Tottenham Hotspur lost their EFL Cup final to Manchester City on Sunday and the match went as many would have predicted. Spurs playing on the back-foot while Man City do all the work going forward.
Daniel Levy sacked Jose Mourinho just days before the final which was bound to have some sort of impact on his team’s performance on Sunday. But pundit Gary Neville has come out to indirectly slam Jose Mourinho for ruining the legacy that Pochettino was building at the club.
“Tottenham were quite passive for the whole game. Spurs have got some fantastic players, and I expected a little bit more from them,” he told Sky Sports, as quoted by Daily Star.
“They’ve obviously lost their manager this week and it’s been an incredibly difficult week for most clubs who have been dealing with this issue of the European Super League.
“We don’t know what impact that has had. Losing their manager, playing against an incredible team, all those things are factors.
“Mauricio Pochettino was a great coach for many of these players.
“They’ve just lost that ability to understand how to play with each other, they look like a team who are now reacting to what the other team do, rather than having their own idea.
“When I used to watch Spurs under Pochettino, I always thought that there was a plan, an idea and they’ve gone on to become a group of players who don’t have an idea at this moment in time.”
Tottenham Hotspur were improving very rapidly under Pochettino but one bad season saw the Argentine being sacked and things started going downhill from that point onwards. Mauricio Pochettino had done a great job given the fact that he was not provided with any substantial amount of money to make new signings(for multiple transfer windows).
Jose Mourinho, on the other hand, got some pretty decent players in but still Spurs failed to show any major signs of improvements.
The Portuguese brought in his typical defensive mindset into the club and from being one of the most fluent attacking sides in the Premier League, the Tottenham Hotspur players were forced into playing ‘parking the bus’ football.
Tottenham Hotspur are in a mess right now and if the cannot secure Champions League football next season then they could see some of their best players leave in the summer. And while Levy will surely get a lot of money from such transfers but to rebuild a new top-quality side will take a few more seasons – at least.
