Former Spurs midfielder Jamie O’Hara has defended Jose Mourinho despite the team’s indifferent recent form after claiming that the manager has not had enough time to work on his defence.
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Mourinho has been Tottenham boss for less than two months and following a promising early spell in charge with four wins in five, the team have only won two of the following seven.
With just a single clean sheet during that time, O’Hara told TalkSPORT that the pile of fixtures has meant that Mourinho has not been able to have the effect he will have wanted on the leaky defence.
He said: “It’s very easy to criticise Spurs at the minute because of Mourinho and the defensive frailties but Middlesbrough are a good side in a good moment.
“[Mourinho] came in, he got results straight away, they got a lift, they’ve got closer to the top four and now they’ve dropped off a bit.
“The problem is that he hasn’t had a lot of time to go on to the training ground and actually work on what he wants to do. They’ve had so many fixtures and he had to come in and have an instant impact.
“It’s hard. He wants to work on the training ground with his defence – you can’t do that midway through a season.”
O’Hara’s excuses for Mourinho appear a little desperate. His team should have been expected to see off Middlesbrough – even if Jonathan Woodgate’s side have overseen a mini-revival with four straight league wins going into their cup tie at the Riverside Stadium on Sunday.
And given Mourinho’s reputation for building strong defences (as seen during campaigns at Chelsea and more recently, Manchester United), while it would be unfair to expect the finished article already, it surely wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect some sort of improvement since his arrival.
However, the stats show the concession rate at Spurs has increased since the departure of Mauricio Pochettino – who saw his side concede 26 times in 17 matches (including seven times on one night) at a rate of 1.53 goals conceded per game, while Mourinho’s sides have let in 19 in 12 matches at a higher frequency of 1.58 per game.
That makes O’Hara’s defence of the manager even more baffling, though it may take more time before we can make a more accurate representation of this Spurs team.
Spurs fans, who is to blame for your current form? Let us know in the comments below!
