Away day blues continue for Tottenham and Mourinho has a real challenge on his hands

It was thought that once Jose Mourinho had stepped in as manager of Tottenham that the club would improve on their appalling away game record but in essence the special one is yet to find the right balance in the squad and Tottenham are being put through their struggles.

This was underlined in the teams New Year’s Day match away to lowly but in form Southampton who beat Tottenham 1-0 in what was seen as a surprise result. It was another defeat for Mourinho too charged with the task of taking Spurs to the next level which seemingly former manager Mauricio Pochettino was not able to do.

But have Tottenham really improved since Pochettino was sacked? Tottenham had 14 points from 12 games, so 14 from a possible 36 points which works out that the club had a points win of 40%. Since Mourinho has come in he has presided over 9 games so from a possible points total of 27 Tottenham have earned 16 points that works out at 60%. So yes there has been an improvement since Mourinho has been in charge.

However saying that did anyone expect Tottenham to have already lost 3 times in those nine games? Also in Pochettino’s first 9 games of the season he had lost three too. Statistically a Tottenham team being managed by Mourinho is earning more points, just, and it is getting even more marginal as the games go on.

Pochettino had a win rate of 54.3% and Mourinho currently has 54.5% these take in all games. Again there is nothing in it and of course we are looking at Mourinho’s records where he has only just joined the club. What might be worrying for Mourinho though is that he is following a trend of hitting under a 60% win rate which has followed him ever since he returned to the Premier League in 2013. Before then it was normal to see him with 65-70% win rates a brilliant figure and even getting early to mid win rates of 50% is good, but it’s clearly not Mourinho level good.

Tottenham have lost 4 games with Mourinho in charge in all competitions from 11 games and that doesn’t seem to be a great record. Although one of those losses was against Bayern Munich in a Champions League match which was a dead rubber game anyway. But defeats in the league have occurred against Chelsea, Manchester United (two of his former clubs) and Southampton. On Boxing Day they found themselves a goal down against Norwich and drew that match in the end. The problem is when Mourinho arrived Tottenham could not win an away game, and they have hardly improved on the road.

They did of course beat West Ham in what was Mourinho’s first game in charge of Tottenham at London Stadium and that ended up being the clubs first away win since January. Since Mourinho joined the club have played 5 away games and won 2 of them and that second win came at Wolves in a match that was clearly heading for a 1-1 finish before Tottenham scored in the final minute of injury time. Still a win is a win but it did seem to paper over some of those away day blues.

In total Tottenham have earned 7 points from the 15 available on the road, that isn’t a terrible record by any means but for a club who need to finish in the top 4 it is.

The bottom line is that under Mourinho from what we have seen in a short space of time there has been minimal improvement. But with fairness to Pochettino his record is obviously over a longer period and from what we have seen this may not bode well for Spurs under Mourinho. A team under the Portuguese used to be much more disiplined at the back and simply more difficult to beat full stop.

In the summer Mourinho will inevitably be given funds but will they be used wisely? He has never been able to re build a team, partly because he leaves after 3 seasons usually. This has not been the start that Tottenham fans would have wished for and the club will need to find more consistency if they have any hopes for a 4th placed finish this season. The only good news actually lies away from Tottenham which is the team in 4th place, Chelsea, seemingly do not want it, and are dropping far too many points to warrant their current position.

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