Jose Mourinho

[Stu1993 101]

Mourinho is a master at his trade

im not sure the Madrid fans will welcome the way he plays IMO, i cant see Madrid going two nill up and sitting back holding out

Are Inter not the top scorers in Serie A? His reliance on defensive tactics are overstated. His teams are more than capable of attacking play.

alot of spanish reporters have said that

Do you think Mourinho will give a fuck about the press?he will tell them where to go

it will be the fans he will have to answer too, if they dont like his way of football then he wont be there for long IMO.

we all have opinions and IMO i dont want too see him going to madrid if he will make them more defensive.

[bigjobe 0]

He set his team out the way Walter did..defend deep and in numbers.The big difference is when Inter break they are terrific..2 passes and they have split the opposition..a slow team ? nonsense..he has Maicon and Zanetti who can bomb down the flanks, Schneider,Eto, Balotelli and Milito who attack at pace. Our problem is that we defend in deep and don't have the players to break quickly enough

[Iserdo 1]

Mourinho is a master at his trade

im not sure the Madrid fans will welcome the way he plays IMO, i cant see Madrid going two nill up and sitting back holding out

Are Inter not the top scorers in Serie A? His reliance on defensive tactics are overstated. His teams are more than capable of attacking play.

alot of spanish reporters have said that

Do you think Mourinho will give a fuck about the press?he will tell them where to go

it will be the fans he will have to answer too, if they dont like his way of football then he wont be there for long IMO.

we all have opinions and IMO i dont want too see him going to madrid if he will make them more defensive.

Why would he make them more defensive?

[Stu1993 101]

Why would he make them more defensive?

Because he sets his team up to be secure at the back and then goes from there, he always makes sure his team stick to their shape and are disciplined. At madrid the fans want to see their team attack first, they want to see their team out score the other team and not go 2-0 up and then defend their lead.

[martyboy2009 11]

Not every player in our team was defensive minded at all times. The way we played it was like playing a 9 at the back with darcy chasing every aimless punt, there's a difference between playing defensively and knowing exactly how to play against a team.

[Iserdo 1]

Why would he make them more defensive?

Because he sets his team up to be secure at the back and then goes from there, he always makes sure his team stick to their shape and are disciplined. At madrid the fans want to see their team attack first, they want to see their team out score the other team and not go 2-0 up and then defend their lead.

That doen't mean it's defensive.If he goes 2 nil up that means hes out scoring the other team

[Stu1993 101]

Why would he make them more defensive?

Because he sets his team up to be secure at the back and then goes from there, he always makes sure his team stick to their shape and are disciplined. At madrid the fans want to see their team attack first, they want to see their team out score the other team and not go 2-0 up and then defend their lead.

That doen't mean it's defensive.If he goes 2 nil up that means hes out scoring the other team

madrid dont want to stop at two goals but, their fans wouldnt be happy if they had 30 mins to play winning 2-0 and didnt go on to score.

Yes Jose is a fantastic manager, if he can change his style to be attacking and defensive, and then get all those big egos at madrid to respect him then he could be unstopable. If he can Get Kaka back on form injury free, keep ronaldo and higuian playing the way they were and add to that going bu also be secure defensively, with his tactics he would rule the spanish league easily IMO.

[BeautifulSeas 10]

I don't think it is boring to watch at all. It is just different and maybe more patient.

I heard a similar analogy being drawn with cricket; Test match cricket v One Day Cricket. They are two completely different beasts that require two separate sets of skills. Some would say that test match cricket is boring and they can't watch it, others will say it is the only true form of the game. Not quite sure why I drew that analogy...

[MasterD 7,446]

I don't think it is boring to watch at all. It is just different and maybe more patient.

I heard a similar analogy being drawn with cricket; Test match cricket v One Day Cricket. They are two completely different beasts that require two separate sets of skills. Some would say that test match all cricket is boring and they can't watch it, others will say it is the only true form of the game. Not quite sure why I drew that analogy...

[MrMartini 0]

He works with what he has got, the same way Walter does. Jose knew he couldnt beat Barca man for man so his team went out as a unit and bulldozed them in Italy and swatted them away in Spain. He knew that Munich couldnt work there way through Inter so decided that he would let them try them hit them on the break where they are at there weakest, the two at the back. He set out his side brilliantly since the the knock out stages. Imo this stuff isnt anti-football, its what football is all about.

[Boab 73]

Why would he make them more defensive?

Because he sets his team up to be secure at the back and then goes from there, he always makes sure his team stick to their shape and are disciplined. At madrid the fans want to see their team attack first, they want to see their team out score the other team and not go 2-0 up and then defend their lead.

Having a strong defence doesn't make a coach defensive, that could be a good base to start from.

[papaguy51 912]

The problem with Smith is that he plays that 'knockout' style of football in every European game, when it's abundantly clear to everyone that it doesn't suit the league formats in the early stages.

[stooarts 4]

"Walter smith did the exact same thing and made us hard to beat on our run to the UEFA cup final and was slated for playing anti-football. Mourinho gets hailed a tactical genius, why???"

Mourinho was coaching an Italian side whose whole ethos has been to defend in numbers - the Tally's have been doing it that way since the 1960's. He wasn't going to change that so he didn't.

No-one could accuse Mourinho of playing that way with Porto (no big money spent there) where he won the UEFA cup and the Champions League before moving to Chelsea.

I'm sure there are no Chelsea fans who would point the finger at his defensive tactics - his style is to attack with flair.

This stint at defending in numbers is an anathema to Mourinho - he'll go back to his natural format when he moves to Real Madrid this summer.

Walter Smith isn't in the same league.............I'm sorry to say.

This "Tally side", as you call them, is completely different from any "Tally side" from the 60's onward,the difference is that there is not one "Tally" playing for them ! Mourinho is a tactical genius who has his teams playing as a team, this defensive ethos is being overused, especially by English pundits who can't except the fact that none of their little darlings made it to the final, both finallist last night deserved to be there, get over it!

[KingKirk 25,804]

Best manager of this era

[FlippinEck 3,734]

Mourinho's teams have built a reputation of being hard to break down, and questions have been raised as to whether his style of attrition would match the demands of the silky Spanish game.

But he defended his choice of tactics, insisting it was important for a team to play to their strengths. He added: "When a team is a slow team - because we are a team of not very fast players - you have to play as a block, you have to be compact.

"You must play in a certain way. I think a great team is a team that plays with the real qualities that we have.

"With these qualities we beat the champions of Europe, we beat the champion of England, we beat the champion of Germany, we won the Champions League and we won the Treble."

walter smith did the exact same thing and made us hard to beat on our run to the uefa cup final and was slated for playing anti-football.mourinho gets hailed a tactical genius why???

cause he won the thing

anti-football is only good when it works,

Getting to the final with the players we had was an acheivement in itself...

Mourinho has better players at his disposal so whilst his tactics are almost exactly the same as Walters, his players can carry out those attacking duties that bit better than our players!

[ScottBogle 30]

Anti football is good if it works correctly

[Bryan72 12]

Come on Scotty, where's yer GIP

[cooper1989 0]

Even though inter are defensive they are also fantastic going forward and very interesting to watch. We weren't, we sat in our own half and hoofed it away with no plan to attack making us painful to watch.

Garbage.

Rangers v Sporting Club of Portugal. 2-0 to The Rangers. JCD's goal was as good a counter attacking move that you will see.

Rangers v Panathanaikos 1-1. Totally dominated them away for the last 30 minutes -- when we had to.

You play to your strengths. Ours is/was to defensive/counter attacking football. As Davie Weir said during the UEFA run.. 'Defending is a skill as well'.

In fact the Extra time v Fiorentina, we were as good as them going forward. Can't believe our fans are slating the way we play/played. Was it not the Special One who said he admired Walter's work before the UEFA Cup Final?

Give Walter a break here.

[papaguy51 912]

Even though inter are defensive they are also fantastic going forward and very interesting to watch. We weren't, we sat in our own half and hoofed it away with no plan to attack making us painful to watch.

Garbage.

Rangers v Sporting Club of Portugal. 2-0 to The Rangers. JCD's goal was as good a counter attacking move that you will see.

Rangers v Panathanaikos 1-1. Totally dominated them away for the last 30 minutes -- when we had to.

You play to your strengths. Ours is/was to defensive/counter attacking football. As Davie Weir said during the UEFA run.. 'Defending is a skill as well'.

In fact the Extra time v Fiorentina, we were as good as them going forward. Can't believe our fans are slating the way we play/played. Was it not the Special One who said he admired Walter's work before the UEFA Cup Final?

Give Walter a break here.

Still living off that UEFA Cup run sadly, regardless of how good it was.

Last year was a fucking embarrassment. We can't play knockout football in a league format, it simply doesn't work.

Let's hope Walter isn't stubborn enough to stick with it.

[caseyjones 3,009]

Even though inter are defensive they are also fantastic going forward and very interesting to watch. We weren't, we sat in our own half and hoofed it away with no plan to attack making us painful to watch.

Garbage.

Rangers v Sporting Club of Portugal. 2-0 to The Rangers. JCD's goal was as good a counter attacking move that you will see.

Rangers v Panathanaikos 1-1. Totally dominated them away for the last 30 minutes -- when we had to.

You play to your strengths. Ours is/was to defensive/counter attacking football. As Davie Weir said during the UEFA run.. 'Defending is a skill as well'.

In fact the Extra time v Fiorentina, we were as good as them going forward. Can't believe our fans are slating the way we play/played. Was it not the Special One who said he admired Walter's work before the UEFA Cup Final?

Give Walter a break here.

Still living off that UEFA Cup run sadly, regardless of how good it was.

Last year was a fucking embarrassment. We can't play knockout football in a league format, it simply doesn't work.

Let's hope Walter isn't stubborn enough to stick with it.

The previous year was even worse.

Walter will stick with his usual safety first policy, if he's still in charge.

[mmrfc1873 48]

He doesn't play negative football, he plays winning football.

[Blue Stars Bearette 1]

Inter are so hard to break down...they let the opposition have the ball for long spells then break up the field with great skill with forwards like Milito and Snjder able to carve quickly through a startled defence. You could see it really wore Bayern down and broke their spirit...trying everything to get past Cambiaso, Zanetti n co for ages only to concede when AC break ...Robben looked like he had given up around 15 mins from the end. We didn't have the counter attacking skills but just put 10 men behind the ball...we weren't letting the opposition have the ball to wear them down ...we couldn't keep it in the first place