This psychological game plan to remaining great, is made possible not because as a big team you will not lose, but this must be a rare event and the next opponent after a defeat has to be made to pay dearly and suffer the collateral damage.
Jose Mourinho’s led Manchester United have suffered three consecutive defeats in the past week.This is the first time since 2002 that mourinho’s led team has lost 3 games in a row!
Today many are asking what seemed almost unthinkable a Decade ago when Mourinho was tagged by many, as not only “The Special One” but the World’s absolute best Coach or manager if you prefer: Is the Mourinho era over for good? If not, why is Mourinho struggling?
Could It Be Mourinho’s Change in Attitude Towards players etc?
One of the qualities that I admired the most in Mourinho in the past was his protection of his players from public blame and helping the players play relatively stress free to win games.
Unfortunately this has changed as Mourinho’s nonstop attack of his own players publicly cost him his job at Real Madrid, the same happened last football season at Chelsea where just months after winning the English premier league, his nonstop public criticisms of his players and medical crew clearly hammered in the killer nail to his reign at Chelsea.
Mourinho’s latest quotes on his players:
“[Aleksandar] Kolarov has the ball in a difficult situation in the corner and my player instead of going up and pressing decides to give him space. Today for the second goal, [Nordin] Amrabat on the right side, our left back is 25 metres distance from him, instead of five metres.
“But even at 25 metres, then you have to jump and go press. But no, we wait. This is a tactical but also a mental attitude”
“I was completely aware that we were not the perfect team, that we had lots of players who are not end products and can make their own mistakes,”…. Jose Mourinho on his players after the Watford defeat
His mistreatment of German World Champion Sebastien Schweinsteiger (whom he relegated to Manchester’s United second team) and this above latest insinuations to the press after this latest three consecutive defeats seems to tell us not only has he not gone away from public criticisms of his players, but he has learnt little from the sufferings these attitude cost him in the most recent past!
Footballers are artists, entertainers and thrive on public acceptance and adoration, any form of public criticisms especially from their own proper coaches never gets digested well and in most cases sets up the auto protect and revenge module. An experienced and highly successful coach like “the special one” should know this!
Is it because of the Evolution of World football?
In 2008, the world witnessed a new “vogue” to not only entertain football fans, but also win football matches that simultaneously neutralized negative minded opponents from excelling.
Spain the erstwhile underachieving world great football nation, was crowned European champions with a brand of football that saw them not only pass their way to victory but pressurized the opposition, forced to deeply defend, in a manner that did not permit them to counter attack.
This playing style simultaneously but a great halt to erstwhile domination from defense oriented teams and nations like the Italian National team, clubs and Jose Mourinho’s teams that erstwhile flourished.
Some might rightfully dispute this by questioning, how come Mourinho won the 2010 European Champions league with Inter Milan?
Let’s take a closer look at this 2010 conquest: Inter Milan, not only escaped elimination from the group stage but won the decisive semifinal First leg encounter in Milan vs Barcelona, hugely thanks to the fact that the Spaniards had to travel a thousand kilometers to Milan by bus, due to the erupted Iceland Volcano crisis (the April 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption) at the time that prohibited air travel all over Europe.
Jose Mourinho’s tactics in the integral part is centered on compact defending and hurting the opponent by well doctored counters in sections that hurt the opposition and for a long time few could find the antidote to this, until the Spanish seemed to unlock it and now others have followed suit!
Is It Because There Are Other Richer Clubs Now?
Mourinho is a master at attracting and buying expensive talented players with lucrative contracts and building a team to win titles. These days unfortunately in England for example, his club is no longer the richest and first choice of players as Chelsea and Manchester City are either as rich if not richer than the special one’s Club .All of a sudden he does no longer get the 1st pick of players as we all know that money plays a huge role in star players acquisition.
Having said all the above, the season is still very young and Jose Mourinho could just turn it all around and win the EPL title and the Europa League etc.
I however do fear and have my doubts: with just 5 games into the league, Mourinho’s Man. United is now 6 points behind league leaders Man. City (an equivalent to 3 matches deficit) coupled with the fact that rarely in the past has Mourinho won the league when he has had to play catch up.
This season’s English premier league is not disappointing us at all and there is still more to come I believe.
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