Mourinho - Appreciation Thread

[frank lee madeer..]

We didn't play shit at all, though. The players peformed precisely as instructed by the manager with the intention of stopping Ajax from playing their natural game. We sat deep, with very little pressing, basically telling the Ajax players to bring it. They didn't have an answer.

Say what you like about Jose, but tactically he is up there with the best managers in history. His record in the big games, finals in particular, is evidence to that fact.

Jose is very good tactically against the purist sides , they suit his make up, but he will also encounter teams that employ similar tactics too himself. He has to be able to beat these. Atletico knocked his Chelsea side out of the CL, & this season we haven't been great against teams that come for draws.
That's when he will be worth the mantle greatest tactical coach, because imo, you can't be that unless you are great against all gameplans, not just the ones you relish.

 

[2 man midfield]

Currently Jose is the best fit for the United job, he makes me remember how we used to play under Sir Alex and how good we can become.

The fact that when we go to big matches, even as underdogs, people always talk about how mourinho will pull a masterclass or there's no way mourinho will allow us to lose tells you everything you have to know about the man. Even with a weak team, we hardly focus on that (state of the team) prematch but everyone and even the opposite fans will be saying "Yes Man Utd is weak but they have Jose". The guy is the best signing we made last season.

I love the act of defending, one of the reason I fell in love with United was that we were hard to beat. It didn't matter who we played as our MDs but you always had the assurance that we won't be conceding. The defence partnership of 2008 was the best I have ever seen.

Under Mourinho we hardly conced, we have the second best defence record and we are tied for first in the cleansheet department, progess. It must suck as the opposite coach knowing that even with a world class front line it's near impossible to score against Mourinho, we win the match before we even get on the field.

I love a direct team (counter attacking), yes it's also a system. I don't mind having a 40% ball possession as long as we do damage when we have the ball. We played some explosive football when we had Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo and that's the football I would rather watch United play.

I see alot of people having a meltdown about Silva going to Man City, and how City will now dominate the EPL. I'm not too bothered that we didn't get Silva and honestly I didn't want him, I would rather have someone like Sane, Lucas Moura, Di Maria, D Costa, Bale guys with pace who don't mess about, they get the ball and they fly down the other end.

Man city are building a team that will be similar to Barcelona, and ours is gonna be in the mould of R Madrid. I would take the R Madrid version of soccer everyday of the week.

This will also show in the players we will buy, we won't be buying players like B Silva and people should start getting used to it. Real Madrid don't even have a player in the mould of B Silva in their front 3 and they have being killing it in the CL.

This season has been a rebuild and I already love the direction we are going, add a few signings (not necessarily big names) that will fit into the system and we will be killing it.

Brilliant post, agree with every word.

 

[NinjaZombie]

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I know the senior player who was kept out of the team, but who was the one who came back into it and played a part in the good run for form?

 

[Womp]

I know the senior player who was kept out of the team, but who was the one who came back into it and played a part in the good run for form?

Carrick?

 

[NinjaZombie]

Carrick?

He's the source of the leaks?

 

[Womp]

He's the source of the leaks?

He's the only senior player I can think of who came back in. He came back in around the time we switched to the 433, when we went on that pretty good run. That being said, I don't see Carrick as that type of guy.

 

[NinjaZombie]

He's the only senior player I can think of who came back in. He came back in around the time we switched to the 433, when we went on that pretty good run. That being said, I don't see Carrick as that type of guy.

Guess we'll never know. Leaks have stopped, in any case. I know those journalists were taking the piss during Moyes' and Van Gaal's times at the club.

 

[humdinger]

For me the performance he got out of the players in certain matches (particularly the final) was hugely impressive. I've thought since Fergie retired the majority of our players have had sh1t for brains and buckled under pressure.

In the final they looked like a composed, disciplined team who were confident in their ability and determined to win.

Need to see that on a regular basis but that's one of the main improvements this season in my opinion. There's a fair bit of talent in our team and if he can get that professional, winning mentality drilled into them we'll challenge for the league next year. Don't think we'll win but could see top 3.

 

[breakout67]

Jose is very good tactically against the purist sides , they suit his make up, but he will also encounter teams that employ similar tactics too himself. He has to be able to beat these. Atletico knocked his Chelsea side out of the CL, & this season we haven't been great against teams that come for draws.
That's when he will be worth the mantle greatest tactical coach, because imo, you can't be that unless you are great against all gameplans, not just the ones you relish.

This is absolute madness. Apparently you can ignore his whole career and just pick out a select few games to try to prove a point.

He has managed Inter, in a league where 80-90% of teams park the bus and play on the counter. He has managed Real Madrid who dominate 95% of the games they play.

Mourinho is a good manager when managing a team on the front foot, and one of the best in the history of the game at managing a team with their backs to the wall. He is one of the few managers in the game that has no tactical weaknesses (another one being Carlo Ancelotti).

 

[Gonçalo Motta]

Jose is very good tactically against the purist sides , they suit his make up, but he will also encounter teams that employ similar tactics too himself. He has to be able to beat these. Atletico knocked his Chelsea side out of the CL, & this season we haven't been great against teams that come for draws.
That's when he will be worth the mantle greatest tactical coach, because imo, you can't be that unless you are great against all gameplans, not just the ones you relish.

Thats bs imo. I seen Mourinho's teams park the bus and play for the result, I seen Mourinho's teams dominating games, play for possession, play for counter attack, etc etc etc.

Didnt Mourinho create one of the best counter attacks team in history when he was in RM and broke the league goals record ? Tactic wise Mourinho is the best manager in the world since he always adapts to the team he is playing against by using his own team strenghts. It doesn't always work but its not really that common for him to play the wrong tactic. I do believe he plays safe in big games when sometimes he doesn't really need to tho but sometimes thats the price to pay to secure trophies instead of taking chances to win by bigger margins.

 

[markhrad]

I never particularly liked the special one, although I think he is clearly a great manager, but I thank him and the whole of England should thank him because he
did something that no other manager has or could have done and that is phase out rooney. He was undroppable for united and England despite hindering both with his style of play. No matter who you surrounded Rooney with they would ultimately fail and everyone chose to vilify those players instead of the elephant in the room. Well Mourinho from day one planned to phase out Rooney by saying that he was not a striker and then got Pogba and Mikhi to play in those positions Mourinho claimed best suited Rooney. Also he brought in the one personality that could not be intimidated by Rooney's character or media support, Zlatan. As Rooney got less game time it gave Southgate a reason to not pick him for England.
Mourinho's first Master plan.
His 2nd was orchestrating CL qualification through the Europa league. If he is not a genius he is pretty close to being one.

 

[Android1974]

Thats bs imo. I seen Mourinho's teams park the bus and play for the result, I seen Mourinho's teams dominating games, play for possession, play for counter attack, etc etc etc.

Didnt Mourinho create one of the best counter attacks team in history when he was in RM and broke the league goals record ? Tactic wise Mourinho is the best manager in the world since he always adapts to the team he is playing against by using his own team strenghts. It doesn't always work but its not really that common for him to play the wrong tactic. I do believe he plays safe in big games when sometimes he doesn't really need to tho but sometimes thats the price to pay to secure trophies instead of taking chances to win by bigger margins.

Fast transitions isn't the same as counterattacking, and his Real Madrid just steamrolled almost everybody. He just doesn't like/know how to do possession based attacking football. Which doesn't mean he can't do free flowing attacking football, and we even had glimpses in December of that.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Thats bs imo. I seen Mourinho's teams park the bus and play for the result, I seen Mourinho's teams dominating games, play for possession, play for counter attack, etc etc etc.

Didnt Mourinho create one of the best counter attacks team in history when he was in RM and broke the league goals record ? Tactic wise Mourinho is the best manager in the world since he always adapts to the team he is playing against by using his own team strenghts. It doesn't always work but its not really that common for him to play the wrong tactic. I do believe he plays safe in big games when sometimes he doesn't really need to tho but sometimes thats the price to pay to secure trophies instead of taking chances to win by bigger margins.

This.

 

[adexkola]

Thats bs imo. I seen Mourinho's teams park the bus and play for the result, I seen Mourinho's teams dominating games, play for possession, play for counter attack, etc etc etc.

Didnt Mourinho create one of the best counter attacks team in history when he was in RM and broke the league goals record ? Tactic wise Mourinho is the best manager in the world since he always adapts to the team he is playing against by using his own team strenghts. It doesn't always work but its not really that common for him to play the wrong tactic. I do believe he plays safe in big games when sometimes he doesn't really need to tho but sometimes thats the price to pay to secure trophies instead of taking chances to win by bigger margins.

Tactic wise Mourinho is not the best in the world. Hasn't been in a long time actually. His teams have been on the end of some waxings which can be partly ascribed to his overcautiousness (Chelsea against Atletico and PDF for example)

 

[Hugh Jass]

Tactic wise Mourinho is not the best in the world. Hasn't been in a long time actually. His teams have been on the end of some waxings which can be partly ascribed to his overcautiousness (Chelsea against Atletico and PDF for example)

This is false. He is one of the best managers in the world for tactics. Other managers stick to the same forumla no matter what. Mourinho adapts to the opposition.

 

[RepardReece]

This is false. He is one of the best managers in the world for tactics. Other managers stick to the same forumla no matter what. Mourinho adapts to the opposition.

Chelsea is a perfect example of that when we beat them 2-0. Granted, he hasn't done it as much in the premier league this time around as previous years, but I believe that's because he gave up trying to achieve premier league success ages ago.

There's reasons for and against his tactics really. Arguably, prime examples such as the Chelsea game and then the Europa League final, Mourinho has masterminded the game, and put in place a perfect tactic to prevent the opposition chances as well as enabling us to score goals. He has now won 12 of 14 cup finals, clearly suggesting he takes his time to analyse the opponent then produce a tactic to prevent all their strengths. However, this season has not showed it as much, there has been a couple games throughout where you believe, yes he masterminded the tactic in this game (Liverpool 0-0, Spurs 1-0, Chelsea 2-0, Ajax 2-0). But then you have a lot of games this season where you believe he has gone mental (Most of our draws and losses in the season). Hints that he is past his best by a longshot.

This is an appreciation thread anyway and even though I do believe it's not been a great season, it has been a good one. The only reason why it's not classed as a great season to me, is because of the Premier League; a dull miserable affair in this tournament. But the Europa League success has made up for that, and gave us Champions League which was his objective. It will enable us to build on next season and considering no manager in history are United has won a trophy in their first season, Mourinho has been really successful in doing otherwise. I'm not happy with the season, but I am content, he now knows what he needs for next season and hopefully has a good basis to perhaps lead us to premier league success in 2017/18.

 

[apotheosis]

He deserves great credit imo. Even though the season hasn't been great generally, it's all about achieving your goals for the season. He did that, not in the manner many would have preferred, but at the business end of the season he set his priorities, planned accordingly for them, and subsequently prepared the team to produce a tactical masterclass when it mattered most.

He was under huge pressure after Chelsea to prove he could still do the business at his next club, and considering his signings, the league form was a disappointment. But, when the chips were down and it looked like it was all going wrong for us, he took stock and plotted the best course to achieve our goals. He made big decisions, and obviously put all his eggs in one basket, but he ultimately delivered, and even more impressively, kept the players focused despite the additional pressure and emotion of the past week.

That conviction in his own ability to make the difficult decisions -despite the unavoidable criticism- has now been fully justified. Our main target has been reached, and with the added bonus of a couple of trophies. We are where we needed to be, confidence is on the up, and a level playing field in the transfer market leaves us with a positive outlook for next season. Job done.

 

[frank lee madeer..]

Thats bs imo. I seen Mourinho's teams park the bus and play for the result, I seen Mourinho's teams dominating games, play for possession, play for counter attack, etc etc etc.

Didnt Mourinho create one of the best counter attacks team in history when he was in RM and broke the league goals record ? Tactic wise Mourinho is the best manager in the world since he always adapts to the team he is playing against by using his own team strenghts. It doesn't always work but its not really that common for him to play the wrong tactic. I do believe he plays safe in big games when sometimes he doesn't really need to tho but sometimes thats the price to pay to secure trophies instead of taking chances to win by bigger margins.

It's only the big games I'm on about. Obviously he should dominate against teams from the lower end , that would be ridiculous given the team's he's managed & their resources .why do you think he left Madrid? If it was so great , why the fall out ?

Tactics are/were a big part of the problem. Nobody harps on about reals, bayerns, barcas , great tactical managers, just like nobody harped on about Safs tactical nous. The reason is, clubs of that size are not underdogs. Tactics were invented to give the underdog a chance.

You could give Jose a team of 11 Ronaldo's , & his first thought would still be, ...how do I nullify the opposition's strengths.

Jose will do well with us, but his main job is to get us challenging consistently again. The good football will come with the guy after him.

 

[Denis79]

How are people not happy with winning 2 cups?

 

[Hugh Jass]

It's only the big games I'm on about. Obviously he should dominate against teams from the lower end , that would be ridiculous given the team's he's managed & their resources .why do you think he left Madrid? If it was so great , why the fall out ?

Tactics are/were a big part of the problem. Nobody harps on about reals, bayerns, barcas , great tactical managers, just like nobody harped on about Safs tactical nous. The reason is, clubs of that size are not underdogs. Tactics were invented to give the underdog a chance.

You could give Jose a team of 11 Ronaldo's , & his first thought would still be, ...how do I nullify the opposition's strengths.

Jose will do well with us, but his main job is to get us challenging consistently again. The good football will come with the guy after him.

What the hell is this???

 

[GaryLifo]

How are people not happy with winning 2 cups?

They are often the folks who think we should be walking the league by 18 points every season.

I wanted Jose to replace Fergie and I'm delighted we eventually got him.

 

[ash_86]

Currently Jose is the best fit for the United job, he makes me remember how we used to play under Sir Alex and how good we can become.

The fact that when we go to big matches, even as underdogs, people always talk about how mourinho will pull a masterclass or there's no way mourinho will allow us to lose tells you everything you have to know about the man. Even with a weak team, we hardly focus on that (state of the team) prematch but everyone and even the opposite fans will be saying "Yes Man Utd is weak but they have Jose". The guy is the best signing we made last season.

I love the act of defending, one of the reason I fell in love with United was that we were hard to beat. It didn't matter who we played as our MDs but you always had the assurance that we won't be conceding. The defence partnership of 2008 was the best I have ever seen.

Under Mourinho we hardly conced, we have the second best defence record and we are tied for first in the cleansheet department, progess. It must suck as the opposite coach knowing that even with a world class front line it's near impossible to score against Mourinho, we win the match before we even get on the field.

I love a direct team (counter attacking), yes it's also a system. I don't mind having a 40% ball possession as long as we do damage when we have the ball. We played some explosive football when we had Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo and that's the football I would rather watch United play.

I see alot of people having a meltdown about Silva going to Man City, and how City will now dominate the EPL. I'm not too bothered that we didn't get Silva and honestly I didn't want him, I would rather have someone like Sane, Lucas Moura, Di Maria, D Costa, Bale guys with pace who don't mess about, they get the ball and they fly down the other end.

Man city are building a team that will be similar to Barcelona, and ours is gonna be in the mould of R Madrid. I would take the R Madrid version of soccer everyday of the week.

This will also show in the players we will buy, we won't be buying players like B Silva and people should start getting used to it. Real Madrid don't even have a player in the mould of B Silva in their front 3 and they have being killing it in the CL.

This season has been a rebuild and I already love the direction we are going, add a few signings (not necessarily big names) that will fit into the system and we will be killing it.

Good Post.

 

[K2K]

How are people not happy with winning 2 cups?

Because they never wanted him in the first place.

Some simply won't give him a chance.

 

[frank lee madeer..]

What the hell is this???

It's something you obviously need to read up on.

When you have a level playing field ,& 11 players v 11, the team with the superior players should win.for the weaker side to win, they have to employ the use of tactics. Whereas the superiority of the better team should prevail on most occasions. Hope that explains it.

It's not rocket science bud.

 

[Denis79]

Because they never wanted him in the first place.

Some simply won't give him a chance.

Fine you dont like Mourinho but your team just won 2 cups!!

 

[K2K]

Fine you dont like Mourinho but your team just won 2 cups!!

'Second rate cups'

Negative football.

Arrogant manager.

You should have seen the furore on here by some when he chose not to give a press conference after the Manchester attacks. Just stupid really.

 

[breakout67]

'Second rate cups'

Negative football.

Arrogant manager.

You should have seen the furore on here by some when he chose not to give a press conference after the Manchester attacks. Just stupid really.

Pocchettino was supposed to be the best manager in the league, and Tottenham the best footballing team (whatever that means). Yet they got knocked out by the mighty Gent in the tin pot cup that we won.

Our team was effectively playing at 80% this season because of Europa League. During the 15 game period where we had no European football we got 36 points out of a total 45.

When you play europa league you get 2 days rest in 90% of the game weeks with european football. When you play Champions League you get 3 days rest in 90% of game weeks. Its a huge difference.

 

[Son Of Sam]

Tactic wise Mourinho is not the best in the world. Hasn't been in a long time actually. His teams have been on the end of some waxings which can be partly ascribed to his overcautiousness (Chelsea against Atletico and PDF for example)

Who is? Guardiola?

When it comes to tactical input, Jose is #1. I can't even think of any manager in his mould, this is why he wins trophies everywhere he's been. 14 finals, 12 victories - not even SAF is that successful.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Who is? Guardiola?

When it comes to tactical input, Jose is #1. I can't even think of any manager in his mould, this is why he wins trophies everywhere he's been. 14 finals, 12 victories - not even SAF is that successful.

Absolutely.

 

[DevilRed]

Cant believe people are actually questioning Jose's tactical ability.

12 finals wins in 14 tries. Consistently winning titles in each country he manages in.

He adapts his tactics to whatever team he is managing. Many times he even adapts them to certain teams he plays.

 

[Sigma]

 

[Ronaldo's Mum Eh?]

Simply the best manager in world football.

Every other club would love to have him.

 

[apotheosis]

It's only the big games I'm on about. Obviously he should dominate against teams from the lower end , that would be ridiculous given the team's he's managed & their resources .why do you think he left Madrid? If it was so great , why the fall out ?

Tactics are/were a big part of the problem. Nobody harps on about reals, bayerns, barcas , great tactical managers, just like nobody harped on about Safs tactical nous. The reason is, clubs of that size are not underdogs. Tactics were invented to give the underdog a chance.

You could give Jose a team of 11 Ronaldo's , & his first thought would still be, ...how do I nullify the opposition's strengths.

Jose will do well with us, but his main job is to get us challenging consistently again. The good football will come with the guy after him.

Bit of a stretch that one, surely the favorites must have tactics too?

I agree there is obviously certain basic tactics that can be easily adopted by many teams to help give 'underdogs' a better chance, ie. aggression, long balls, bus parking etc. mourinho's tactics can be seen as negative at times, but he gets the job done. I don't particularly enjoy this style of football, but when everything hinges on winning a big game, it's hard to question an approach that provides so much success. Next season we will see the team Mourinho has built himself to challenge on all fronts, and to be fair to him, under those circumstances he has pretty much always delivered in the past. His teams usually play better football and score more goals than they are given credit for too, probably due mostly to how he sets his teams up for the biggest games.

I believe no matter how negative his approach may seem, it has still been specifically devised to provide victory, not just simply for nullifying the opposition. When he has 'his team', and no matter how defensively they are set up, yet they always seem to still provide a serious goal threat on the counter. So therefore his tactics are clearly devised as a way to win, as opposed to teams who are regularly set up defensively simply to avoid defeat. That's the difference i see between Mourinho's employment of certain tactics and an underdog bus parking team, Mourinho looks to beat the opposition by identifying specific threats and weaknesses within the oppositions play, and then preparing his team not only to negate the opponents attacking threat without the ball, but also how to exploit their weaknesses when we win it back. A footballing 'rope a dope' i suppose, but if it keeps on working, then that is obviously an advantage that he has gained over his rivals, so why would he ever change it?

 

[Denis79]

'Second rate cups'

Negative football.

Arrogant manager.

You should have seen the furore on here by some when he chose not to give a press conference after the Manchester attacks. Just stupid really.

With the way we have been playing since SAF left any cup is good and two is just incredible. You must see the improvment in football since he took over from LVG, mate we had games without a shot on target with LVG...

Arrogant is a Point of view, Is Zlatan arrogant or just Confident? Was Ali arrogant or just confident? Maybe both but that's not a reason to downplay our season.

And the terrible thing that happened in Manchester is a travesty to humanity not just the city and if Mourinho doesn't care about that I will join you in your hate for him.

 

[zeekey]

https://www.express.co.uk/comment/c...ies-Europa-League-Premier-League-top-four/amp

Awesome.

 

[Womp]

For people who are interested in these kinds of videos.

 

[Shuriken]

http://www.theunitedpages.com/return-of-the-special-one/

 

[Pavl3n]

There's another one about Mourinho. I think it's in either Swedish or Norwegian, but with google translate it's clear enough. It's a good read.

http://www.nettavisen.no/sport/nors...un-oppsummere-han-med-ett-ord/3423347747.html