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Replicating Makelele and Matic: Who will Mourinho’s midfield maestro be at Spurs?

Through his illustrious managerial career, Jose Mourinho has a track record of identifying some of the best defensive midfielders in the world and getting the best out of them.

He enjoyed great success in two spells with Chelsea, using first Claude Makelele and then Nemanja Matic to devastating effect, and even signed Matic again after moving to Manchester United.

Even in his roles outside of England, the midfield has been a key building point for Mourinho. Despite already having the likes of Esteban Cambiasso and Xabi Alonso at his clubs when he joined Inter and Real Madrid respectively, he brought in Thiago Motta and Sami Khedira to perform the job his way and provide balance in the middle of the park.

The issues facing Tottenham are not exclusive to midfield however, arguably the opposite. Spurs have used 12 midfielders in the Premier League already this season, showing enviable depth in the area while struggling in defence.

While Mourinho has had instant results in attack by moving Dele Alli further forward, he is yet to find his linchpin at the base of his midfield despite trying several players there already.

In his few games so far, he has already started Eric Dier, Harry Winks, Moussa Sissoko and Tanguy Ndombele, while Giovani Lo Celso has featured from the bench.

In his most successful periods in English football, Jose Mourinho has favoured a 4-2-3-1 formation. The two deep-lying midfielders were largely complementary in style, with the likes of Michael Essien, Michael Ballack and Cesc Fabregas playing as deep-lying playmakers in contrast to Makelele and Matic’s ferocious tackling and ball retention.

While Spurs have several world-class creative midfielders in their squad, they do not have a more defensively minded counterpart of the same quality yet.

Harry Winks was the popular pick of former manager Mauricio Pochettino, but the 23-year-old does not fit perfectly into either category. Ndombele meanwhile, was signed with the intention of being Spurs’ defensive shield but despite an encouraging start to life in England, the £53 million signing hasn’t kicked on.

For the trip to West Ham in his first game in charge, Mourinho immediately set Spurs up in his trusted formation. The Portuguese manager kept faith in Winks but selected him alongside Eric Dier, who had rarely featured in 2019 under Pochettino but started Mourinho’s first three games.

With rotation inevitable over the busy festive period, it may be some time before we see who Jose Mourinho truly believes is his midfield for the future.

If he doesn’t like what he sees, he could always sign Matic for a third time, right?

Sam Hanys

A miserable Ipswich Town fan.

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