Gary Neville pinpoints what he feels was ‘not right’ about Jose Mourinho and Spurs vs Man United


Gary Neville has said he feels the 3-1 defeat against Manchester United raised concerns about Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham.

Spurs ended up well beaten in north London, with goals from Fred, Edinson Cavani and Mason Greenwood helping Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side come from behind to win after Son Heung-min had opened the scoring for the hosts.

It was a defeat that left Spurs’ top-four hopes hanging by a thread, with Mourinho’s side now six points behind London rivals West Ham in the battle to qualify for Champions League football next season.

And former Manchester United defender Neville has pinpointed one particular aspect of the defeat that gave him cause for concern.


Video Loading

Video Unavailable

“In the last five or six minutes, it didn’t look like an invigorated Jose Mourinho on the touchline, urging his team forward or driving his team forward,” the Sky Sports pundit said on The Gary Neville Podcast.

“They could raise their game, there’s no doubt they’ve got players who could cause [Manchester] City problems, but I just looked to him in those last five or 10 minutes and there was a blankness on his face where he just didn’t look engaged and that would be a worry.

“With 10 minutes to go, you’re sometimes wary of calling the game in terms of Manchester United, but you almost felt like United were in complete control – Spurs weren’t throwing any punches.

“You expect a team at home who are one goal behind to be throwing punches with 10 minutes to go.”

And Neville believes that will be concerning for Tottenham ahead of the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City, and the run-in in the Premier League, with Spurs still having seven games to try and secure European football next season.



Why should you sign up?

In each football.london Tottenham bulletin, we’ll bring you the latest breaking news, transfer features and comment pieces, as well as the key talking points for fans.

We’ll also send special newsletters when big stories break or there’s a special event happening.

How do you sign up?

It’s easy and only takes seconds. Simply type your email address into the box at the top of this article – or any article in the Spurs section of football.london in fact – labelled ‘Get the biggest daily stories by email’ and click ‘Subscribe’.

And that’s it, you’re all set. If you decide later you no longer wish to receive the emails, hit the unsubscribe link in the newsletters – but we don’t think you’ll want to. For more details, click here.

“Even when United were in the corner and running the clock down, there wasn’t that urgency to go and win the ball back,” he said.

“Usually you see teams scrambling to get the ball back, fighting with players, pushing them off and I didn’t see it.

“That would be a real worry for me. It’s body language, it’s the intent that you want to see in a team. I didn’t like what I saw in the second half from Spurs and that’s not to say they’ve turned on the manager, he’s lost the changing room, I’m not saying those things, but I didn’t like it. It didn’t feel right.”





Source link