What should be the Special one rather the Happy one next move at the Blues:-
Given that Chelsea has a bigger budget than Liverpool and Atlético Madrid, should Mourinho prioritize attacking football rather than "parking two buses" in front of his team’s goal? The question arises should José adapt a more adventurous tactics with the Blues. José Mourinho has won the Champions League, the Uefa Cup, the Premier League, the Premiere Liga, La Liga, Seria A, the FA Cup, the Copa del Rey, the Coppa Italia and the Taça de Portugal, so there can be no doubting that his methods win trophies. The man is an achiever. But, in light of the money he has spent and the players he has coached, should he not aim a little higher than to simply win at all costs? Should he not pick teams that try to dominate matches rather than encouraging his team to surrender possession and wait for the opposition to make mistakes?
Mourinho described Chelsea’s performance against Liverpool as "fantastic", taking satisfaction from the way his players made "no mistakes". Brendan Rodgers gave Chelsea some credit for their victory but was less gushing in his praise: "It is totally opposite to how we want to play. It is not difficult to coach, putting 10 players on the edge of the 18-yard box. They got booked for time-wasting in the 92nd minute but I think everyone could see from the first whistle that was their plan – to frustrate." Perhaps Rodgers was a little naive. His team only needed a draw but he sent them out to attack and chase the match. The mistake that changed the match came when Steven Gerrard looked up to pick out an attacking pass. The Liverpool captain gazed over his offensive options and allowed the ball to slide below his studs and into the path of Demba Ba, who was able to pounce on the error, saunter towards the Liverpool goal and sweep the ball through Simon Mongolet’s legs to give Chelsea the lead.
Mourinho’s approach to football has won him trophies (until this season), but his tactical plan for dealing with tough opponents is hard to love. Diego Torres, the El Pais journalist who followed Mourinho closely during his spell at Real Madrid, reports in his controversial biography The Special One that Mourinho’s way of dealing with talented attacking teams was to play reactive football. He could call upon Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Mesut Özil and half a team of World Cup winners but, when the biggest matches came along, he reportedly asked his players to give up the ball, minimise their mistakes and take advantage of the opposition’s errors. Torres reports that Mourinho had a seven-fold plan to deal with talented attacking teams:
1. The game is won by the team who commits fewer errors
2. Football favors’ whoever provokes more errors in the opposition
3. Away from home, instead of trying to be superior to the opposition, it’s better to encourage their mistakes’
4. Whoever has the ball is more likely to make a mistake
5. Whoever renounces possession reduces the possibility of making a mistake
6. Whoever has the ball has fear
7. Whoever does not have it is therefore stronger.
Mourinho, the man who lectured Sam Allardyce about West Ham’s defensive tactics and chastised a ball boy for wasting time at Selhurst Park, prioritizes defense over attack. His tactics will probably not win him the Premier League, but they were enough to beat Liverpool but couldn’t help Chelsea to see off against Atlético Madrid. But should he aim higher?
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