Mourinho's Firing of Darts Shows He Believes Spurs Can Win the Title

Harry Kane wasted a glorious chance to put Tottenham ahead in the second half at Anfield. Photograph: Peter Powell/Reuters
Harry Kane wasted a glorious chance to put Tottenham ahead in the second half at Anfield. Photograph: Peter Powell/Reuters
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Mourinho's Firing of Darts Shows He Believes Spurs Can Win the Title

Harry Kane wasted a glorious chance to put Tottenham ahead in the second half at Anfield. Photograph: Peter Powell/Reuters
Harry Kane wasted a glorious chance to put Tottenham ahead in the second half at Anfield. Photograph: Peter Powell/Reuters

In its own way, the post-match interview was a classic of its type. There was José Mourinho, rumpled, bestubbled, firing off his darts. The headline claim, perhaps, was that he thought Tottenham had been the better team in their defeat at Liverpool, but there was also the suggestion of a conspiracy against him, poor, misunderstood, put-upon José, and with it a jibe at Jürgen Klopp. And that was when it occurred that Mourinho means this: he is mobilizing; he thinks Tottenham could actually win this.

As yet Klopp v Mourinho has been a rivalry that hasn’t really ignited. That could be about to change – and, for all that the world had begun to tire of the Mourinho mind games, that could be fascinating. Until this season, Klopp had largely avoided the wars of words that have been such a key part of the Premier League soap opera. But in the past few weeks, another side of Klopp has emerged. Injuries and some tight VAR decisions going against Liverpool seem to have rattled him, as witnessed in his spikiness in interviews, most obviously to BT Sport’s Des Kelly after the draw at Brighton, and the unseemly and largely pointless running battle with Chris Wilder.

Mourinho in his heyday was an expert in sniffing weakness. Perhaps he thinks Klopp can be needled into errors. And he’s not wrong about Klopp’s touchline behavior. It was widely regarded as further evidence of Frank Lampard’s thin-skinnedness when he reacted to the celebrations of the Liverpool bench during Chelsea’s defeat at Anfield towards the end of last season, and it probably was, but there was something to react to.

The majority of managers spend significant parts of the game berating the fourth official but Klopp, or at least Klopp when he is under pressure, is among the more vociferous. Of course Mourinho sees an opportunity. And now he has planted the seed. Perhaps the next time, a fourth official may take a sterner line. Perhaps there will be a card. At the very least, the media and the wider public may begin to pick up on Klopp’s antics, may start to scrutinise them, ask questions about them. Anything that distracts Klopp from the game itself is a bonus from Mourinho’s point of view.

And with Mourinho there are always games within games. Even the fact that follow-ups such as this one are talking about wars of words and touchline antics – are floating the possibility that Wilder could be Klopp’s Vietnam, a futile but costly unwinnable conflict against a much smaller opponent he has no need to beat – perhaps, are part of his propaganda campaign.

The match itself raised tough questions about the sustainability of the Mourinho method, although there is nothing straightforward here. His claim that Spurs had been the better side seemed on the face of it preposterous, another of his provocations, and yet xG (expected goals stats) agreed. Models vary but most, while suggesting 1-1 as a reasonable scoreline, seemed to have Tottenham winning by around 0.25 of a goal. Liverpool may have had 76% of the ball and 11 shots on target to Tottenham’s two, but Steven Bergwijn missed two one-on-ones and Harry Kane put a glorious headed opportunity into the ground and over in the second half. The clear chances were there.

And yet perhaps all that really does is show the limitations of xG when considering a one-off game. It measures chances and assesses how likely they are to be scored. But there is a superiority that does not manifest in chances, that posed by a team simply being in the vicinity of an opponent’s area, probing and testing, trying balls into the box that with a touch would become an excellent chance but without one don’t register at all.

That sort of possession can become sterile but Liverpool’s did not, which is testament to the intelligence and wit of the front three, Roberto Firmino in particular. But what was striking was how that threat increased in the final quarter-hour, after Mourinho had withdrawn Bergwijn for Sergio Reguilón. The idea, presumably, was to combat Trent Alexander-Arnold, perhaps even to lure him forward so that Son Heung-min could attack the space behind him, but what ended up happening was Tottenham losing a lot of their counterattacking punch, allowing Liverpool to overwhelm them.

In that, perhaps, was a reminder of why so few elite sides operate a Mourinho-style low-block these days. The tendency is to grumble about the constant tinkering with the laws but one thing football has got right is in making it much harder to kill a game than it was even a decade ago. For a match to fade away tends to require the complicity of both teams. But also, in part because the vast financial disparities in the game, even within the same division, mean they come up against massed defenses more often, the coordinated attacking of the very best sides means they are very good at unpicking them.

Mourinho may legitimately point out he was four minutes from achieving a draw that would have kept Spurs top of the table, but after the draw at Crystal Palace on Sunday, that’s three points lost to goals conceded in the final 10 minutes when Spurs had seemed to have games under control.

Off the pitch, Mourinho may be enjoying a new spurt of life; on it, familiar doubts about his approach in the modern world remain.

(The Guardian)



Sinner Eyes Golden Era after Wimbledon Glory

Italy's Jannik Sinner won his first Wimbledon title on Sunday. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Italy's Jannik Sinner won his first Wimbledon title on Sunday. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
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Sinner Eyes Golden Era after Wimbledon Glory

Italy's Jannik Sinner won his first Wimbledon title on Sunday. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
Italy's Jannik Sinner won his first Wimbledon title on Sunday. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

Jannik Sinner has warned Carlos Alcaraz that he will get even stronger after beating his arch-rival to win his first Wimbledon title on Sunday.

Sinner avenged an agonizing French Open final loss against Alcaraz as he battered the Spaniard into submission with a dynamic display of power hitting on Center Court.

The Italian's 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory ended Alcaraz's two-year reign as Wimbledon champion and gave Sinner his fourth Grand Slam crown.

Sinner has reached the last four Grand Slam finals, winning three of them, and the world number one has no intention of resting on his laurels.

"I don't think I'm at my best because at 23 I don't think you can be in your best shape ever. So hopefully I can keep improving," he said.

"I keep looking up to Carlos because even today I felt like he was doing couple of things better than I did.

"That's something we will work on and prepare ourselves because he's going to come for us again.

"We have a big target on us, so we have to be prepared."

It was a cathartic triumph for Sinner after he squandered a two-set lead and blew three championship points against Alcaraz at Roland Garros in June.

Alcaraz had won five successive encounters against the 23-year-old, including finals in Paris, Rome and Beijing, prior to their showdown at the All England Club.

Sinner admitted it was vital to finally beat the world number two for the first time since 2023.

"It is important, for sure, because you know, when you lose several times against someone, it's not easy. But in the same time in the past I felt that I was very close," he said.

"I never pushed myself down. I felt like I did something great because it has been not easy. Coming here and winning Wimbledon, it has been amazing."

'The rivalry is real'

While Sinner had spent the last five weeks publicly insisting he would not let his French Open collapse affect him, he revealed he had to work hard to move on from the loss before launching his Wimbledon challenge.

"This is the part where I'm the proudest because it really has not been easy. I always tried to be honest with myself and had the self-talk. You know, what if, what if? I tried to accept it, in a way," said Sinner, who returned from a three-month doping ban in May.

"Even if I don't cry, it feels emotional because only me and the people who are close to me know exactly what we have been through on and off the court, and it has been everything except easy.

"We've tried to push, you know, every practice session, even I was struggling at times mentally.

"That's why I also said after Roland Garros that it's not the time to put me down, no, because another Grand Slam is coming up, and I did great here."

Sinner and Alcaraz have won the past seven majors between them, establishing themselves in a class of their own.

Sinner's coach Darren Cahill expects the pair to battle for supremacy for years to come, but he stopped short of comparing it to the dynastic era of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

"It's difficult to compare this rivalry to what we've just had. It's been a golden age in tennis with Novak and Roger and Rafa. They dominated for 20 years," Cahill said.

"To win a Grand Slam back in those days, you had to beat one of them in the quarters, the other one in the semis, and another one in the final.

"These guys still have a ways to go, but they've started incredibly well. Carlos is a big focus, and both of those guys are pushing each other.

"The rivalry is real. Hopefully it's going to be there for the next 10 or 12 years."