[ad_1]
Guillem Balague is the host of the BBC Radio 5 live football podcast, which covers European football every Thursday. Here he gives his point of view on Jose Mourinho's current position in football management.
Executive Vice President Ed Woodward informed the Executive Vice President of his arrival at Manchester United, an unshaven Jose Mourinho spent about an hour and a half at the Carrington Club training base in a described atmosphere by some as "clumsy". ".
The Portuguese director, surrounded by his badistants, decided not to undertake a painful farewell tour, merely informing those who met him on the last day.
The Mourinho seen coming out of Carrington was smiling, shaved, suddenly younger. Was it a relief or just the desire to give the impression that he was relieved?
We never quite know with Mourinho because with him, we always have two people in one, the public image and the private character – jovial and friendly or pervert and brutal, but methodical in most of the things he done, especially when it public.
Those who have worked with him in recent years, not only in Carrington, admit that they did not know what Mourinho they would meet day to day. For me, everything seems to be an act.
So, what's next for him?
S addressing coaches and players who have worked with him, as well as rival officials, sports psychologists and club insiders where he was – who, unsurprisingly, prefer not to be quoted – the most common finding is that football has overtaken Mourinho.
Are his methods obsolete?
Mourinho was one of the first to adopt a coaching method born in Portugal, called "tactical periodization" (it's quite complex, but you can read a detailed explanation here.Indeed, for many young coaches, he would become the guru.
But the game is changing. In recent years, Mourinho has been trying to replicate a way of working and thinking as many people already think. Despite the success – though perhaps lower than their high expectations – that he enjoyed at Real Madrid, his philosophy had not fully worked there.
True leaders need someone to tell them the truth, things that they can not see. A truth for Mourinho is that a charismatic, tough and brilliant manager has stopped bringing joy where he works
In Spain, players including Cristiano Ronaldo had begun to challenge him. The problems persisted in his second stay in Chelsea, where it is fair to say that he left few friends behind him he was sacked in 2015. In fact, those who worked with him during his first period in London felt that he was a totally different man the second time.
The players have changed a lot since the success of Mourinho in the early 2000s. It's hard to find a decor, John Terry, Frank Lampard or Ricardo Carvalho these days.
The best Mourinho teams won by defending in their box. Creating a chance against them was a minor miracle and his players often won at the games enjoying the smallest details: board games, counter-attacks, need discipline. But football has progressed technically.
The new generation of players is better suited to the dominant games than the approach proposed by Mourinho, which requires a love of defense, a huge and constant commitment without balloon and a great physical and mental strength.
The Spanish coach Juanma Lillo, who now works in Japan but is the youngest person to lead in La Liga and is admired by Pep Guardiola, told some of his colleagues that their real problem is that they are not 20 years old. Experience but simply repeat each year. for 20 years.
Some leaders suggest that Mourinho's insistence on his teams' efforts to annihilate the rival made him forget the identity of his own side.
But they all admire one thing: he always understands the game as a complex entity. Like all coaches, he seeks order but is able to create uncertainty among his opponents, finding ways to play hard to defend.
At the top of his game, he can make changes to a match (in terms of tactics and personnel) that disrupt the opponent's goals. But perhaps, they admit, we have seen less recently.
"A culture of fear and mistrust"
Mourinho chose not to update his methods at Old Trafford, but to insist on their implementation. He then scrambled with his most loyal lieutenant, Rui Faria, who had worked alongside him in all the clubs he was running. In the opinion of many present, Mourinho was no longer the same after the departure of his Portuguese compatriots.
He constantly had emotional ups and downs – not at all perhaps helped by the fact that he had decided not to root and chose instead the existence of five stars that "he" did not have. is life in a luxury hotel.
He created a culture at United based on fear, mistrust and a siege mentality of "we versus the world" – except that everyone at Old Trafford did not always know it was the "we" or the world".
He accused some people in the club with the result that Carrington's corridors became very tense. There was confusion and conflict, often caused by Mourinho, simply because he had borne fruit in the past.
But he did not do it in a club where his players – on average 30 years younger than him – could not adhere to his philosophy. Many within the club think he's deliberately forced his out, aware that he could neither change the attitude of his footballers, nor sufficiently improve his team to meet the challenge of Manchester City and his team. Liverpool.
That may be true, but what is fascinating is that one of the most successful managers of our time has been stuck at the end of a path, apparently unable to reinvent itself.
And not for the first time, Mourinho was disappointed by his bosses, who, in his opinion, had neither supported nor protected him, so he came out swinging.
The presidents of two of the biggest clubs in the world had told Woodward not to pick Mourinho, warning that he was leaving trouble behind him. While all confidence between him and Mourinho was eroding and Mourinho was retreating more and more behind an impenetrable wall, Woodward probably finally figured out what they were trying to tell him.
Carrington's regulars were told by other club members in which Mourinho had worked that the atmosphere would improve literally the day after he left. They were right.
A diet close to the unstable had created a negative atmosphere that affected everyone. The body language of the players and the performances on the ground that followed his departure speak volumes.
Less than a month after his dismissal, Mourinho chose to appear on BeIn Sports, where he seemed to justify what had happened to United and blamed the players and the club for his dismissal. "If you are a manager [and] you have in your hands the possibility to choose the players for whom you want to follow your idea of football or to follow the idea that you think you are the best to win a given competition, it's one thing. Another thing is if you are [not] able to do that. "
He also said that he was looking for a football director. Many sources say that it was not true. In fact, for two years, they said that he had beaten to avoid having one. This is another example of Portuguese writing his own story.
Can he reinvent himself and find success?
This is Mourinho, nobody else, who created the tag 'Special One'. It's a title to respect.
His requests for "respect" were theatrical but they come from a deep conviction that he has done enough to be treated differently. For 20 years, he has been considered an elite and rewarded for his excellence.
He seems to have come to the conclusion that he is actually brilliant because he gets the best jobs and draws his fortune from running great clubs.
He has succeeded in all the cities in which he has worked and, if he does not achieve the level of success for which he was created, he gets a huge gain. So, for two decades, he's been given proof that he's brilliant in what he's doing.
But some suggest that it is his own belief that has prevented him from seeing those who have surpbaded him in terms of leadership and direction in recent years of dramatic upheaval in football.
His inability to follow innovations off the pitch – football is now heavily influenced by social media – has cost him dearly, insiders said.
The way he treated star midfielder Paul Pogba – who battled his coach in the digital world – showed that he did not appreciate the enormous power of the digital world.
It remained stuck in badog mode, still giving great importance to its press conferences, despite the fact that the control exercised by the directors from the press room has been seriously reduced.
One has the impression that Mourinho is in time. One person I spoke to told me that the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, U2 and others, have maintained their successes because they have changed. None of them has ever made a brilliant career by singing a famous song.
Mourinho seems tired and distant, even a little bored, but will surely know that he needs to have more empathy now, not less. The authority is more elusive than ever, and many believe that he should interact with people in different ways than the ones he had used at United.
Directors like Graham Taylor and Sir Bobby Robson are known for their successes but also for the kindness with which they treated people.
This is a longer term way of leaving a legacy. And it's something that Mourinho should consider if he is worried about what people think of him, not now but in the future.
Could the Portuguese do the right thing to look in the mirror to rediscover who the real Jose Mourinho is? And would it help to feel invigorated, with new ideas, ready to challenge the best again?
No one who I spoke to thought of it beyond the possibilities.
What happens when a champion like him feels at such a crossroads? Sport psychologist Michael Caulfield met with officials in situations similar to those of 56 years old: "It is not true that all those who have his CV and who at his age are unable to renew their strengths. who are really bright are trying to find the solution in themselves. "
True leaders need someone to tell them the truth, things that they can not see. A truth for Mourinho is that a charismatic, hard and brilliant leader has stopped bringing joy where he works and his methods now seem short-term.
The most difficult thing is to admit that one is not right for everything. But the exceptional intelligence of a man who makes himself, such as Mourinho, can certainly make him see light.
His next role should not be one that further reinforces the notions of his genius. The sign of a great leader is when he changes position.
"Showing weakness is a great strength, more than ever now," says Caulfield. "Sometimes a leader has to come and say," I was wrong on the campaign, I did not understand where I was, but I learned some lessons from it. "
For my part, I would not bet that Mourinho is going through this transformation. But I also feel that he needs it.
Source link
