Jamie O’Hara has blasted Eric Dier and Davinson Sanchez for their performance in the 2-1 defeat to West Ham on Sunday.
Tottenham have been guilty of making a lot of individual errors at the back over recent weeks and the match on Sunday was no different with the away side failing to deal with a cross into the box for West Ham’s first goal and were all over the place at the back for the Hammers’ second.
Mourinho has chopped and changed his centre-back pairing over the last couple of months and O’Hara insisted that the Spurs boss does not know who his best defenders are.
The former Tottenham midfielder told talkSPORT: “It’s getting embarrassing, isn’t it. I don’t think we’re going to win anything this season, I think we’ll end up trophyless again, I really do.
“I look at the team and the back-four is just an absolute shambles. I don’t know why Jose keeps playing [Davinson] Sanchez and [Eric] Dier because it’s probably one of the worst partnerships in the Premier League!
“[Japhet] Tanganga plays right-back, but he takes him off and puts [Matt] Doherty there, he’s played [Moussa] Sissoko at right-back, [Serge] Aurier, he just doesn’t know the team.
“The only player you’d say deserves to play in that back-four is [Sergio] Reguilon, I really like him, he’s decent.”
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O’Hara urged Mourinho to go with a centre-back pairing of Japhet Tanganga and Ben Davies instead of trying playing the likes of Dier and Sanchez.
When asked how Spurs could solve their issues in central defence, he said: “Get rid of them! Dier is an alright player but as a centre-half, he just looks lost around the box. In my opinion, he needs to be dropped.
“I would play Tanganga and Ben Davies at centre-half, play Reguilon on the left and Doherty at right-back. Ben Davies is decent on the ball and has got pace, Tanganaga has got pace as well and I think that’s the biggest thing we lack at the back, pace, because we just get exposed all the time.”
The pundit insisted that Tottenham’s problems will not go away if Mourinho is sacked, insisting that the team’s struggles come down to the players’ lack of quality.
O’Hara added: “I think we’re in a player crisis in terms of the players aren’t good enough.
“We can sit here and blame the manager for the results and talk about where we should be with a manager like Mourinho, but the players ain’t good enough and he hasn’t been given the money to go and get the players he really needs.
“The whole back-four is not good enough! He needs two new centre-backs, proper decent centre-backs you can rely on and build a partnership around, instead of changing it every week because they keep making mistakes.
“So in terms of a crisis, yes there is one, but not with him. I don’t think it’s, ‘let’s get Mourinho out the door’, I don’t think that’s the case yet.”
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If Mourinho thought that the likes of Tanganga and Rodon were ready to perform week-in, week-out in the Premier League, I believe he would have played them a lot more often. It is clear that the Spurs boss does not think they are ready to cope with the pressure just yet. Now that Reguilon is back from injury, I suspect we will go back to employing a back three more often in order to give the centre-backs more protection.
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