Tony Cascarino has defended his claims that Jose Mourinho has been ‘left behind’ by modern football, after former Tottenham star Jamie O’Hara slammed it as ‘utter nonsense’.

Following Spurs’ defeat to RB Leipzig in the Champions League last week, the former Chelsea striker claimed the Special One’s philosophy is outdated and irrelevant and has now been overtaken by a new breed of attacking-minded football.

Without injured strike duo Harry Kane and Heung-min Son, Mourinho has been forced to fall back into his familiar pattern of turgid, defensive football which has earned him criticism from fans and pundits.

AFP or licensors 1 Jose Mourinho is facing questions over his future at the top level of football

“I think Jose Mourinho has been left behind,” Cascarino told talkSPORT on Thursday.

“If you look at Jose’s career over recent years, it’s been gradually going downward. He’s always won trophies, you can never deny that, but now I’m seeing a manager who the game is gradually drifting away from.”

O’Hara then hit back at Casc’s ‘disrespectful’ and ‘out of order’ comments on Friday, and insisted the Portuguese coach is still ‘one of the greatest managers ever’.

But Cascarino stands by his opinion, which rings especially true after watching Mourinho’s Tottenham side suffer a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea in their crucial top-four battle on Saturday.

The apprentice became the master at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon as Frank Lampard claimed a third win over his former boss (twice with Chelsea, once with Derby).

The Blues’ victory – which was more commanding than the scoreline suggested – also saw Lampard become the first ever manager to do the league double over a Jose Mourinho team.

2 – Frank Lampard’s Chelsea are the first team to defeat a side managed by José Mourinho both home and away in a single league season. Schooled. #CHETOT pic.twitter.com/1Z4wB1CqxW — OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 22, 2020

At the full-time whistle, TV cameras captured Mourinho giving Lampard the barest of handshakes before immediately heading down the tunnel, which led to fans questioning the decorated coach’s future at the top level of football.

Before the game kicked off, Cascarino responded to O’Hara and defended his view.

“Let’s get one thing clear, the Jose that came to England with Chelsea in the early 2000s is not this Jose,” he said on the Weekend Sports Breakfast.

“I learned a lot from Jose, the way he did tactics, formations, how he set his team up to stop the opposition, I applauded him.

“The difference is, I don’t see that Jose today and to say I’m being disrespectful, I laugh, because Jamie, you’re talking about the manager who has been the most disrespectful of all managers.

“He called Arsene Wenger a voyeur and a specialist in failure!

“I know you’re a Spurs man and you’re going to be loyal, but the detail I was talking about on Wednesday after the Leipzig game – I think Jose got that so wrong.

Jose Mourinho offered very little in tactics yesterday - I think he's been left behind, says Tony Cascarino

“You can argue that their two best players are out, but that’s a shallow argument.

“Coaches have a 25-man squad and are paid to make decisions and get players to play in position and and do a job for you, but that wasn’t the case.

“Jose seems quite happy now to go: ‘I’ll tell everybody, I’ve got these two out, it’s an absolute disaster’. He’s just deflecting away from the problem.

“It’s only an opinion, it’s my opinion and Jamie’s got his opinion, which is fine.

“I see it differently, though. Yesterday’s man? I want Jose to prove to me that he’s not.

“What we saw from Ateltico Madrid this week against Liverpool was a one-off, we just don’t see that much anymore, all teams are dominating with attack-minded football.”

Listen to a clip Tony Cascarino from the Weekend Sports Breakfast above