Mourinho - The Anti-Barca

[Rousseau 10,489]

Modern football was invented in Barcelona in the mid-90s. Of this season’s Champions League quarter-finalists, four sides are managed by players who turned out for Barça in 1996: Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Julen Lopetegui and Laurent Blanc. Within a couple of years, they had been joined by Frank de Boer and Phillip Cocu as well as the coach Louis van Gaal and his assistant Ronald Koeman. In slightly differing ways, the eight are apostles for the Barcelona way – or, more accurately, given the influence of Ajax on that style, the Barçajax way. However, there was another presence there, initially as a translator and then as a coach. In the Barçocracy of modern football, there is a fallen angel.

 

In the modern world, at least at elite level, José Mourinho stands alone. At the greatest coaching seminar the world has seen, when the game as we know it was shaped, but he did not draw the same lessons everybody else did. The other eight espoused the proactive, possession-based football seeded at the club by Vic Buckingham, developed by Rinus Michels and taken to new levels by Johan Cruyff.

 

Mourinho, however, was different. Mourinho believed in reactive football. He was the outsider, the outcast who now revels in his role as the dark lord. Saturday’s game against Manchester United was typical. Others, playing at home in a match that could effectively ensure the title, might have felt compelled to attack. Mourinho fielded Kurt Zouma, a central defender, in midfield, sitting deep and won the game with 28% possession.

 

Mourinho may have objected to Diego Torres’s biography of him but the passage describing his methods against the better sides was as true of Saturday’s win as it was of the victory over Liverpool that determined the destination of the title last season:

 

1. The game is won by the team who commits fewer errors.

 

2. Football favours whoever provokes more errors in the opposition.

 

3. Away from home, instead of trying to be superior to the opposition, it’s better to encourage their mistakes.

 

4. Whoever has the ball is more likely to make a mistake.

 

5. Whoever renounces possession reduces the possibility of making a mistake.

 

6. Whoever has the ball has fear.

 

7. Whoever does not have it is thereby stronger.

 

It’s true that earlier in the season, Chelsea were more expansive. When Diego Costa, Cesc Fábregas and Nemanja Matic were fit and in form, they attacked and racked up goals. The talk was all of how, after the regular failures to break down massed defences last season, Mourinho had taken decisive action. As the squad has tired and form has waned, as the finish line has approached, though, he has reverted to type. Chelsea have been struggling for form and consistency all year and yet, in the 12 league games since the 5-3 defeat by Tottenham on New Year’s Day, they have conceded only seven goals and dropped only six points.

 

There was a concern earlier this season that Mourinho might be losing his touch. Against Manchester City (home and away), United (away), Southampton (away) and PSG (home and away), Chelsea took the lead, sat back and ended up conceding equalisers. It could even have happened on Saturday, Falcao hitting the post with 11 minutes remaining. However, even if Chelsea have been unusually vulnerable at times in a lead this season, Mourinho hasn’t changed – and it could be argued that Saturday was vindication.

 

From right to left, the then Barcelona manager Louis van Gaal, assistant coach Ronald Koeman, keeper's trainer Frans Hoek and assistant trainer José Mourinho during a friendly in Amsterdam in 1999 Facebook Twitter Pinterest

From left to right: the then Barcelona manager Louis van Gaal, assistant coach Ronald Koeman, keepers’ trainer Frans Hoek and assistant trainer José Mourinho during a friendly in Amsterdam in 1999. Photograph: VI-Images/VI-Images via Getty Images

Anyway, the sense is that it’s not entirely a matter of utility: Mourinho has his sides play that way because he enjoys it. Cast out from Barcelona, overlooked by them when they appointed Pep Guardiola in 2008, he is now the anti-Barcelona, determined, like Milton’s Satan that, “glory never shall his wrath or might; extort from me,” vowing “To wage by force of guile eternal war, irreconcilable to our grand Foe.” Every defensive performance, every win with limited possession, is a blow against Barça.

 

There’s probably no game Mourinho has enjoyed so much as Internazionale’s Champions League semi-final second leg at the Camp Nou in 2010, when his side, down to 10 men for more than an hour, had only 19% possession and lost 1-0 to win 3-2 on aggregate. Who needs the ball?

 

Mourinho is not a pragmatist in the way that, say, Fabio Capello is, changing approach according to his players and, where necessary, adopting reactive, defensive tactics. Rather his preferred way of playing is reactive, which is why he sold Juan Mata. He may have been Chelsea’s player of the season in each of the two previous years but he had no place in Mourinho’s conception of football.

 

The paradox is that if Mourinho really has allowed his philosophy to be defined in opposition to Barcelona – he is that which they are not – then he is still allowing Barcelona to dictate terms, creating a dichotomy where there could be multiplicity. It is not that there is the Barçajax school and Not-the-Barçajax school; it is that the Barçajax school is one way of playing among an almost infinite variety, as represented by Jürgen Klopp, Carlo Ancelotti and Diego Simeone among others.

 

And that, of course, is testimony to the astonishing influence of Barcelona over modern football. Mourinho cannot escape his upbringing as a coach; even as a rebel, it is Barcelona he is rebelling against.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/apr/23/jose-mourinho-the-anti-barcelona-chelsea-pep-guardiola

[Scott7 5,916]

Can't believe Ser BS hasn't come on to defend the Messiah.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

His style might at times infuriate me but he's the best in the world so he can do whatever he wants.

 

Porto (2002–2004)

Primeira Liga: 2002–03, 2003–04

Taça de Portugal: 2002–03

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira: 2003

UEFA Champions League: 2003–04

UEFA Cup: 2002–03

Chelsea (2004–2007, 2013–)

Premier League: 2004–05, 2005–06

FA Cup: 2006–07

Football League Cup: 2004–05, 2006–07, 2014–15

FA Community Shield: 2005

Internazionale (2008–2010)

Serie A: 2008–09, 2009–10

Coppa Italia: 2009–10

Supercoppa Italiana: 2008

UEFA Champions League: 2009–10

Real Madrid (2010–2013)

La Liga: 2011–12

Copa del Rey: 2010–11

Supercopa de España: 2012

Individual

Onze d'Or Coach of the Year: 2005, 2010

FIFA World Coach of the Year: 2010

IFFHS World's Best Club Coach: 2004, 2005, 2010, 2012

Primeira Liga Manager of the Year: 2002–03, 2003–04

Premier League Manager of the Year: 2004–05, 2005–06

Premier League Manager of the Month: November 2004, January 2005, March 2007

Serie A Manager of the Year: 2008–09, 2009–10

Albo Panchina d'Oro: 2009–10

Miguel Muñoz Trophy: 2010–11, 2011–12

UEFA Manager of the Year: 2002–03, 2003–04

UEFA Team of the Year: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010

World Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year: 2004, 2005, 2010

LPFP Awards Best Portuguese Manager in Foreign Countries: 2008–09, 2009–10

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award: 2005

La Gazzetta dello Sport Man of the Year: 2010[166]

International Sports Press Association Best Manager in the World: 2010[167]

Prémio Prestígio Fernando Soromenho: 2012[168]

Football Extravaganza's League of Legends (2011)[169]

Edited April 25, 2015 by Ser Barristan Selmy

[Rousseau 10,489]

His style might at times infuriate me but he's the best in the world so he can do whatever he wants.

 

Porto (2002–2004)

Primeira Liga: 2002–03, 2003–04

Taça de Portugal: 2002–03

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira: 2003

UEFA Champions League: 2003–04

UEFA Cup: 2002–03

Chelsea (2004–2007, 2013–)

Premier League: 2004–05, 2005–06

FA Cup: 2006–07

Football League Cup: 2004–05, 2006–07, 2014–15

FA Community Shield: 2005

Internazionale (2008–2010)

Serie A: 2008–09, 2009–10

Coppa Italia: 2009–10

Supercoppa Italiana: 2008

UEFA Champions League: 2009–10

Real Madrid (2010–2013)

La Liga: 2011–12

Copa del Rey: 2010–11

Supercopa de España: 2012

Individual

Onze d'Or Coach of the Year: 2005, 2010

FIFA World Coach of the Year: 2010

IFFHS World's Best Club Coach: 2004, 2005, 2010, 2012

Primeira Liga Manager of the Year: 2002–03, 2003–04

Premier League Manager of the Year: 2004–05, 2005–06

Premier League Manager of the Month: November 2004, January 2005, March 2007

Serie A Manager of the Year: 2008–09, 2009–10

Albo Panchina d'Oro: 2009–10

Miguel Muñoz Trophy: 2010–11, 2011–12

UEFA Manager of the Year: 2002–03, 2003–04

UEFA Team of the Year: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010

World Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year: 2004, 2005, 2010

LPFP Awards Best Portuguese Manager in Foreign Countries: 2008–09, 2009–10

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award: 2005

La Gazzetta dello Sport Man of the Year: 2010[166]

International Sports Press Association Best Manager in the World: 2010[167]

Prémio Prestígio Fernando Soromenho: 2012[168]

Football Extravaganza's League of Legends (2011)[169]

 

I agree. He is a genius at setting up teams to win. What I like best is that he tweaks his teams to exploit a weakness, or defend against an oppositions strength (Fellaini last week comes to mind; he put Zouma in midfield to battle with Fellaini and he was completely ineffectual!).

 

It's like Barca play to play, Mourinho plays to win.

 

You will always get people criticising the way a team plays: you have to play good football to be considered great. I disagree. You are great because you win. And there are many ways to win. He's the anti-Barca because he can win with 20% possession. How many teams can do that at the highest level?