Tottenham have conceded more goals across all competitions than any other side since Jose Mourinho’s appointment.
Tottenham have played eight times under Jose Mourinho so far and have conceded 14 times already. Their defensive record during the former Chelsea boss’ appointment is joint-worst in the division which is the last thing Mourinho’s teams are associated with.
The Portuguese was asked about his side’s problems to which he claimed that it would not be difficult for him to make the side more efficient defensively. However, that would come at a cost at the other end of the pitch, something that he is isn’t willing to take just yet.
He said: “I know how to do it, but to do it 100 per cent I am going to take away from the team some qualities that we want to keep. And then it is more difficult to do it because to play for a clean sheet and to put all the focus on the clean sheet, on the improvement of the defensive organisation and try to kill the mistakes that we make, that is not difficult to do”
“The difficulty is to do it with players that are the players they are, with the habits they have; the difficult thing is to put it right defensively without losing the qualities we can have offensively,” he said.
Sacrificing his attack to shut up shop at the back has been one of Mourinho’s biggest criticism over the years and Spurs fans should enjoy the fact that he has changed. Tottenham’s biggest strength is their attack with the likes of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Lucas Moura and Dele Alli and Mourinho’s main focus has to be to get the best out of these players.
Under Mourinho, Spurs have lost just twice in the league so far. Both of those losses came when they tried to be more conservative with their attack which shows that the club, as well as their boss, are right to prioritize their attack over their defence at this moment in time.
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