Jermaine Jenas says he does not like the "negativity" Jose Mourinho has brought to Tottenham

Jose Mourinho

Former Tottenham midfielder Jermaine Jenas believes Jose Mourinho's "negativity" is not helping his old club.

Mourinho was appointed as Mauricio Pochettino's successor in November and initially got his Spurs career off to a positive start.

However, the north London outfit are now without a win in their last six games in all competitions following Tuesday's 3-0 defeat by RB Leipzig in the Champions League.

Mourinho has not been shy in voicing his grievances in recent weeks, bemoaning injuries within the ranks and publicly criticising Tanguy Ndombele.

And while Jenas is prepared to give the Portuguese the benefit of the doubt for now, he admits that he has not been impressed by his general demeanour.

“It’s not a rant but what I will say is I will reserve judgement on Jose until the summer, until he brings in his new players because I think the players haven’t been good enough,” Jenas told MOTDx.

“What I don’t like about Jose at the minute is the negativity. I think he’s been far too negative in terms of the message he’s been sending out with the players.

“I know we’ve got injuries to [Harry] Kane, I know Son [Heung-min] is injured and now [Steven] Bergwijn.

“But I think there needs to be a more positive structure going out to the players. And overall I still can’t see what the team are and how they’re trying to play.

“Are they a passing team? Are they a pressing team? Are they a team that plays deep and tries to counter-attack?

“I don’t see from game to game, and I can’t tell you from game to game, what team he’s going to put out. He had the best part of six centre-halves playing against Burnley. 

“He has won everything there is to win in the game, so that’s quite a good reason why you’d want to go and play for him. He is a serial winner.”

The Premier League is currently on hold until April 4 due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

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Greg Lea

Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).