Looking beyond Mourinho While Chelsea fans savour the prospect of club legend Jose Mourinho returning to the club next season, it won’t be the end of the world if he doesn’t eventually come to Stamford Bridge. After all, almost all of the Mourinho rumours have been reported by far-from-credible news outlets like the Daily Mail and the Daily Star. Moreover, some reports have gone on to wildly suggest that Mourinho will bring Cristiano Ronaldo with him to Stamford Bridge. If that’s not lazy journalism, I don’t know what is. Most of these reports seem more like guesswork on the part of the media rather than cold hard facts. Mourinho’s daughter goes to school in London and the next day the papers print a news item which has as much substance as Ray Wilkins’ hairline. Jose has a contract with Real and as much as it looks like he’ll be leaving Madrid this summer, there’s no guarantee that he’ll end up at Chelsea. Paris or Manchester could be a tempting offer for ‘The Special One’ or he could take a break from the game altogether. Ofcourse, if Jose accepted Chelsea offer then the board should hire him on the spot but it would be wise for us fans to cool down the Jose talk until credible sources report it and brace for the worst-case scenario. Apart from Mourinho, Chelsea don’t exactly have ripe offerings to choose their next manager from. Pep Guardiola is walking into a manager’s dream at Bayern, Jurgen Klopp – a man of his word – has a contract for 3 more years at Dortmund and Guus Hiddink is set to retire from the game. That leaves only one reasonable option – No, Not David Moyes – but Malaga’s Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini. Track Record Pellegrini has managed 13 teams in his 25-year managerial career starting with Universidad Chile – the club he played for throughout his playing days. It was not until he took charge of Universidad Catolica in 1994 that his managerial potential was noticed. Catolica finished Runners-Up in 94’ and 95’ seasons. He won his first National Championship with Ecuadorian club Liga de Quito in 1999 before leading San Lorenzo to their first International title – winning the Copa Sudamericana in 2002 (equivalent to the Europa League). After few fairly successful seasons in Argentina, including a brief stint at River Plate, he joined Villarreal in July 2004. In his first season at Villarreal, the Yellow Submarines qualified for the UEFA Champions League finishing 3rd in the La Liga and also reached the Quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. Things would get better next season as Villarreal reached the Champions League Semi-Finals and lost narrowly to Arsenal with Juan Roman Riquelme missing a crucial penalty in the 2nd leg. Villarreal would finish 5th , 2nd and 5th in the next 3 seasons while also reaching the Champions League Quarter-Finals (losing to Arsenal again) Impressed by his work at Villarreal, Real Madrid hired Pellegrini at the start of the 2009-10 season but inspite of scoring 96 points in the league, Pellegrini was gone at the end of the season. The shock Copa del Rey loss to Alcorcon and another disappointing Champions League performance (Round of 16 exit) led to his dismissal but his record of 36 wins and 5 draws in 48 games with a 75% win percentage was actually good. By the end of 2010, he was working at Malaga who qualified for the Champions League the following season with a club-record 58 points. Despite the loss of key players Santi Cazorla and Salomon Rondon due to severe financial problems, Pellegrini stayed at Malaga and led them to a creditable Quarter-final run in the Champions League where they were controversially beaten by Borussia Dortmund in injury time. Tactical Preference At Villarreal, he played a 4-2-2-2 formation with 2 stopping midfielders in midfield and wing-backs pushing up to attack much like the way Chelsea play now. In the final third of the field, Villarreal deployed two strikers and in central midfield two interiores – attacking midfielders who are versatile. The two interiores are the creative hub of the team and Mata and Hazard strike me as perfect candidates for that spot. At Malaga, Pellegrini continued with the 4-2-2-2 with few tweaks but this season he reinvented Joaquin as a ‘Second-Striker’ to bring about a classic 4-2-3-1 look to his formation. More recently, due to Eliseu’s injury, Pellegrini used the diamond formation with Toulalan at the base and Isco at the tip with box-to-box wingers on either side. His tactical nuance is undoubted and he has installed firm footballing philosophies at both Villarreal and Malaga. His teams have a certain fluid ‘pass and move’ flavor to them but he has set up rigid formations in matches where he needs more defensive security. Conclusion His time at Real Madrid may be a little off-putting but it’s worth noting that he installed a footballing philosophy at both Villarreal and Malaga and has a good track record in the Champions League overall. Of course, Chelsea is a big step up from Malaga and Villarreal but he has had experience at the top level unlike most other managerial candidates.His professionalism is admired by his peers but on the contrary to his public image, he has made bold decisions; most notably dropping Juan Roman Riquelme at Villarreal and Raul at Real Madrid. He doesn’t have Premier League experience, but he is experienced enough now to adapt . He is not one of the ‘fancied’ candidates for the job but Manuel Pellegrini would currently be the best choice after Jose. He is the sort of manager who can build a team out of our talented crop of players stats and figures: whoscored.com and transfermarkt.com Click here to view the article
