The Mourinho Thread

[Peppen 934]

Class act, Jose.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Hats off to Jose for seeing that Mata out wide wasn't working at all especially against Shaw and Lallana. Great subs that won us the game (especially Oscar, dude was in inspired form, he plays like that and he's our undisputed number 10 by far).

I thought our best 11 (give or take Lampard and Luiz) played today when he threw on Oscar and Willian. I'm also now beginning to see patterns in our forward play, triangles and squares, good link up play... That first half vs. Liverpool and the game today against Southampton (where we could've scored so much more, could've easily been 4/5-0 if Torres had his shooting boots) were the best I've seen us play in a long, long time.

Glad to finally be seeing some progression, it's all I want from this season - for the foundation of the team to start taking shape, for us to start creating an identity. I don't really care much if we win trophies or not.

[Laylabelle 9,326]

Made the right call!Love it

[Phil Driver 503]

All those who doubted Mourinho hang your heads in shame ,this fella is special ,enjoy the ride and well done to the home crowd for insisting on his return.

[The_Flash 1,144]

That sounded very honest about Oscar, although so many teams would have got the penalty.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

Better late than never. Everything is falling into place. A good transfer window and we are well on our way for the title.

Hats off, Jose

[Fernando 6,398]

It's good to see this thread without all the trolls.

Mourinho shut them up once again! :-)

[The_Flash 1,144]

The Special One

[Laylabelle 9,326]

Awwww.His car air freshener looks like him to.Sort of

[Toli 977]

great subs. Only think I couldnt understand why he kept playing Mata as a RW while we had Eden on the pitch?!

[Peace. 4,352]

great subs. Only think I couldnt understand why he kept playing Mata as a RW while we had Eden on the pitch?!

Well, I am not 100% sure, but...

As someone was wondering during the game "why is he on the wing while he is our slowest AM ?", it gotta be said that he is also the worst when it comes to defensive contribution. Furthermore, our pivot is not setting the world on fire — far from it. It happens that when Mata plays in the middle, there is a huge gap in the middle of the parc ; between him and the pivot ; which allow the opposition to overflow us in midfield.

Thus I believe that Mourinho has played Mata down the right wing to nullify as much as possible his deficiency in defensive duties, and as a consequence to not lose the midfield battle. We also have to take into account that Azpilicueta was the right back and Ramires can give a hand on that right side (thanks to his mobility).

To conclude, Mourinho did not play Mata on the right wing in order to make Mata look bad as some people were saying (*shake my head*), but rather because it was where his defensive flaws would less hurt the team — I guess...

[The Skipper 20,593]

Well, I am not 100% sure, but...

As someone was wondering during the game "why is he on the wing while he is our slowest AM ?", it gotta be said that he is also the worst when it comes to defensive contribution. Furthermore, our pivot is not setting the world on fire — far from it. It happens that when Mata plays in the middle, there is a huge gap in the middle of the parc ; between him and the pivot ; which allow the opposition to overflow us in midfield.

Thus I believe that Mourinho has played Mata down the right wing to nullify as much as possible his deficiency in defensive duties, and as a consequence to not lose the midfield battle. We also have to take into account that Azpilicueta was the right back and Ramires can give a hand on that right side (thanks to his mobility).

To conclude, Mourinho did not play Mata on the right wing in order to make Mata look bad as some people were saying (*shake my head*), but rather because it was where his defensive flaws would less hurt the team — I guess...

You could be right, but he shouldn't have started Mata on the right considering Southampton's main threat (Shaw & Lallana) are on that flank and most attacks were going through them. Fortunately though he realised this and brought on Willian who is excellent defensively. The fact that Shaw went off at HT also helped - although Clyne is still a decent replacement, Clyne wasn't fully fit. Coupled with the fact that Willian is great at tracking back and that Azpi had a great game defensively, it really stopped So'ton from threatening.

[Rubber bullets 1,183]

Its good to see Mourinho actually trying to do the minumum of winning the Premier league title and playing good football without hiding bheind the whole "we're in transition crap".

[The only place to be 11,313]

Its good to see Mourinho actually trying to do the minumum of winning the Premier league title and playing good football without hiding bheind the whole "we're in transition crap".

But we are in transition.

[Rubber bullets 1,183]

But we are in transition.

We are not.

Last two years you could say we are in trasition. But we have also been spending of millions of pounds on players while making no attemp to use our youth academy. A lot of the players that we have nought have settled into the club and we should e capale of winning the title.

And considering that Jose has given me little evidence that he will be a long term appontment and will leave in 4 years like all the other clubs. He needs to win things now, and not try and use that excuse.

And consaidering that I don't think

[Toli 977]

We are not.

Last two years you could say we are in trasition. But we have also been spending of millions of pounds on players while making no attemp to use our youth academy. A lot of the players that we have nought have settled into the club and we should e capale of winning the title.

And considering that Jose has given me little evidence that he will be a long term appontment and will leave in 4 years like all the other clubs. He needs to win things now, and not try and use that excuse.

And consaidering that I don't think

we have a new coach. of course we are in transition. look how he tries to change our way of playing. look how mata plays in it. we are definetely in transition. its even hard to believe, that we are only few points of topp without having a world.class DM/Cm and a decent striker.

[Jase 43,479]

Well, I am not 100% sure, but...

As someone was wondering during the game "why is he on the wing while he is our slowest AM ?", it gotta be said that he is also the worst when it comes to defensive contribution. Furthermore, our pivot is not setting the world on fire — far from it. It happens that when Mata plays in the middle, there is a huge gap in the middle of the parc ; between him and the pivot ; which allow the opposition to overflow us in midfield.

Thus I believe that Mourinho has played Mata down the right wing to nullify as much as possible his deficiency in defensive duties, and as a consequence to not lose the midfield battle. We also have to take into account that Azpilicueta was the right back and Ramires can give a hand on that right side (thanks to his mobility).

To conclude, Mourinho did not play Mata on the right wing in order to make Mata look bad as some people were saying (*shake my head*), but rather because it was where his defensive flaws would less hurt the team — I guess...

A decent point and it does make me wonder if we solve our pivot problems, will he be playing Mata in there? After all, Sneijder and Ozil wasn't exactly the best of players defensively but had good solid pivots behind them to make that midfield work. But then again, given the situation with Mata right now, doubt we'll be able to see that 'experiment'.

[NiclasCFC 2,582]

A decent point and it does make me wonder if we solve our pivot problems, will he be playing Mata in there? After all, Sneijder and Ozil wasn't exactly the best of players defensively but had good solid pivots behind them to make that midfield work. But then again, given the situation with Mata right now, doubt we'll be able to see that 'experiment'.

We are building a team based on pressing when we defend and that was not the case for José at Inter and Real and because of that he could afford playing Sneijder and Özil at the nr 10 position.