[ad_1]
IIt feels like a small point in the history of Tottenham’s increasingly volatile season, in which successes seem to only buy temporary respite and setbacks immediately waste any momentum, but it is one that speaks to the apocalyptic fear among the base of fanatics.
What does Harry Kane think of all this? The answer is that we do not know and it is because the talisman of the team has stopped talking to the media.
This is not intended to sound like a journalist’s objection. The reason for mentioning it is because it is so out of place. In every season of his career thus far, Kane has routinely expressed his thoughts before or after the game. Essentially, he’s a nice guy who’s happy to interact with fans through the press, even in tough times, which is always a character marker.
Not anymore. The issue came to light when Kane shirked his media duties during the international break in November, which is highly unusual for an England captain. And it has continued like that at Spurs. The pandemic has affected the access given to journalists, but this does not give Kane a pass. Surely you have to break through during the next international window?
It has been impossible to ignore the suspicion that Kane has kept a low profile because he does not want to be put in danger, to face questions that he might have a hard time answering honestly. Or, more precisely, a particular question. It is the one that has tracked him down in recent seasons but now he presses with greater urgency and discomfort. With his 28th birthday coming up in July, do you think you have to leave the Spurs to fulfill your ambitions?
The club’s position is that Kane is not for sale. In addition, with a contract until 2024, the president, Daniel Levy, is in control. Everyone knows that a deal with Levy is practically signed in blood. But at the very least, Kane had plenty to think about when he left the field on Thursday night after a grueling 120 minutes of Europa League overtime at Dinamo Zagreb. The same goes for José Mourinho.
There is a reason why the crisis always tends to come faster to Mourinho than to other coaches. It is because with him, the result can often feel like the only thing. Mourinho brings trophies to the clubs right away and then he leaves. You never have the feeling that you are setting up a long-term team, possibly with young players. At Spurs, he has borrowed most of them.
The playstyle is designed to win first and entertain second, although this, frankly, is optional. The way in which Mourinho analyzes the games is clinical. He is not concerned with possession statistics, action areas or expected goals. For him, it’s just about creating great opportunities. If your team can do that once or twice at the right time and ideally score, then nothing else matters.
The result is that when the result is not there, Mourinho has little to lean on and when the attitude is not there either, as was the case in Zagreb and in the derby against Arsenal on Sunday, it gives rise to doubts about having reached the end of the road.
Kane was silent Thursday night, but the captain, Hugo Lloris, did not. In a fiery interview with BT Sport, he exposed his frustrations and two things stood out. First, that Mourinho’s message to attack Dinamo and not fall behind in the 2-0 lead in the first leg had been clear. “But the opposite happened,” Lloris said. And secondly, that there are players, mainly outside the team, who are not giving their all, presumably because they are disappointed.
It has led to a damaging lack of unity, players hiding, to borrow the word Mourinho used after the Arsenal game, as the responsibility remains in the hands of a handful of fans.
“It’s one thing to come in front of the camera and say, ‘I’m ambitious,'” Lloris said. “The other thing is to show [it] every day in training and to show off at all times on the court. If you follow the team only when you’re in the starting eleven, it causes big problems for the team because you pay. We had a great time in the past because we could trust the unity that we had in the team. Today, I’m not sure about that.
“On the bench there is an influence to have, to push others. Same thing in training sessions. Everyone has to be ready to help the team when the time comes. It’s not just about standing aside and complaining. “
It is extremely worrying to think that Mourinho’s message does not arrive because the players do not listen or, to take it to the extreme, they do not want to hear it; they don’t want to play for him. When that happens, it tends to lead to only one thing.
Leading a team instead of just a starting eleven is critical and it’s an uplifting feeling when a substitute can step up. Witness the joy of Thomas Tuchel and everyone at Chelsea when Emerson Palmieri came on as a substitute in the 89th minute to score in the Champions League win against Atlético de Madrid on Wednesday night. Each player has to find motivation from within, but it is the coach who sets the tone.
The Fiver – Sign up and receive our daily soccer email.
Spurs head to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday night, but the match Mourinho has circled on his schedule is the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City on April 25. Win that, as unlikely as it sounds right now, and I would have delivered it one more time. However, would it be enough, especially if qualification for the Champions League were to elude the club again?
And then the tension bubbles. Kane wants more than this, as does Son Heung-min, who has yet to sign his new contract, so does Levy, and everyone. It was left up to Joe Hart, the backup goalkeeper, to provide a moment of slight relief when he was forced to apologize for a post mistakenly sent from his Instagram account. “Work done,” he said, after the 3-0 defeat against Dinamo. If only.
