http://football.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9753,1371885,00.html?gusrc=rss
Chelsea must cash in on Mourinho's golden touch
Manager has style but knows Abramovich wants tangible returns, says
Will Buckley
Sunday December 12, 2004
Management are always keen to categorise their staff to make it easier to
know which page of the latest 'How To' manual they should turn to if any
problems should arise. Equally, managers themselves can be pigeonholed,
a process made easier by the fact that the top three have all, to a certain
extent, adopted the image of a successful predecessor.
Sir Alex Ferguson, in all his passion and bluster, is a reworking of
Bill Shankly, both men so committed to the cause that it is regularly trotted
out that they spent their wedding nights at a reserve match, their honeymoons
scouting for young talent in Northern Ireland and missing the births of
their children becausethey clashed with Football Focus.
Arsene Wenger - painstaking, patient, paranoid - has a touch of the
Don Revies.It is easy to imagine him leaving a party early to spend time
with his dossiers.
And Jose Mourinho is Brian Clough, an impression that is confirmed by
reading Luis Lourenco's Jose Mourinho: Made in Portugal, which although
it can sometimes be hard work - 'Mourinho wasn't taken in by the wins at
home, against Maritimo [2-1] and Benfica [3-2], and away, against Varzim [1-0]
and Vitoria de Setubal [4-1]' - does give some insight into his character.
The most obvious similarity between the two men is the arrogance. At his first
press conference with Porto, Mourinho announced: 'We'll be champions next
year', and he has been similarly bullish at Chelsea, naming the day in April
on which he expects the Premiership trophy to be won.
It is a date that will allow him plenty of time to prepare exclusively for
the Champions League final, another trophy he expects to win. Such insolence
can be irksome, but Mourinho hasn't much option. If you are employed by
Roman Abramovich, there is no mid-term. There is no pointing to a promising
crop of youngsters to excuse present failings.
Abramovich expects to win a major trophy this season and expects his manager
to expect to also. You will be canned if you do not, so you might as well
say that you will.
Mourinho is not only proud but young (41) and handsome. Just before Clough
died, he said: 'I like the look of Mourinho - there's a bit of the young
Clough about him. For a start, he's good-looking and, like me, he doesn't
believe in the star system. He's consumed with team spirit and discipline.'
Compared with the careworn Wenger and the combustible Ferguson, Mourinho has
added some glamour, with his coat inked in for fashion garment of the year.
Further, it is his distrust of the star system that is likely to win him more
trophies. Like Clough, Mourinho makes sure that he brings a few players with
him and that none of them is bigger than him. When he was manager of lowly
Leiria and being courted by Benfica, he told his team 'something along the
lines "You help me get there and I'll take some of you with me." This is how
I committed myself to this group.'
In the event, he went to Porto and when Chelsea called he took Ricardo Carvalho
, Paulo Ferreira and Tiago along for the ride; the last named has followed
him all the way from Leiria. All three have experience playing the Mourinho
way. They know how to 'rest with the ball', to practise 'perfect pressing' and
'offensive defence'. It is easier to teach others with some adherents already
in the groove.
As for stars, he cannot be doing with them, as was evidenced when Hernan Crespo
missed a breakfast meeting and ended up in Milan. Mourinho would not have
selected Marcel Desailly for the first leg of last season's Champions League
semi-final against Monaco, or brought on Juan Sebastian Veron.
His strategy is simple: he likes to have a squad with two players for every
position and one flexible enough to be able to play in at least two
different formations, most usually 4-3-3 or 4-4-2. Although in the second
half of their match against Newcastle, Chelsea experimented with 4-2-4 and
at one stage even 2-4-4. So fluid is the system that it defies categorisation.
He has also shied away from the tinkering of his predecessor, Claudio Ranieri.
'With Jose Mourinho, every player knows five days before a match which team
will be playing,' Lourenco writes. Mourinho is also quick to praise those
left out.
Recently he singled out Geremi as being one of the most important players in
the squad, even though he had spent many five-day stretches this season
knowing that he would not be playing. Every player in his squad has a purpose,
albeit in the case of Germany defender Robert Huth it is just 17 minutes
on the pitch.
By combining stability and fluidity Mourinho is able to make the most of the
considerable parts at his disposal. A win this afternoon will make Chelsea
heavy odds-on favourites to win the Premiership title and free Mourinho up
nicely to emulate Clough by winning a second European Cup.
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老大加油!
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