Rio Ferdinand suggests Tottenham players do not know what to do under Jose Mourinho

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Rio Ferdinand has told BT Sport that he does not believe Tottenham Hotspur’s players know what they are doing under the guidance of Jose Mourinho, when compared to RB Leipzig’s stars under Julian Nagelsmann.

Spurs suffered a heavy 3-0 defeat in Germany to Leipzig and Nagelsmann – and a 4-0 loss on aggregate – as a Marcel Sabitzer-inspired performance saw Nagelsmann become the youngest manager ever to win a Champions League knockout match.

Following on from Timo Werner’s goal in the first leg, Sabitzer scored an excellent brace but had Hugo Lloris to thank for two poor efforts at keeping the ball out of the net. Emil Forsberg came on with moments remaining to score.

Ferdinand was disappointed by Spurs’ efforts in what looked a disjointed, lifeless performance with some of the players lacking the confidence to have an impact on the tie. Comparing to Leipzig, Ferdinand does not believe the players know their roles.

“Sometimes, those individual mistakes can take all the tactical stuff you’ve worked on out of the equation,” Ferdinand said. “You can have a greater energy when you’re properly set up tactically, and you all have an understanding.

“They understand what the manager wants. If you’re looking at that, without knowing what is going on, you would say that one team is being coached much better than the other.”

TBR’s view – Should Mourinho be performing better as manager?

It seems as though Mourinho is just counting down the days until the summer. Now out of the FA Cup and Champions League, Spurs most focus on finishing in the top five of the Premier League – but even that will be difficult.

Hammering Tanguy Ndombele and Troy Parrott in the press, admitting he cannot wait for pre-season and other instances have shown that Mourinho has made a number of errors. The morale at Spurs seems to be a lot lower.

Tottenham take on Manchester United on Sunday and a win in that fixture would cover a lot of cracks. But a defeat and Mourinho will be severely under pressure.