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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 4 DECEMBER 2019 21 SPORTS FOOTBALL WHEN Jose Mourinho returns to Man- chester United this week he should not be seeking to prove a point but rather to concede one. Jose's Tottenham rebrand – and there's always a rebrand – is about reconnecting with the aesthetic counter- attacking football of his Real Madrid and Chelsea teams; it's about humbly giving in to demands that he plays an expansive game following those tedious, congealed years in the Old Trafford dugout. Mourinho knows he cannot park the bus on Wednesday and get away with it, not at the beginning of a project few Spurs fans actively support. The transi- tion away from Mauricio Pochettino's high pressing, high energy approach - or what's left of it – will need to be gradual, if indeed Mourinho's promise he won't change the club's tactics is just empty rhetoric. Certainly the busy Christmas period, with virtually no time at all on the training ground, is not the time to implement new ideas. We'll have to wait until the New Year to find out whether Mourinho really has changed. But the new manager might have cho- sen to attack United regardless. Mour- inho is a pragmatist if nothing else, and the most pragmatic way to beat Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side this season is to go at them – to fight the mid-table players, not the badge. United are only dangerous when opponents hesitate, as Liverpool did in the 1-1 draw in October, but with such a listless central midfield are torn apart if confronted, as Jack Gre- alish showed in Aston Villa's 2-2 draw on Sunday. Villa ought to have won that match comfortably. Spurs, with Dele Alli on form, can turn similar territorial domi- nance into a statement win. Mourinho's formation has been con- sistent across his first three matches in charge, as has the tone of Spurs' per- formances. Start poorly, pick up in the middle, end poorly; it's a pattern that has seen ten scored and six conceded, a chaotic beginning reflecting a little more than just psychological brittleness inher- ited from the final few months of the Po- chettino era. Nobody saw Jose's 3-2-5 coming, and yet the formation is classic Mourinho. Clearly demarcated into distinct defen- sive and attacking roles, the 3-2 at the back is formed by a fixed double-axis in midfield and the left-back tucking inside to make a back three. The front five is considerably more fluid as Serge Aurier gets up alongside four forwards given licence to roam. Mourinho has always tended to separate the pitch like this, instructing defensive players to rig- idly hold their ground in order to allow the front players to attack freely. Dele has most notably benefited from Mourinho's lack of attacking direction, moving instinctively ahead of Harry Kane, but all five of the Spurs attack- ers are enjoying a mantra that sees the ball moved quickly into the final third. Heung-Min Son, Lucas Moura, Kane, and Dele are continually making runs on the shoulder of the last defender, a tactic that paid dividends for the first two goals against Bournemouth on Sat- urday. Toby Alderweireld's long passes should again feature at Old Trafford, where a strong United defence will only be tested should they be put under fre- quent pressure. Victor Lindelof and Brandon Williams won't enjoy the con- stant backpedaling, while the combina- tion play between Dele and Kane can hurt an often flat-footed Harry Magu- ire. However, Spurs will only be able to ex- ploit United's frailties should they exert greater control of possession than they managed against Bournemouth, when Mourinho's team selection left too few technicians on the pitch. Without Harry Winks or Christian Eriksen, and with Moussa Sissoko preferred to Lu- cas, Spurs took too many heavy touches or sideways passes, failing to set the rhythm required for the front players to flourish. Mourinho won't park the bus, but nev- ertheless Wednesday's game will be an early test of just how tactically ambi- tious he is willing to be: playing Eriksen and Lucas would go against his risk- averse instincts, yet it would be the best way to win three points. And controlling midfield is about more than creating intelligent attack- ing shapes. Without a metronome alongside Dier, Spurs are clumsy in the transition, conceding counter-attacking goals with alarming regularity so far un- der Mourinho. The main reason for this is passivity creeping into their game, a hangover from the post-pressing endgame under Pochettino and a sign of 'old emotions', in the words of the new manager. Spurs aren't compressing their shape high up the pitch to pen in the opponents, but they aren't dropping decisively back either; working on the transition from attack to defence is Mourinho's biggest job over the months ahead. That problem gives United a foothold in Wednesday's game. In an otherwise confusingly abject tactical setup, de- fined by a lack of purposeful movement across the pitch, Solskjaer's United do at least look to counter-attack with speed down the flanks. The Norwegian's vague attempts to recapture the pace and youthful energy of the Sir Alex Ferguson days translates as meaningless football interjected with sudden bursts from Daniel James, An- thony Martial, and Marcus Rashford. The latter two in particular can com- bine well on the outside of Tottenham's back three, as West Ham, Olympiakos, and Bournemouth all managed with varying degrees of success. The 3-2-5 is light on the right flank when the ball is lost, a knock-on effect not just of Au- rier's high position but the lack of po- sitional awareness in central midfield. Any combination of Dier, Winks, Erik- sen, and Tanguy Ndombele in that dou- ble pivot is a little too sluggish to stamp out opposition counters. Jose Mourinho can seize the moment in Manchester United v Spurs Jose Mourinho makes his Old Trafford return on Wednesday evening