Jose Mourinho: A danger to football? Killing the game? Why Morten Olsen is wrong about the Chelsea boss 05 May 2014 12:37 PM by Martin Lipton The Blues chief is simply doing what is required to win - and it frequently works Jordan Mansfield Jose Mourinho: Not killing football - just trying to win In Eurovision week, the verdict from the Copenhagen jury was forthright and unequivocal. In my world Mourinho is a danger for football, said Denmark boss Morten Olsen. If many try to copy his style, then the game will die. Imagine if everybody played football like Mourinho. Then it would certainly be boring, and then I wouldnt watch the matches. And so it went on, a castigation of Jose Mourinho and Chelsea, an attack on anti-football. Mourinho,of course, could simply point to a list of teams participating at the World Cup and ask, innocently, why he cant see the name of Denmark among the 32 nations in Brazil? He could also point to his list of achievements. Seven titles in four countries in 11 years, eight Champions League semi-final appearances, one of only three men to win the biggest club pot of all with two teams. And yet, as the Chelsea manager railed at Norwichs tactics at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, it would not just have been Olsen and Liverpool fans who enjoyed their feeling of Schadenfreude, who noted the clear hypocrisy of a man condemning what he himself was happy to do. Then again, it is also far too easy to jump into the polarised view of Jose Mourinho. He is not either the sainted one that Chelsea fans would depict him as, nor the Devil Incarnate. Jose Mourinho: Neither angel nor demon Mourinho is, actually, just a football manager, who does what he believes is required to win. Sometimes, frequently, it works. Other times, just as the Pope is no longer infallible, it doesnt. Mourinho has, indeed, adopted defensive tactics this season, but only on four occasions. And, in retrospect, they have probably helped ensure he finishes the season empty-handed. Yes, in those four games, at Old Trafford, The Emirates, the Vicente Calderon and Anfield, Chelsea did not concede. But had they won at United or Arsenal, rather than settling for a draw, they would still be in the title race. Failing to score in Madrid meant any Atletico goal was worth two. In football, the ends always justify the means but it was only at Anfield that the result fully backed Mourinhos tactical approach. And, in truth, that has not been his approach all season, although Chelsea have been, unquestionably, a counter-attacking side rather than one capable of making a game. Mourinho has bewailed, with some justification, the lack of a real striker, with Atleticos Diego Costa long earmarked as the solution. But it was Chelsea and Mourinho who put all their eggs in the Wayne Rooney basket last summer. Chelsea and Mourinho who opted to buy two players ineligible for the Champions League and not recruit a striker in January. When Chelsea have been flying, with Eden Hazard as their danger-man, they have been electrifying. The entertainer: Chelsea are great to watch when Eden Hazard is on song Remember how they unpicked City at the Etihad in February, how they smashed Arsenal for six? Too often, though, they have been cumbersome, leaden-footed, lacking ambition and the spark to break down teams who deployed the same tactics – or a variant thereof – which Mourinho himself utilised over the past week or so. If Mourinho had greater faith in his sides attacking armoury, he would have played with greater abandon. As he admitted on Friday, he looked at his squad and the way they conceded six in two games at Sunderland and Stoke and opted for defensive solidity at the expense of entertainment. In the short-term, unquestionably, that worked. Chelsea got to the last four of the Champions League, have reached the final week of the season nominally still in the title race – although that remaining hope will probably be extinguished by Wednesday, if not tonight. Yet Mourinho will know that Roman Abramovich does not like grinding it out. He accepts it, just, when it is successful. Not when it isnt. And if a Chelsea manager does not win a trophy, history tells us what frequently happens. Mourinho has not played defensive football all season. He is not a danger to the game. But even the Portuguese recognises that the onus is on him to offer his owner more. And he will have to play with that more next season, no question.
Posted on: Wed, 07 May 2014 18:37:24 +0000
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