Jose Mourinho was meant to be different.
Replacing Mauricio Pochettino as manager, one felt that the Portuguese would bring with him a ruthlessness, a mentality shift, a will to win that Pochettino sadly lacked.
And yet, on Sunday, as Spurs lost to Chelsea, he repeated the Argentine’s most egregious mistake as he turned to Christian Eriksen in his hour of need.
This is a player who has no intention of staying at Spurs beyond the end of the season and who is wanted by Juventus. Initially, he wanted a move to Real Madrid or Barcelona, now he may have to settle on a move to Italy.
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But, even so, Pochettino continually picked him. Indeed, the ex-Southampton boss seemed to flirt with the idea of dropping him, leaving him on the bench against both Aston Villa and Newcastle United at the start of the season but, even then, he was brought on in both games.
And Mourinho has done similar.
He brought him on as a sub against both West Ham United and Bournemouth and then gave him a single minute against Wolves, though he did provide the assist for Jan Vertonghen’s winner in that game, taking the corner the Belgian headed in.
It was a similar story versus Chelsea at the weekend.
With Spurs 2-0 down and drowning in the pressure the Blues were placing them under, Mourinho hooked Eric Dier and brought Eriksen on.
The effect was predictable.
The Dane did not manage to create a chance or really have any sort of tangible impact on proceedings. He did take three corners but with a 0% success rate, per WhoScored.
No clues whatsoever: Which seasons do these iconic Spurs images belong to?
Pochettino had the excuse of loyalty. He had seen Eriksen at his best, when he was dissecting defences with sublime passes every other weekend.
Mourinho hasn’t done that and, honestly, he should stop relying on the 27-year-old to bail him out.
As Sunday showed, it rarely works anyway.
Meanwhile, one Spurs player has been criticised by Gary Neville.