Jose Mourinho shows versatility by taking a leaf out of Jurgen Klopp’s book with Aston Villa win

The Spurs boss is adjusting without the injured Harry Kane and placing greater responsibility on Lucas Moura and Son Heung-min to produce a style more commonly seen by Premier League leaders Liverpool

Jose Mourinho has adapted without captain Harry Kane (AFP)

Modernity can come about accidentally. If Harry Kane had not been injured, if Fernando Llorente had not left, if Odion Ighalo had joined, if Tottenham had bought Jose Mourinho a striker instead of a winger, then maybe they would not have looked such a team of the times.

The 3-2 win at Aston Villa felt more redolent of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool – in the days before Virgil van Dijk arrived to impose order, anyway – than the typical Mourinho triumphs. In particular, his fast, fluid forward line felt like something Klopp would be likelier to forge than Mourinho. This is an era when wingers can outscore the strikers, even render them redundant. But not normally in a Mourinho team.

He did not choose this, but he did adapt. Tottenham found themselves with tactics Mourinho has rarely plotted and numbers they had not reached before. Son Heung-min’s 94th-minute winner was their 23rd shot. “I think it is the match since I arrive when we created the most chances,” reflected Mourinho. If Spurs found a way to win without Kane, perhaps the more significant part was that they found a way to play.

Mourinho is a byword for a certain type of forward line. His definitive attackers have been the four target men of the apocalypse: Didier Drogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Diego Milito and Diego Costa. Kane shares some traits with them. Son and Lucas Moura, men Mourinho has repeatedly described as “not a striker”, do not. His definition can be strict: he rarely regarded Anthony Martial or Marcus Rashford as strikers and, if neither is exactly a battering ram, nor do they slot as easily into the category of wingers as Son and Lucas.

Since Kane was sidelined, the Brazilian had been pressed into service as the furthest man forward, but there were times Spurs played the type of football more suited to Lukas Jutkiewicz than Lucas Moura; they aimed long balls at a 5ft 8in wide man. They arrived at Villa Park with a shift in duties: Son, the most potent player available to Mourinho, now led the line. Lucas in effect operated as an inside-right.

Crucially, neither required aerial ability. They did not play with their back to goal. Villa’s three centre-backs did not have a focal point to mark. Instead, they faced faster forwards who could sprint into space between or either side of them. A high defensive line allowed them to run in behind them.

“A team without Harry is finding obviously difficulties, but in the middle of the difficulties we are finding a different way to play football,” noted Mourinho. “We are finding a different way to create opportunities and to score enough goals.”

Son, with six in five games, is leading the way. He had seven shots, even if two stemmed from a penalty and the subsequent rebound after Pepe Reina saved it, and would have had a hat-trick but for the brilliance of the goalkeeper. Nineteen of Spurs’ 23 attempts came from the quartet of Steven Bergwijn, Dele Alli, Son and Lucas. “We have come up against a quality front four,” said Villa manager Dean Smith. “They are very quick.”

Mourinho has adapted without Kane (AFP)

Pace has been allied with an ability to interchange positions. Son was at his most threatening in the inside-left channel, while Bergwijn popped up on the right to win that penalty.

Victory still required a hideous error by Bjorn Engels, a VAR decision that Smith branded “farcical” and a strike from Toby Alderweireld that Mourinho called “the shot of his life”.

But this did not amount to a failsafe formula on a day when Villa had a surfeit of chances and where Jack Grealish was a constant menace. And yet Spurs, who failed to score in their first 233 minutes of league action after losing Kane, could have had a hatful. They were propelled by Son and Lucas. “These two guys have to play 90 minutes every game,” Mourinho said. “If they run out of fuel then we are in trouble.”

For now, though, rather than running on empty, Spurs charged into fifth place. It could be enough for Champions League football.