Footballers And Their Cars

The recent draw against Huddersfield may portend problems on the horizon for United under Mourinho. Here’s why:

1. United fans may tolerate a pragmatic park the bus approach in away games to the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and even Man City and the like if they can nick a draw and then turn it on in the games against lesser opponents, whether home or away. And they have been turning in high scoring exhilarating performances in games against poorer opposition during the first part of the 2017 EPL season. Until Huddersfield. For many United fans, the failure against Huddersfield means the defensive approach against Liverpool the week before was pointless (literally);

2. Jose Mourinho spent almost a whole year picking and buying a player squad he was confident he could rely on in terms of agility to turn in strong performances, whether deployed in defensive or attacking tactical mode. Ander Herrera and Juan Matic, two key players in the squad mix, both performed poorly against Huddersfield. Although only the first defeat of the season, this is worrying for Mourinho and with City firing on all cylinders at the top of the league, he won’t be able to afford many more performances like that without testing the tolerance of United fans.

 Image: Givemesport.com

As hinted in our last blog post, Mourinho would employ a ‘park the bus’ approach to the fixture against Liverpool, and he did. We at Premier Car Accessories do not agree with the various pundits (Peter Schmeichel among them) – the game made for captivating viewing with Liverpool, to their credit, continuing to attack right up until the end. It was also gratifying that United were unable to break away for the 1 – 0 win that they were sniffing for throughout the game. Here are three reasons why Mourinho will continue to deploy his defence mode in away games against Premier League title rivals:

1. While Manchester United are top, or near to top, and thrashing pretty much all those outside of the top five, a safe away draw against the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and the like, is the result that gives them the best statistical chance of winning the league,
2. A number of United players will not enjoy this hold and absorb. But they will relish the games when they have the chance to attack – we can expect to see plenty more goal fest victories by United this season;
3. It works. The same criticism being thrown at Mourinho for employing the park the bus mode at United was also heard when he was at Chelsea (two Premier League titles), Inter Milan (two Serie A titles) and Real Madrid (won La Liga)
4. .Daily Mail

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Here are some reasons why Jose Mourinho has been more successful than Klopp, including the recent Manchester United win over Liverpool:

1. Mourinho is a master strategist: he builds squads that give him multiple tactical options which he can pick and choose from for particular opponents. Jurgen Klopp is a passion master: he builds teams around a spirit of team work and unity.
2. The Special One is also able to effectively adapt tactics DURING games, something that Jurgen the German, though improving, still seems to struggle with, especially when facing an opposition with an adaptive approach, like Mourinho's.
3. While both desire to win, Jose Mourinho is also more pragmatic, willing to sacrifice attractive football on the altar for a scrappy, risk free, 1-0 win.
4. The results speak for themselves: Mourinho’s two Champions League wins and four domestic league triumphs outshine Klopp’s successes with Dortmund, impressive though they were when seen in context                                          Image: Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Jose Mourinho is feuding again with Antonio Conte. As we predicted a while back, the Manchester United man would likely again pick Conte as a target this year, given their history and Chelsea's position in the league.

Here is a summary of their latest pithy slanging match:
Mourinho: 'You clown. You make like clown on touchline. And not even funny clown. Stoopid clown'
Conte: 'You clown too. You clown like monkey throwing cake at people'
Mourinho: 'Hah. And you is cheater. Yes, cheater clown'.

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There is a long and geographically disperse group of club managers who have got themselves into feuds with Jose Mourinho. Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, Manuel Pellegrini, even the mild mannered Rafa Benitez have found themselves embroiled in childish disputes with The Chosen One. Why does he do it? Does it not belittle his standing in the game and with his own players?

Two possible reasons:

1. He is a spoilt child who cannot keep his tantrums under control, or…

2. Maybe it’s part of his master plan: by making it personal, he might feel that he is proving to his players that he is fighting for them, and that it may help to inspire and cajole an extra 5% of effort out of them. Note that nearly all of Mourinho’s feuds are with managers of teams directly competing with his, and it is against these very teams that he needs that extra effort from his players.

Probably it’s a mix of both but we don’t think he would have achieved the success that he has if he too frequently let 1 get the better of 2.

Jose Mourinho’s Little Black Book (actually quite a big book):

Volume One: Managers
Pep Guardiola – a feud lasting back to Pep’s Barcelona days
Arsene Wenger – a clash of personalities and and a clash of style on the pitch
Manuel Pellegrini – Jose has been making remarks about him since he took over at Real in 2010
Claudio Ranieri – got on the wrong side of Mourinho when he was at Inter Milan
Antonio Conte – likely to continue as long as Conte is at Chelsea and challenging Chelsea for the Premier League.

To be continued (Vol 2: Players, Vol 3: Media, Vol 4: Fans).

(image: IBTimes)