Tactical Tuesday - Jose Mourinho

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I am tired of endless speculation about who may or may not be coming or leaving in the waning hours of the summer mercato. We will all know soon enough. Also last Sunday’s Italian Supper Cup game has already been reviewed on this board (here and here) and discussed ad nauseum, so I decided to post an article on Mourinho’s tactics for the upcoming season. The article is from the Inter Magazine, June 2008 (pages 19-21), and since this magazine is not available in the US or by subscription, I don’t think the Inter marketing people will be upset.

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At Mourinho’s School
“The tactics come after - says the new coach of the Nerazzurro - which is especially true for the Cup…”.
by Edoardo Caldara

“Uh mamma?” Someone will say, “But it is the coach sure ?!?!”. More than sure, we did a press conference wrapping up in half an hour television, radio, newspapers, those in the industry, the curious, fans and so on. But with care, with care not to fall into the trap of misrepresenting the script.

Of course Mourinho is not naive, a successful man that has done so much in not even 50 years cannot be, his opinions will be contextualized and explained in the lines below. Meanwhile, referring to the concept that he knows the football culture of the countries where chooses to coach, he believes. ..

“Definitely the most important are the tactics. I Once said: Barcelona could not be champion of England and Chelsea could not be in Spain, clearly no?”

Maybe. Then, when the journalists present, especially in the talks following the press conference, have requested clarification about his tactical system, so dear to us theoretical Italians, he replied:

“I like the construction of dynamic triangles…”.

Everyone stop, you understood this? The construction of dynamic triangles. Ergo, moving to find the exchange, better if geometric and logical, kicking, in order to circumvent the marking and the opposing players. Or, more likely, the triangular placement of the players on the field, continuous and incessant movement. Nothing more to say. But he is not finished.

“Systems with a few lines of play are more difficult. With the triangle every player has a rational occupation of the space and it is easier to handle ball possession.”

But here are the goods for the historians who are interested in the biography and tactics of the great masters such as Mourinho. Everyone who studies the application of tactics to Chelsea’s game in recent years, unfortunately for these historians, they must reevaluate their beliefs with this admission:

“After three years, I admit that the tactical ideas coming out at Chelsea is not my true philosophy.”

Yes, but then, what should we expect for next season?

“Italy is more tactical than elsewhere. When I arrived in London, Chelsea was the only team training to use the 4-3-3: players between the lines, wings that change their position during the game. Today also Arsenal and Manchester play this way: ball possession and working methods have changed. Regarding the application at lnter, well, I like to think of using the game with bands, to create spaces, to seek the depth there. It is not said that two wingers must be purchased, I like the players that are employed….”.

Words that undoubtedly will be liked by the President, but a few purchases we think, obviously, to improve wherever they can.

Ultimately we can already summarize Mourinho’s thinking with a simplistic analysis of its previous forms, 4-3-1-2 in Portugal with Porto, the already mentioned 4-3-3 in London, pointing out other peculiarities of the lusitanian coach: great attention to the work, studied in detail, attention to the construction of the defense and attack on the pitch, often the best sections of his squads, and in the leagues where he has worked. A great constructor of theories about the adversary, studied and dissected in order to find weak points and situations to utilize in the match.

Constant care, finally, even for situations when the game has stopped. Dead-balls, corner kicks, throw-ins, and free kicks do not escape the system of Jose Mourinho, and like the other parts, wants the tradition of the great coaches in modern football, now called upon to manage a complex system of play, quick and very good-looking physically, with a consequent speed of application to be calculated in each individual task.

But more important than the considerations set out above, is, as always the words of the technician already champion of Portugal, England, and Europe:

“Often we coaches are not important, and usually we play the game first when we take to the field to prepare, and after, when the ball has stopped. Almost never during the ninety minutes. The coach must know how to change, must be able to transmit calm, be a leader, a psychologist, a manager of human resources. A coach that is a tactical superman, one that only knows football, can never be, completely, a great “.

However, Mourinho, seems to have all his cards in order, to amaze and, above all, win.

Mourinho and his tactics

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by nicodemus

I've have been sick and tired of hearig all this JM bashing and saying" hes a cocky twat" " he'll never do well in the EPL because its better then Portugal" etc. ITs taken me 4 days..but i have complied all this info i have gathered from sources around the net, my own knowledge of him and what i think after seeing him wiht porto for 3 seasons. I'm so ****en tired and I have work tommorow at 6 30 am. its 12 45 am now. Damn making swimmming pools, then lifeguarding :banghead 

I'll try to explain which concepts and tactics are behind Mourinho's success. 

First of all, let's start with the man. As some of you know, he was born surrounded by football, his father was a goalkeeper in Setubal, and later a average portuguese league coach. In a early age, he walked around with his father teams, and helped his father in small tasks in coaching, like sending tactical messages to the players, and, even, scouting the opponent's teams. He was 15, and from those days he learned the secrets of the locker rooms, and how to adress and understand the players. 
He was a bellow average player in the youth teams, but early, choosed to follow his father footsteps and surpass him. Therefore he graduated in a Sports University (ISEF), in football, which gave him the theoretic knowledge on Training Methods which he improved later, being nowdays one of the best in the world in that field, integrating always the ball in the tactical and physical exercices, which boosts player motivation to train and overall abilities. 

He is considered by one of his most famous college teatchers to be an absolute genious as a coach, unparalleled in the world. 
After his degree he was, as you know, assistant coach to Bobby Robson in Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona, and to Van Gaal, also in Barcelona. 
Before he joined Benfica as the first coach, he spent two years writing everything he knowned about football, coaching, and training in a book, which he calls 'The Bible', and which is kept secret (for all i know it was only given to Porto's Chairman, Pinto da Costa, aka The Pope, loll). 
This secrecy over his methods is one of the reason's why Mourinho always closes the trainings to the public. Porton fans could only attend to the trainings, on the days following a defeat (that was the agreement made by JM with the fans), and fortunately we hardly did. 

One small defect on Mourinho is to be pointed: He's Ego. He is a knowned Narcisist (even diagnosed by a knowkned Psychoanalyst in Portugal) and, eventualy, the teams he coachs, will after 2 or 3 years worn out of him, because of the way he takes success as his own accomplishment, therefore stripping the players of the spotlights. This tends to at a short term motivate the team, seeing themselves in the coach's confidence, but at the long term, they tend to feel that their personal conquests as teamplayers is overshadowed by the focus on the coach. That also was starting to happen in Porto, just before he left, with a huge respect from the players for JM's abilities as a coach, but with a growing distance from the man. Two small episodes from Mourinho's history in Porto: - When he won the UEFA Cup, he ran around the pitch alone, jumping and screaming, while the players celebrated in the oposite side. 
- This year after winning the Champions League he did not celebrate with the players, he prefered to go and join his family on the bench, and did not fly home with the players to the apotheothic celebration with the fans, as they did. 

To finish the 'Man issue', we can say that he's one of those guys that you love or hate, because he is good, he knows it, shows it and is arrogant if needed. You can hope for a close relation with the team fans, and a dubious relation with the press, the rival managers, and the other teams fans. My guess, is that you Blues fans will adore him, and everyone else will hate him. Just has it happend here in Portugal. 

The skills: 

Mourinho is world class in: 

- Motivating players - wether it is on the locker rooms, or by statements to the press that work, indirectly, has a message for the team. He also has very strong starts in the game (forget the championsleague final) and at the start of the second halfs. He's one of the best giving the team a feeling of reunion, of working together for the same objective, sometime's choosing an exterior enemy to gather the troops against, and it could be the press, a rival club or coach. His players tend to be confident (almost arrogant) and not to shake in important matches, and his team, always (i mean always) adresses a game to win wether they have to atack all game or counter atack. He expects the players to be as confident as he is, and takes's the best, psychologically, of them. If they lack the nerve constantly, they'll be dropped out. 

- Tactically - In Porto every player knowned always what it was expected from him in the pitch. How exactly to atack, and who and how to defend. He's a controll freak as he is a workaholic, and even on pre-season friendly matches, every player got a full written report of the other teams tactics and individual abilities. This was so extense, that each player would know the direct oposite player most used driblle, strong points, weak points, etc, etc. Further we can say that each position in the field will have directives of how to play, and that he seeks that in no moment of the game one of his player doesn't know what he should do. This means that every aspect is studied and passed on to players, from indirect kicks, throws, to the exact number of atackers the team must have (3) when the other team has a corner, to start an imediat counter attack, as in normal play, tending the team to work clockwise, with or without the ball. 
One example of how minutia he gets, is when he substitute's a player, changing the team's gameplay, he sents the player in with written message's for the key player at midfield telling him how to position. In the portuguese Superliga the tv cameras used to spent there time trying to zoom on the piece of paper with the message. 

- Training - For what he brag's about, he is the nº 1 in the world, but also by the number of football students, that choose is training methods has a case study for post-graduations. As said before, training is integrated, no more running around the pitch for hours, or physical exercises without the ball. everything is methodically done together. 

- The way he reads the game - Mourinho was invited to do the match coments in the Spain-Portugal game at Euro 2004, and all the country was astonished by his knowledge of the game, tactical nuances, etc, etc. He was so outstanding that days after the match people and the press were still talking about his performance and made us all feel that we didn't understand a thing about real football. The good thing is that the usual tv experts all got blushed with there own ignorance. 


Mourinho is good in: 

- Making the right subs - Although he reads the game well, at a number of times i was not that much convinced that he made the right subs. And that means something! it means he doesn't go for the popular subs, but for those he thinks will do the team well. Several and several times Porto was able to turn around a negative score, and many times with goals scored by the subs chosen by JM. 

Mourinho is not that good in: 

- Playing that all atacking football the fans love to see - and this means that you wil not have open games with a lot of goals, neither will you have the pitch full of creative players, only the necessary ones. Forget about 4-5 wins or defeats. As soon as Mourinho as 'his own team', the results will tend to be 1-0 or 2-0, for Chelsea. 

The tactics: This is the juicy part!! 

Where to start? hummmmmm...... by the defense, as JM always does! 
Expect a zonal defence, using one strong mark CB and the other CB being free and pacey (Terry and Gallas?). Most of the times the defense will use off line tactics to stop teams with speedy forwards. 
One thing JM is strong about is the heigth of the wingbacks: they have to be tall and able to help in central defense when needed (that's why Ibarra was shipped to Monaco on loan). This means that when oposite team is atacking down one flank, the defender of the oposite flank goes imediatly to the center to help defending. They also help on atack with quick combinations with the winger (Porto was great in that) but expect more runs with the ball when the team is playing in diamond formation, without wingers. Defensive compensations are made by the CD or by the DM if he is playing in 4-3-3 (actualy it is a 4-2-3-1) or by the two midfielders in the edge when he plays a diamond formation. 

Midfield - I think you'll see various systems with the same dynamic of play. The 4-3-3 for the easier games and the home games, consisting of two wingers and a striker in atack, and a triangle in the midfield (this was the most famous tactic used by him in portugal for the superliga, not the diamond, that he only used in derby's and in the championsleague, because he had is wingers not available for the competition). The triangle consists of one DM who will have a very important role in the positioning of the team, he might help the central defenders if needed (if he is tall) or positioning the team to atack by defending high on the field. It is not important for JM that he has briliant technic, it is far more important that he is tactically inteligent in his actions. The other two players would be a midfielder who can both atack and defend well, with a good long range shoot and pass (like maniche) and the other would be the 10, to whom is given freedom, but also expected to help the team defend if needed. 
In the Diamond formation (which is a 4-4-2 system without wingers) used only in matches against similar or superior teams, he will use two players who can both defend and atack, by the edge of the diamond, which may also explore the wings for atack. The low tip of the diamond is a DM and the atacking tip a nº 10 (9,5 like Platini), playing closer to the atackers and using the space in there back to atack in the middle or leaning to the wings in some of the atacking moves of the team. 

Atack - Expect your forwards to be... defenders! :woot Calm down! He is not Otto Rehagel and you'll not be fans of the english greek team. What i mean is that the most important aspect of the way JM plays with his teams is closing down on the opponent. He is obcessed by it, specialy on doing it on the other team half pitch, right in there defense, destroying the possibility of building any game, or even long balls to the atack, because our forwards will close down on each player who has the ball, increasing the mistakes made, and the passes missed. Expect many goals to be scored by some atacker stealing the ball to a defender. His closing down sistem is not defensive, by the oposite, it's atacking, because he do it high in the other team field (we call it in portugal 'high pressure' which would mean something like 'high closing down'). Atackers, midfielders, everyone but the CD will close down, and that's why many great teams that played against Porto, simply just didn't play a thing. The team will work as a block, all the sections close together, limiting the other teams space to play. You will see in many games, you're central defenders in the half pitch line. 
The atacking system will consist of 2 wingers and a striker (if in 4-3-3) or a striker and a pacey forward with some positional freedom (if in Diamond). All of them are expected to help the team defending (by the Closing Down), but not to move backwards too much because JM likes to leave a threat in the atack when he is defending in his side of the pitch. 

Overal Tactic- 
With the ball - take the game into the other team half side, short pass, and envolvement movements in which all the players participate. 
Without the ball - close down fast on the oponent, to take him the ball or make him miss his pass. Everyone helps defending, and the sectors work close to each other. 

To keep in mind: JM for many ocasions argued that he preferes players who are not stars, or premadonas, but that are young (24-26) and never won a thing, so that he can motivate them to winning and not just settle for their past trophies. JM said once in Portugal that he could never be a coach in a team like R. Madrid because of the way players acted like stars, missing on training, or going out at night. Therefore don't expect someone like Ronaldo ever to come to Chelsea if JM is not sure that he is going to die on the field if needed. -This is why he is probably getting rid of Crespo among others at Chelsea.

I hope this is of some use for you Chelsea fans. I will also start to suport the team, and you're complex but exciting coach. 

If any have you have any doubts about what was writin before, just post them. I'll try to help if possible

Why Only England Can Tolerate Jose Mourinho

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He branded himself 'A Special One' in his very first PC after being appointed coach of English Football Club, Chelsea mid-2004 and we instinctively warmed up to the man whose celebratory sprint down the touchline at Old Trafford in 2004 had initially introduced him to the British public—an act that had brought a sly smile to every non-United fan's face.

The contrast between Jose Mourinho's popularity in England and Italy has been as stark as it gets.

The English tabloids 'dim-wittedly' fell for him, while the more sophisticated Italians have been left scratching their heads wondering what is so special about this Portuguese who seems more of a 'Lusitanian bluff', a term generously coined by Italian Football buffs.

So why are most of the British public and EPL fans so enthralled by this living, breathing and walking fulfilment of arrogance from Portugal? 

What exactly do they see in him which evidently no other League has managed to?

Throughout his successful three year stint with the Premier League Club, Mourinho's behavior had been more than slightly unhinged.
 
Whether it be shushing on Anfield's face, claiming that Arsene Wenger was a ‘voyeur’, the '"I am invisible" talk to cops (for the uninitiated—he prevented animal welfare officials from putting his beloved Yorkshire Terrier dog into quarantine), hiding in the dressing Room and escaping via a laundry bin during a match he had been banned from.

He used an 'eggs in the waitrose' metaphor to explain his footballing style, snubbed compatriot and Manchester United winger, Christiano Ronaldo by labelling him 'a liar' (undeniably, there is a bit of credibility here), this and more added to the ' whistle and whistle, cheat and cheat' blast at the Red Devils post their high profile Carling Cup SF(2005) clash — the man had come off as an extremely eccentric bloke who seemed to possess an endearing sense of mischief. 

When he was around, the pot was not just boiling—it was ready to spill.

Indeed there always was a vocal group, though by a long way only a minority, that disliked his pragmatic style not to mention that maddening haughtiness of the steely-eyed football fizz.

But ask yourself—didn't most of you enjoy it all, if only silently?

He would make it a requisite to catch his post-match conferences, which would delight the usually dull week separating the League clashes.

The supremely confident man was Colourful and Charismatic, Controversial and Candid, Committed and ultimately—borderline Crazy. 

And the biggest mouth in Football apparently has so much savvy sex-appeal that in 2006, Mourinho was voted the sixth sexiest man in the world by readers of Brit New Woman magazine.  

Right, this George Clooney look-alike is one item of a Footballing manager. 

And in England, packages like this are begging to become the 'Show of the country.'

The English public couldn't wait to start wooing the pepper-salt haired Portuguese—he had been a blast of fresh air into the League which had always been wanting of bravado.

Fellow managers loved him—*cough* but of course they did! Who would talk about and scrutinise them when Mr Bombastic was around, who seemingly revelled being soaked with limelight.

Because bad Publicity is still publicity.

As has been widely acknowledged, English football has certainly seemed duller since Chelsea made the mistake by letting him leave by “mutual consent” in 2007. 

So charisma, confidence and lunacy - all in all, a winning combination in English land. 

Ah, the irony of it all..don't we love nutters?

But all has not gone well in Italy. 

Since setting foot in Italy and having learnt Italian in just three weeks to get along with the media—something he claims was a show of 'respect', at the Nerazzuri he has appeared everything he didn't while in England. 

Unnecessarily loud-mouthed, incredibly disrespectful, uncharmingly childish, invariably irritating and most importantly quite 'ordinary'.

His boastfulness and arrogance has not appeared endearing at all to the Italian public, whether he twinkles his eyes notwithstanding and over the last few months, he has made more enemies than friends.

As result, he has fallen out with everyone—picking fights with Ancelotti, Claudio Ranieri, Donadoni, Galliani, Luciano Spalletti, Maldini, Pietro Lo Monaco, Buffon (Gosh! You name them) one after the other or rather, all at the same time.

To elucidate on his many war of words with different rival managers will be a waste of time—mine and yours, but the following spat may give the gist. 

After Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri claimed that  "unlike Mourinho I don’t need to win to be sure about what I am doing," the Portuguese blasted back in his trademark style saying that "Ranieri was right, I do need to win things to be sure of what I am doing.

"That’s why I've won so many trophies. By contrast, he has the mentality that winning isn’t crucial and at nearly 70 years old* he's just won a Super Cup and other small tournaments. He is too old to change his mentality.”

Apparently, the in-depth analysis in the culture-rich and respect demanding (especially for age) Italian Football is more intelligent and demanding of being 'becoming' than in England.

And Mourinho doesn't seem to appreciate this.

In fact, he has seemed more than a bit of an intolerable brat to the Italians, who cannot wait to see his back.

Evidently the scathing Italians seem to agree with Volker Roth, the over-exuberant chairman of UEFA’s referees committee, who once branded Mourinho ‘The Enemy of Football’.

Clearly, for Jose, widely known for his strong personality and quirky comments at press conferences, things have not been 'Jolly Good' for once at Inter Milan.

There can be no doubt about his calibre as a Coach. He is a class apart in every way when it comes to managerial abilities and has been widely recognised as Top Draw. 

At shoestring budget, he took the hardly celebrated FC Porto to European victory beating out richer, stronger opponents en route. And of course his achievements at Chelsea are well familiar to EPL fans. 

Since 2003, he has racked up more than a dozen trophies but Jose's his phenomenal run as a coach is even more well reflected in the 110 home games unbeaten in all competitions since 23rd February 2002 and his enviable 71 percent in ALL competitions since joining Porto. 

More importantly, the players of his Club, wherever he goes, always love him because he is the man who demands respect for them, protects them with his singular antics. 

But at the end of the day, that is that.

He is the Fabio Capello league - he will possibly win more than most contemporaries, but will never have the legacy that a Sir Alex Ferguson or an Arsene Wenger will leave. 

To the England Footballing passionates he may be like Gold Dust, but in almost every other country he goes, people cannot wait to wipe the dust off.


*In fact, Ranieri is 56 years old.