The Mourinho Thread

[Tomo 21,681]

I agree with the argument against Jose. His inability to learn from his previous mistakes and overly cautious approach is rather annoying i.e giving quality opposition the ball and inviting intense pressure in closing minutes is a stupidly risky strategy that relies on sheer luck and complete concentration from the entire defence/team and the worst part is when it backfires (like it did against united) there's an air of inevitability about it, you can see it coming.

There are other less risky ways to see out a (big) game or any game for that matter like pressurizing the opponent higher up the pitch, closing down passing lanes which forces the opposition into punting the ball forward or going back to the GK, time wasting and keeping possession of the ball which can only happen with high pressing and pushing bodies forward and most often that not, closing stages of the match is the best time to induce the final, killer blow when the opponent are extremely vulnerable at the back due to committing men forward in chase of the equalizing or winning goal. instead of defending like a pussy, get in their faces and go for the jugular either that or keep posession of the ball and waste as much time as possible and stop them from transitioning the ball into areas that can hurt us.

I was hoping he would have learned his lesson against Bayern in the super cup.

There's an element of risk whatever you do.

We press high and go for the second then Matic or Cesc lose it in the centre mid or worse do a Gerrard? goalscoring opportunity right there.

Speaking of Gerrard, Brendan needed a draw against us and the title was in his hands with two games left, he decided to attack us and play high up, a decision that cost him the title.

Sometimes sitting on a lead will work sometimes it won't, Arsenal were starting to build momentum at The Bridge, Jose brings on Mikel and that is that. Even yesterday it served it's purpose as United created next to nothing until the late free kick.

If there was a "right way" to defend a one goal advantage every manager would use it and 99 percent of games would end 0-0 or 1-0. Go for a second or hold what you have? neither approach is bulletproof, both can and do backfire and when they do it usually ends with the manager criticised for not taking the other approach.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

The 6-3 at Everton was a mistake, Mikel was warming up already at 2-1, Jose was going to try and rely on a 1 goal difference again with over 30 mins to go. Also @MrExcallibur100 the match at the Etihad was completely different this season than last season. This season we was very cautious and basically parked the bus. Last season, I don't know what happened, maybe Jose took something before the game? But our team attacked and took the game to City, we actually dominated them in their own stadium and won.

Read the explanation I gave on the difference between our performance at Etihad this season in the league and last season. Jose tried to make the team do the same thing and it backfired. We couldn't counter-attack because they didn't commit many bodies to attack and they pressed our forwards high up the pitch. It was similar to our loss there in the FA cup.

[Madmax 9,219]

Did I read someone cribbing about baker and briwn?

So giving zouma, christensen and ake 90 minutes each is not enough? He should probably have put in a u-20 team.

Hopeless cribbing. Embarassing.

Ah yes, we should worship the ground he walks upon for playing a £12m signing and the best defender in the academy when 3 of our only 5 senior defenders are a. suspended or b. 34 year old. Bravo Jose, such big balls.

I only spoke about Baker and Brown because he put them on the pedestal with his comments about English players. What good did Oscar, Salah and Schurrle do today? I get not starting 5 of them together but did Schurrle and Oscar justify getting the full 90? Would Salah have even come off had they not equalised? Was there such a massive need to play Solanke in the u-21 while Drogba had to slog on and on?

Yes it would have been nice and romantic for us to play all the under 21s and won 4-0, but in reality if we played those 3 to go with the 3 teenagers already on, we could quite well have lost.

I said pre-match that I'd have been fine had we lost while giving genuine game time to Ake, Baker and the lot. Now that we are in the QF, do you think even Ake will get a game unless it's against Bournemouth? This was the chance to do it but he backtracked over his earlier comments. I'm disappointed about this and the arguments so far can't convince me otherwise.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

I do agree about Neville though. He's by far the best football analyst this country's got and I like him a lot, but I think he's starting to get worried by us; He's worried by the squad we now have at our disposal and how that will affect his beloved Man United in the long run. He seems to have Chelsea on his mind a lot nowadays.

First, it was the Fabregas issue on how he contributes little defensive cover to the defense and how playing a double pivot with him will cost us. I thought it was weird since it was so early in the season and Fabregas and Matic were still building their partnership. They've since made the right adjustments with (Oscar playing a vital role) and have both been brilliant.

Now this talk about how this squad is not able to see out games and drawing comparisons with the 2005 squad, which is silly since we've drawn two games at Old Trafford and the Etihad and won the remaining 7. Yet, he comes to the pre-mature conclusion that this team lacks the ability to see out games. How'd you do that, Garry? For one, this team has far more attacking flair than that one and we play a different style. The ruthlessness of this team lies in it's ability to outscore the opposition, the fact we're averaging almost 3 goals this season is testament to that fact.

[tiby2979 175]

Some people begin to look like Barcelona Fans obsessed with the possession.

[DH1988 1,194]

correct me if I'm wrong but Chelsea have the best record overall in Europe right now, right?

This crusade against the Special One is laughable... 9 games played and a near perfect record in the toughest league, the only blemishes occurred in the dying seconds of two tough games.

Wow some Chelsea supporters don't know how good they have it, bitching, moaning and complaining about a manager who has us undefeated and playing some incredible football. This is where the love of video games has ruined the reality of football. When you play Football Manager you can save your progress and if you lose reload the game and try again, this 'redo as many times until you get it right' style of game play has warped a lot of peoples minds.

Jose knows what he's doing people, you are making yourselves look like idiots complaining about two draws in an undefeated season. Not one loss in roughly 15 games played, that is incredible and the manager deserves a ton of credit for it.

Nothing but respect for Jose Mourinho!

Respect? Of course but quite a deluded post and I'd like to make a bet right now that in the later stages of the CL/season, but especially the CL its going to cost us, again.

[didierforever 7,349]

It's not. They think we have in the younger team the new Maradona.

By the way... the other squads give a lot of oportinities to their young players.Here are the starting elevens of Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool in this competition.

Arsenal 1-2 Southampton

David Ospina, Calum Chambers, Héctor Bellerín, Isaac Hayden, Francis Coquelin, Tomás Rosicky, Jack Wilshere, Abou Diaby, Alexis Sánchez, Joel Campbell, Lukas Podolski

(3 players under 21)

Liverpool 2-2 Middlesbrough

Simon Mignolet, Javier Manquillo, Kolo Touré, Mamadou Sakho, José Enrique, Lucas Leiva, Adam Lallana, Marković, Jordan Rossiter, Raheem Sterling, Rickie Lambert

4 players under 21 (2 of them already stablished players)

Liverpool 2-1 Swansea

Brad Jones, Glen Johnson, Javier Manquillo, Kolo Touré, Dejan Lovren, Lucas Leiva, Philippe Coutinho, Jordan Henderson, Lazar Marković, Rickie Lambert, Fabio Borini

(2 players under 21, 1 of them cost 22M£)

MK Dons 4-0 Manchester United

David de Gea, Jonny Evans, Michael Keane, Reece James, Marnick Vermijl, Saidy Janko, Kagawa, Anderson, Nick Powell, Chicharito Hernández, Danny Welbeck

( 3 players under 21 and 2 more that are 21/22 years old and not stablished players).

Manchester City 7-0 Sheff Wed

Caballero, Sagna, Kolarov, Mangala, Demichelis, Fernandinho, Lampard, Y Touré, Milner, Jesús Navas, Dzeko

(0 under 21 players)

------

We had 3 players under-21 excluding salah who is 21. Arsenal lost, united lost cos of excess youth. Pool had to go thru a massive penalty match to win.

I think we are doing quite well when compared to others.

[lionsden 4,689]

There's an element of risk whatever you do.

We press high and go for the second then Matic or Cesc lose it in the centre mid or worse do a Gerrard? goalscoring opportunity right there.

Speaking of Gerrard, Brendan needed a draw against us and the title was in his hands with two games left, he decided to attack us and play high up, a decision that cost him the title.

Sometimes sitting on a lead will work sometimes it won't, Arsenal were starting to build momentum at The Bridge, Jose brings on Mikel and that is that. Even yesterday it served it's purpose as United created next to nothing until the late free kick.

There's an element of risk however some strategy are less risky and more logical than others.

Regarding the risk of our midfielders getting caught up in posession, the whole point of pressing hugh up is to force the opponent to either turn the ball over, kill their attacking momentum (Not many teams can hold onto the ball and create chances under heavy pressure) and capitalise on their mistake and spaces. And you are thinking of the worst possible scenario anyway as pressing high up doesn't mean committing everyone forward in the opposition half (no one does that except when chasing a lead or equaliser)

And what's the relevance between methods to seeing out a game and the Liverpool game? completely different and unrelated cases in the sense that we backed off Liverpool right from the blow of the whistle and as a result Liverpool weren't put iunder any offensive pressure at all by us whereas my original point was a better method to stiffling the opposition and preventing goals to see the game out.

Look at Atletico at the bridge last season, they were 2-1 up and one leg into the finals and could easily have retreated and surrendered posession to us Jose style but instead they kept attacking us, keeping possession and pressing high up the pitch which resulted in a very very comfortable victory in the end. Atleti never felt threatened after they went ahead but they would have if they had retreated and surrendered possession to us. that's the right and best way to do it.

If there was a "right way" to defend a one goal advantage every manager would use it and 99 percent of games would end 0-0 or 1-0. Go for a second or hold what you have? neither approach is bulletproof, both can and do backfire and when they do it usually ends with the manager criticised for not taking the other approach.

Managers can't and don't do it consistently with success because there are other variables that determines the result of a football match like the quality and form of the team and the opposition, injuries and suspension, the overall team's performance on the day, referees and officiating, the fine margins otherwise known as luck, defensive or individual mistake (s), profligacy in front of goal and so on. However when you have the right players, a well executed and logical strategy can improve a team's chances of winning matches or getting the desired result whatever that may be.

[lionsden 4,689]

And why's he throwing his players under the bus AGAIN. That's just bad management plain and simple. number one rule of management is to accept responsibility as the leader and always protect your team in public.

[didierforever 7,349]

Ah yes, we should worship the ground he walks upon for playing a £12m signing and the best defender in the academy when 3 of our only 5 senior defenders are a. suspended or b. 34 year old. Bravo Jose, such big balls.

I only spoke about Baker and Brown because he put them on the pedestal with his comments about English players. What good did Oscar, Salah and Schurrle do today? I get not starting 5 of them together but did Schurrle and Oscar justify getting the full 90? Would Salah have even come off had they not equalised? Was there such a massive need to play Solanke in the u-21 while Drogba had to slog on and on?

Ohk. So 2 of our 5 defenders are suspended. 1 is rested and jose just chose 2 youth players. Fuck him. I mean who needs a presence in defence. Lets to a united and play blacket, keane and god knows who and get are asses fucked 4-0. Brilliant.

And he definitely should not be playong a 19 year old zouma or the best academy product. I mean this is just CFC. He should probably call back pappoe and play him agaunst pool 2 weeks later. Cos now that's what we have come to.

So lets put a 17 year old solanke in the deep end of the pool. Dude, even the u-21 is a step up for him. As for salah and schurrle they deserved their 90minutes irrespective of how they played. They had to be given that minimum chance to prove and challenge for the firat team squad. But god forbid jose does anything that doea make everyone happy.

Alao he said 3-4 years. Judge him then.

[Cholo 428]

And why's he throwing his players under the bus AGAIN. That's just bad management plain and simple. number one rule of management is to accept responsibility as the leader and always protect your team in public.

OK Mr Manager. Many managers do this. He did this once after Benzema had a bad performance. After Mourinho's remarks, Benzema had a great run scoring many goals.

[Madmax 9,219]

Ohk. So 2 of our 5 defenders are suspended. 1 is rested and jose just chose 2 youth players. Fuck him. I mean who needs a presence in defence. Lets to a united and play blacket, keane and god knows who and get are asses fucked 4-0. Brilliant.

And he definitely should not be playong a 19 year old zouma or the best academy product. I mean this is just CFC. He should probably call back pappoe and play him agaunst pool 2 weeks later. Cos now that's what we have come to.

Don't try and twist this. You lamented my "embarrassing and hopeless cribbing" about youth when he'd started Zouma and Christensen. I merely pointed out that it didn't deserve credit because the suspensions had his hands tied in that matter. Excepting Ake he didn't give a single minute to anyone where he wasn't obligated to. So yeah, thanks for not running Matic into the ground, I guess.

So lets put a 17 year old solanke in the deep end of the pool. Dude, even the u-21 is a step up for him. As for salah and schurrle they deserved their 90minutes irrespective of how they played. They had to be given that minimum chance to prove and challenge for the firat team squad. But god forbid jose does anything that doea make everyone happy. Alao he said 3-4 years. Judge him then.

Mourinho said Solanke will play in the League Cup but the moment it came to backing up his words, he turned instead to playing Drogba for 180 mins in 48 hours at the age of 36. He said 3-4 years, yes, but when Baker, Brown and Solanke are not played against fourth tier opposition in the least important trophy of the season while there are 4 seniors either injured or rested, when will the (meaningful) chances start arriving? You think they'll be played in the next round? In the FA cup? In the league?

[stroey 2,525]

And why's he throwing his players under the bus AGAIN. That's just bad management plain and simple. number one rule of management is to accept responsibility as the leader and always protect your team in public.

Mou recently said in an interview that he criticize his players in public to motivate them, some players needs this. Schurrle hasn't been impressive since the start, except for 1-2 moments. So I think it's good to criticize him, he also looks like a person who needs this kind of treatment.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,775]

Ah yes, we should worship the ground he walks upon for playing a £12m signing and the best defender in the academy when 3 of our only 5 senior defenders are a. suspended or b. 34 year old. Bravo Jose, such big balls.

I only spoke about Baker and Brown because he put them on the pedestal with his comments about English players. What good did Oscar, Salah and Schurrle do today? I get not starting 5 of them together but did Schurrle and Oscar justify getting the full 90? Would Salah have even come off had they not equalised? Was there such a massive need to play Solanke in the u-21 while Drogba had to slog on and on?

I said pre-match that I'd have been fine had we lost while giving genuine game time to Ake, Baker and the lot. Now that we are in the QF, do you think even Ake will get a game unless it's against Bournemouth? This was the chance to do it but he backtracked over his earlier comments. I'm disappointed about this and the arguments so far can't convince me otherwise.

Like you I hope to see progression from the development squad but it feels to me that I'm more patient than you are in waiting for it to happen. Even if you disagree with that, let's get our priorities straight. Promoting youth products is not an end in itself. If we are able to discover, develop and eventually select young players who contribute to our success then fine but the real aim is to have a strong team which is as competitive as possible across all competitions.

Your perspective seems to be to take the long term view; to place the emphasis on giving opportunities to young players in what, by common consent, is a junior competition, and not just on winning. I'm sure you'd argue that this would lead to us having a stronger and even more competitive squad down the line. Well that view is reasonable enough but I don't share it. I don't particularly agree that developing home grown talent is a route to competitiveness at the very top of the game and, even if I'm wrong about that, I don't want to put potential silverware at risk in order to pursue that policy.

I enjoyed seeing Ake and Christensen play last night but their presence would have been no consolation to me if we had lost. In this sense, I want to have my cake and to eat it too. I want kids selected but I'm not prepared to sacrifice the win in order to see it happen. If I can't win with kids then I'd rather play without them. The question then becomes who is to make the decision about which kids to use and when to use them. Here again there seems to be disagreement between us. You appear to have your doubts but I have no doubt whatsoever; Jose is the man I want in charge of our team. One hundred percent.

I've been supporting this club for longer than most users of this forum have been alive, and for longer than their dads have been alive in some cases I'm sure. In all that time, JM, for all his faults, is the only boss to whom I feel a personal allegiance. I believe he is getting it right. We were, in my opinion, a million miles away from where we wanted to be when he returned. Fixing that was never going to be possible in one or two years. Even if we win something this season, the squad still requires upgrading. I'll be ecstatic if those upgrades come out of Cobham but if we have to buy them then so be it. Either way, Jose is the man I want to see making those decisions.

[Fernando 6,376]

Mou recently said in an interview that he criticize his players in public to motivate them, some players needs this. Schurrle hasn't been impressive since the start, except for 1-2 moments. So I think it's good to criticize him, he also looks like a person who needs this kind of treatment.

Yeah I feel the same way but it can also go the other way around.

Your player can get some resentment towards you.

It's a risk, but I think it's all about the personality of the person.

[stroey 2,525]

Yeah I feel the same way but it can also go the other way around.

Your player can get some resentment towards you.

It's a risk, but I think it's all about the personality of the person.

Yeps, an old player (I guess Zlatan?) recently said that Mou is the smartest manager in the business because he treats/motivates everyone in a different way. I remember a quote in his book" I scored the goal of the season and couldn't catch a smile on the face of Jose, so I knew I had to do more to convince him."

He motivates every person in a different way. For example, Ramires/Oscar are very shy/introvert persons (from what I've heard), that's why Mou have not criticized them in public. Schurrle looks like that kind of person with a small ego and a little bit extrovert (based on his social media). He might need these hard words to perform better.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

It is just me, or anyone feels the previous page is very long, I have to scroll down like crazy to reach the bottom.

But hey we are in the new page

[yipo 56]

Maybe we should hire van gaal next as our manger, i heard he is tactical genius and play academy player.