Gary Neville has provided an assessment of Jose Mourinho's efforts at Tottenham so far.
Mourinho is coming up to his one year anniversary at Spurs having joined the club in November of last year, and ahead of tonight's Premier League clash with Burnley, Sky Sports pundits have been discussing whether the former Chelsea boss has done a good job in North London.
According to Neville, it's a little early to tell given the transition Mourinho is trying to carry out, but there are some positive changes.
"I think ordinarily if a manager had been in his seat for 12 months you would be able to say if he is doing a really good job, whether he is on the right track or whether things aren’t quite right. But with Jose Mourinho after his first 12 months, I’m not quite sure where he is at and there are a few reasons for that," Neville puzzled on Monday Night Football.
"One, the previous manager was really successful in ‘Spurs terms’, they were successful in terms of how they performed compared to their history.
"Secondly, I think there is an element of - I played against Jose Mourinho teams in the early part of his career at Porto and Chelsea, and they were the most outstanding football teams. The Inter Milan team was outstanding, he had success at Real Madrid winning the leagues.
"But in the last few years, he has been labelled and I think it has hurt him a little bit in that it’s a non-dominant, out of possession type of football.
"The way in which the game has changed in recent years through culture with say pep Guardiola, and it was almost like a face-off when both of them came to Manchester and Pep won hands down.
"I think Jose has transitioned into the second part of his career where he has tried to adapt his own style of management, maybe different from his time at Manchester United when he looked a bit angry and unhappy.
"I think he looks happy at Spurs and there has definitely been a change this season at Spurs."
Speaking about exactly what Mourinho has improved at Spurs, Neville added: "The possession is higher, there are more successful passes, more chances created in open play and the goalkeeper is playing it out from the back more.
"I always felt when I watched Spurs last season that they didn’t know how to get the ball from back to front, I always felt they struggled to understand how to play it through the midfield.
"When I watch them now, they have a much better understanding from a different coaching setup.
"It’s probably too early to say, we have to accept what Spurs are doing, the job Jose is doing and that fact he has brought players in. I think in six months time, we will know a lot more."
