Tottenham finally in tune with Jose Mourinho as they move on from Mauricio Pochettino

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Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP16 December 2019

From the knee slide to the slide tackles, Tottenham were treated to their first taste of classic Jose Mourinho in yesterday’s 2-1 win at Wolves.

Spurs have been on the receiving end of this kind of performance by Mourinho’s Chelsea and Manchester United teams, so for their travelling supporters it must have been sweet and slightly surreal to go from victim to perpetrator.

For Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo, who won the Champions League under Mourinho at Porto with so many backs-to-the-wall displays, the opposite was true, as his side were floored by a sickening sucker punch.

Mourinho celebrated Jan Vertonghen’s stoppage-time winner with a vintage knee slide in the direction of his former charge and it was far from the only element of the victory that felt characteristic of the Spurs manager.

Until yesterday, the striking thing about Mourinho’s Spurs was how un-Mourinho-like they have remained, free scoring but conceding two or more goals in five out of six matches.

The Portuguese, who always makes fixing the defence his first priority, has been frustrated by a lack of time on the training ground to work with his new squad since his appointment and, as a result, his early successes have come largely through playing many of Mauricio Pochettino’s greatest hits.

At Wolves, Spurs finally looked something more in tune with Mourinho’s own defining characteristics, grinding out a scarcely deserved win which moved them above the hosts and to within three points of Chelsea, who visit the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next weekend in a mouthwatering London derby.

Following last weekend’s clean sheet against Burnley, Tottenham’s resolute defending was notable, with Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld and Davinson Sanchez repelling wave after wave of attacks against Wolves.

Adama Traore’s 67th-minute equaliser, which cancelled out Lucas Moura’s early rocket, should have been prevented as Vertonghen and Eric Dier backed away from the Spaniard and Mourinho credited the “magic hands” of Paulo Gazzaniga for keeping Wolves at the door.

Even so, it was clearly progress. After Adama’s goal, Spurs dropped deeper and deeper but continued to hold firm, with nine of Wolves’s 18 shots blocked and all 11 of their corners and 21 of their crosses coming to nothing.

Tottenham, by contrast, took their chances, with Vertonghen heading home only their second corner of the match after substitute Christian Eriksen had hopefully flung it into the mixer.

There was also clear evidence of Mourinho’s preference for the dark arts, as Spurs took it in turns to hack down Traore in the second half, with Dier, Alderweireld and even Harry Kane booked for lunging tackles on the 23-year-old, who gave stand-in left-back Vertonghen a testing time but lacked an end product, his goal aside.

Admittedly, Wolves gave Lucas similar treatment in a bad-tempered encounter, which finished with eight yellow cards.

“To win this match, this match is a perfect example of a match that only a team can win,” said Mourinho, who hailed his side’s “incredible mentality”.

Vertonghen revealed that the manager, who decided on yesterday’s XI before the dead rubber against Bayern Munich on Wednesday, arranged a number of tactics meetings in the week to prepare for the trip, and he will have even more time to prepare for next weekend’s match.

Last-gasp: Mourinho celebrates with his players after victory at Wolves
AFP via Getty Images

One of Mourinho’s most defining characteristics is his record of finding a way to win the biggest games and they do not come much bigger than Chelsea’s visit, particularly after a nine-point swing in Spurs’s favour since they changed managers.

And with a free week ahead, Spurs should be even better prepared to play Mourinho’s way.

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