Spurs are the team Jose Mourinho wants Manchester United to be

One wonders if Jose Mourinho watched Spurs’ thumping 4-1 win over Liverpool on Sunday. For £816 a night, his luxury Lowry hotel room surely comes with a Sky Sports subscription. Had he even switched over the channels momentarily, the Portuguese would have caught a glimpse of a team executing his hallmark game plan even better than he is right now.

Indeed, Spurs put on a glorious display of incisive counter-attacking football at Wembley, scoring four past a Liverpool side Mourinho instructed his Manchester United to sit deep against, labouring to a dreary goalless draw, just one week previously. The result drew Mauricio Pochettino’s side level with United in the Premier League, but on the basis of what was produced over the weekend, only one side is likely to challenge for honours this season.

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Spurs are the team Mourinho wants Manchester United to be. They are built on a solid defensive basis, with the centre-back pairing of Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen the best in the English game right now. Their full-backs are as effective as any too, with Hugo Lloris ranked among the Premier League’s best shot-stoppers (even if his form has been somewhat patchy of late).

Contrast this to the manner of Man Utd’s defensive display in Saturday’s defeat to Huddersfield Town. While Spurs’ defensive unit is precisely that – a unit – Mourinho’s backline far too frequently looks like a collection of players who have yet to gel. That was blatantly obvious in both goals conceded at the weekend.

In midfield, too, there’s a balance and directness that Mourinho likely pines for. Derided as a waste of money last season, Moussa Sissoko has been a big factor in that, with the likes of Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen all buying into the philosophy Pochettino has instilled at the club. Can the same be said of certain players at Old Trafford?

Of course, United are currently playing without Paul Pogba, who has missed the past few weeks of action through injury. The Frenchman gives Mourinho a different dimension in the centre of the pitch. The Old Trafford side have missed him badly and whether he returns or not will have a big bearing on Saturday’s clash with Spurs.

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Then there’s Harry Kane, the best English number nine since the days of Alan Shearer and arguably the best out-and-out striker in Europe right now. Man Utd aren’t exactly lacking in the forward department themselves, with Romelu Lukaku hitting the ground running following his summer move from Everton. But Kane and Lukaku are different kinds of striker despite initial misconceptions.

Both might be big, physical centre forwards of a traditional mould, but Kane is far more adept at involving himself in the general play of his side as a whole. Kane, as demonstrated by his performance against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu last week, is just as comfortable being the one crossing as he is being the on getting on the end of it.

Mourinho might similarly experiment with using Lukaku as one part of a front two when Zlatan Ibrahimovic returns from injury later in the year, but for now Spurs are far more dynamic, complete outfit than their northern counterparts. They play the game in the image of how their manager wants them to. Mourinho isn’t quite at that stage yet and that has been exposed by Man Utd’s last few performances.

That might not ultimately manifest itself in the look of the league table, such is the Portuguese’s capacity for churning out results, but from an ideological point of view, United aren’t following a precedent set by Mourinho teams from years gone by, but by a Spurs side they will go toe-to-toe against this weekend.