Interesting about the influence of Johan Cruyff and the Barcelona way of playing, and the different styles of Guardiola and Mourinho (and much more). ( )

I was watching the other day the game Tottenham against Man City (Tottenham won: one nil) as I was also reading this book.

People like to say (and think) that defense isn't good football. Or counter-attacking isn't good football. Or scoring lots isn't good football. Either way, Tottenham this season has hardly used these tactics at all. Maybe 3 or 4 games? They've scored 49 goals across 20 games this season. That's around 2.5 goals per game for Spurs - not bad at all, really. Many of those games have also been high scoring, free-flowing affairs. Some say as well football is all about entertainment, and they may be right. The great Bill Nich said it: The problem is, entertaining football comes from bad defending. Lots of action and lots of goals. However, I can say I'm thoroughly enjoying Tottenham beating some excellent teams and watching them beat their heads against a brick wall, to be honest with you (like some previous Mourinho’s teams did in the past: Chelsea against Liverpool, Inter against Barcelona, Real Madrid against Barcelona, and now Tottenham against Man City).

As far as some Spurs fans being in some way hypocritical, slagging of Mourinho’s tactics at Chelsea while cheering them when they work for them now, Spurs fans will happily accept that charge, because when it comes down to it, there’s nothing less boring than your team winning. Of course, when it comes to make a comparison between José & Pep the way Wilson attempts here, we have to be prepared to see a complete polarisation of approach to the beautiful game. On the one hand we have Pep's obsessive possession football against José's 'let them have the ball and we'll get 'em on the counter attack' style'. Possession has never really been the be all and end all of a match. We have seen many games whereby the team with the higher possession stat loses the game (my team in Portugal, Benfica, is a good example of this). But what we have here, is two contrasting styles, both consistently winning and both with some spectacular football. It really is a total contrast and very interesting. Whatever you think of Mourinho, he does bring something to the table that is always provoking the perceived status quo.

Of course, I’m not sure, Tottenham will win the PL this season. Why? In a few games, Liverpool will have overtaken Spurs, even if it's just by goal difference. I don’t believe Tottenham is going to blitz teams by just playing counter attacking football like Spurs do, so Liverpool will claw back the goal difference soon. What you can say though is that Mourinho has recruited well, is getting the best out of his two world-class players and has given Spurs backbone and purpose. For all of Pochettino's great work, the flakiness has gone with some subtle changes in personnel. Hojberg and Mourinho are looking like the best piece of transfer business of the summer for Spurs fans. ( )