A Tiny Piece of Mourinho Confrontation

A Tiny Piece of Mourinho Confrontation

I wrote an article entitled 'Confrontation at Spurs' about Mourinho's confrontational style of player management. He challenges you and expects you to react in a positive way by improving your game.

We got a tiny piece of that this week in the first two days.

Jose: "Are you Dele Alli's brother."
Dele: "No, I'm Dele Alli."
Jose: "Well, play like him."

Friendly, but it is a kick up the backside.

During the previous international break, Dele Alli got rid of sponsorship deals that were taking his focus away from his football, so clearly there was a determination there to sort himself out, but, and it is a big but, a player himself has to be honest with himself.

he has to assess his performance in a cold calculated way. He said in the interview after the game that he felt he had been playing well this season, well in bits he has and in others, he hasn't.

Was he being harsh enough on himself?

Mourinho has come straight in and basically said what you are producing simply isn't good enough. That is what Dele and a few others need to be told.

A friendly confrontational motivational approach and an instant result.

That just highlights once again that mental approach is everything. Adjust it and you get the performances.

These are the same group of players, they haven't suddenly lost their ability, but they had lost the ability or desire to express it, apart from one or two, particularly Son and Kane.

There is no reason why this group can't go on a run and a win against Olympiacos will see us through to the next round of the UEFA Champions League.

That in itself takes a bit of pressure and that may just free the players to express themselves better on the Premier League.