.
They were up against Nigel Pearsonera Watford, who play every minute of every game as if it were their last and were one Paulo Gazzaniga penalty save away from winning.
There are not the kinds of players at Mourinho’s disposal who might go toeto-toe with the likes of Abdoulaye Doucoure and Etienne Capoue and that seems to be a source of regret.
“If you imagine our team with [Moussa] Sissoko and Harry Kane, you would find two physical players – one who holds the ball up front and another who is powerful from midfield,” the Spurs manager reflected later. Earlier, he had said: “It is not easy to come here and play with a team that is not physical and a team that is just technical.”
There were times when you wonder whether Mourinho might rather have Watford’s squad profile, where the ethos of physically-imposing, hardrunning underdogs with a point to prove suits him much better.
Pearson’s side let Spurs punch themselves out in the first half, drowning in possession without ever creating the chances one might expect, before Watford came back at them after the break and won a penalty which Troy Deeney failed to convert. In the minutes added on at the end, Watford substitute Ignacio Pussetto, an Argentine winger making his debut for the club, cleared one off the line that Erik Lamela had managed to steer past Ben Foster.
Pearson said later that these were the kind of “difficult moments” for which he had been preparing his players and staff for weeks, although in the bigger picture of Watford’s season it was barely disappointing at all.
Pearson’s remarkable seven-game record in the league now stands at four wins and two draws after the Liverpool defeat in his first game in charge, and the home crowd already sing his name little more than one month into the job.
“Whenever you play Jose’s team, there is always a tactical conundrum to solve,” Pearson said, reflecting on the early stages of the game when his team had little of the ball.
“We had to defend more than we would like, the players found solutions. When you get the ball back, you make the most of your possession. It took a while to find our rhythm but we did it.”
Indeed, by the end, Mourinho was forced to swap his full-backs so teenager Japhet Tanganga no longer had to deal with Ismaila Sarr’s lightning breaks. Tanganga had been the recipient of the first of two first-half fouls from Capoue that Mourinho intimated should have had greater repercussions for the ex-Spurs midfielder. The second was a full-blooded stop-the-break challenge on Giovani Lo Celso for which Michael Oliver booked Capoue.
“I speak about the VAR [video assistant referee] and Mr Oliver and Mr Kevin Friend [fourth official], I go in a direction I don’t want to go,” Mourinho said before going on to do exactly that. “[To do so] I would have to start in minute one. I have to speak about the incident with Capoue and Lo Celso and I have to speak about a lot of things.”
Nevertheless, it allowed Spurs to nurture a feeling of injustice as they struggled to make an impression on Watford’s defence, keeping the fourth clean sheet of Pearson’s reign. The long-ball from deep on the right to Son Heung-min on the left wing was attempted a few times. Harry Winks quarterbacked the side. With fine performances from Capoue and Nathaniel Chalobah, Watford were very solid in the central positions. They were comfortable with the prospect of letting Spurs cross the ball given that it was the diminutive Lucas Moura in the centre.
After the break, Doucoure and Sarr had opportunities but not the composure required. Down the left side Tanganga was struggling to contain Sarr and it was from there that the penalty came. A cutback to Gerard Deulofeu and his shot struck the hand of Jan Vertonghen, sliding in with exactly the wrong body shape. This was the moment that Watford needed to seize, but Gazzaniga anticipated well and saved Deeney’s shot low to his right side.
Still Watford persevered and the late introduction of Roberto Pereyra in place of Chalobah suggested that Pearson believed he could win the game.
As for Mourinho it was less clear. He switched Tanganga over to the right and brought Christian Eriksen on again, this time for Dele Alli, who was unimpressed. There was a debut for the Benfica loan signing Gedson Fernandes. Pussetto’s late intervention was critical although a Spurs win would have been tough on Watford, as Mourinho will have known well.
‘It is not easy to come here and play with a team that is not physical and a team that is just technical’