Weekend Preview: Mourinho’s problems at Spurs, why Mane is player of the season, and what we learnt from the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
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Hello and welcome to the Sky Sports Football Weekend Preview, where we look ahead to the Premier League action coming up over the next few days, including that big Tottenham versus Liverpool clash on Saturday night football. Could Jose Mourinho be the man to finally beat Jurgen Klopp's side? I'm Peter Smith, Sky Sports Football Features Editor here at Sky Sports, and this week I'm joined by our football journalist, Jack Wilkinson. How are you doing, Jack? I'm very well, thanks, Pete. Thanks for having me back. Good, pleasure to have you back. And Nick Wright, our features writer. How are you doing, Nick? I'm good, Pete. Thanks, I'm good.
How's 2020 treating you guys so far? It's treating me pretty well, I'd say, but probably not quite as well as Jack, who's about to embark on a month-long holiday. It's the winter break. You're taking it very seriously, this winter break.
Probably embracing the introduction of the winter break this year. I'll be jetting off to Australia and New Zealand this weekend, so... One more round of Premier League football to see me off into the sun. Very nice.
It's all right for some, isn't it?
I'll send postcards.
Don't forget us. Don't forget us. Well, Liverpool supporters must be looking forward to 2020 as well. This could finally, finally be the year where they get their hands on the Premier League trophy. They travelled to Tottenham on Saturday, as I just mentioned, and it should be a really interesting test, this one. Of course, they then follow that up with a tough game against Manchester United, who, as we know, are always fired up for that clash with Liverpool. That's the following Sunday on 19th January. And you feel that if they can pass these two tests, then it really will take some stopping. If they've not already got one hand on the trophy, they certainly will do in a couple of weeks' time if they can get past these two tests.
So Spurs this weekend, Nick. This is a Spurs team that feels like they've gone off the boil a little bit since that Those positive early days of the Jose Mourinho era. They've won just three of their last nine and they've lost four of those games as well. So what's wrong at Tottenham at the moment?
Well, he did get that initial bounce, didn't he? As you said, they won those first three games against West Ham, Olympiacos and Bournemouth. But I mean, even then we could kind of see the issues in the team, couldn't we? They conceded twice. in each of those games and now the goals have dropped off and their form has dipped I mean I think it's important to say that he did obviously inherit a team and a squad with a lot of problems didn't he but I think the main frustration for a lot of Spurs fans is that it's still not really clear what exactly he is trying to do with the team I think nowadays increasingly fans do want to see a kind of a clear philosophy, a defined style, something they can really believe in.
I thought about it when Kevin De Bruyne made his comments after City's win at United the other day. He said they only spent 15 minutes on their game plan for the game. Pep Guardiola is probably the best example of a coach who thinks first and foremost about his own team rather than the opposition. Klopp is really the same. Even Mikel Arteta, he's come into Arsenal... And he said he doesn't want to think too much about the opposition. He's really worried about his own side's performance. And the fans have really bought into that. But then you've got Mourinho. And I think it also applies to Unai Emery, really. These are coaches who are far more reactive. They kind of base their game on nullifying opponents.
And as a fan, that does kind of lead to less interesting viewing. It's less clear at times what those managers are trying to do with the team. So I think... That is a bit of a concern at the moment for Spurs fans. They just can't quite see what Mourinho is trying to do.
I guess you could put Pochettino in with that group as well, as were managers as well, in terms of the Guardiolas and people like that who think first about what their team tries to do rather than the opposition.
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