Mourinho is, unfortunately, very good

I use the word unfortunate because he is not an endearing character so it is hard to admire his work like you would admire the work of Guardiola who is a nice guy. Mourinho talks far more than he should. His work is good enough to speak for itself so I am surprised that he so often seeks confrontation and provocation.

Mourinho has fantastic managerial qualities in three key areas.

He knows how to make a team play as a team. Mourinho's teams are solid, resilient and defensively fantastic because of that. John Terry became known as a great defender not because he is the best (as we can see now) but because Mourinho created a team where all 11 Chelsea players collectively defended. It made them a great defensive team and very difficult to beat.

He is an active part of 90 minutes. Mourinho is a control freak who runs the game from the bench. He can make a substitution after 15 minutes. He is bold and follows through his ideas with courage. He has a keen sense of what to leave to the players on the pitch and what he will take care of and the players know that. That must create a lot of security for the players by making their focus simple.

He is tactically brilliant. I don't think I know another coach that is that good. The best thing about Mourinho studying his opponents is that unlike most managers who plan based on their opponents, Mourinho doesn't try to nullify threats only, he finds weaknesses to attack and he does that everywhere, from defence, midfield, and wings to the penalty box. He leaves little room on the pitch that has not been thought over. He must work extremely hard at it. It is far more positive than just stopping the other guy from playing as some other Italian and Spanish managers end up doing.

At Chelsea, money helped Mourinho a lot. It gave him a team of players around 24 to 27-years-old at the height of their capabilities. But he still had a lot of work to do. You just need to look at Man City and Real Madrid to realise that there is a lot of work to do to make those teams win. One cannot deny the impact of money because it does half the job for you. But at Porto, Mourinho had built a team. At Chelsea he did not buy Kaka or Ronaldinho – he bought the best players that he needed not the best players that were available. At Inter, he bought players like Muntari. He has money but he does much better with it and delivers results where others fail.

The question is, why does a guy who is so good at his job have to create such a bad vibe around him by the things he says? I am no shrink but it doesn't take one to realise that Mourinho wants to be acknowledged by his peers and the world as being the best or at least their equal. Nobody is saying it and it drives him mad. Everyday, someone throws plaudits and superlatives about Alex Ferguson or Arsène Wenger or Ancellotti or Guardiola. That has happened for years and it gets to Mourinho because he thinks he is better and wants to world to acknowledge it.

Here is what he said after the win at Chelsea: "This [Chelsea] is a team that lost a semi-final with a goal that was not a goal [in 2005], lost a semi-final on penalties [2007], lost a final on penalties [2008], lost a semi-final in a game that they should have won 3-0 with three penalties that were not given [last year].

"This is the story of this club and the story of these players. This is their history – one of frustration. They had the ambition to go through and they were frustrated because, immediately, they felt that Inter were the best team. I'm not saying Inter are better than them. I'm saying that, today, Inter were much better than Chelsea, from the first minute to the last minute, and that brought frustration to their players, great professionals and great people. My people will always be my people. But today I was the enemy. And the enemy won. That's life."

What José is saying there is: "I took them to the semi-finals many times and we should have won but for a few bad decisions. Now I am not here and you are not going to make it to the quarter finals but I am. (I know Chelsea made it to the finals without him once). He is telling everyone that he knows the players and knew exactly how to play against them. He is saying, I did my homework, I created a game plan, it worked and I am the best."

It is hard not to admire his work. I wish he would chill out and shut up and keep playing. Arsène Wenger believes in something different and so do many coaches. They don't have to be the same and Mourinho should just respect his peers and they will respect him back.

Well done to Inter. That was some game. Players at that age playing with full commitment, skill and experience is always great to watch. When I was watching yesterday, I wondered how it is that Arsenal could beat such teams. I believe we can but I know everyone else left (maybe apart from CSKA Moscow) are much stronger physically, mentally and more experienced. But I also see that their combinations on the ball are far inferior to Arsenal except for Barcelona. But yet they would know exactly how to stop Arsenal.

Eto'o's goal is what you pay €35million for. The first touch, the run, the timing of the finish and the quality and precision of it. All of this done at high pressure in the last quarter of the game when everything depended on it. That is what quality and experience gets you.

Maybe it will be Inter v Arsenal in the quarter-finals!

User Comments

User Comments

• Got something to say?
• Read comments

Vs chelsea