u guys (#71 and sauce) made very good points. i definitely agree with u. there's no thing such an easy task for a football coach. the kind of challenges u have to face might be different, according to the type of team u have to lead. but definitely coaching a top club is not easy.
and definitely coaching big stars requires some special skills, in terms of men managing and also lots of charisma.
and i'm absolutely sure mourinho has those features. i really admire the way he's handling the balotelli and the adriano situations, for instance.
infact i don't think mourinho is a poor manager. my point is, he's not top class either..... actually he's nowhere near top class standards (assuming as a top class benchmark the likes of ferguson, lippi, capello, hiddink, spalletti, ancelotti).
coz when u label a coach as top class, u're implying he has the whole package: men management, charisma, tactical education, the ability to read, interpretate and anticipate the flow of the game (and mind u, this is a different thing from tactical education, as u can be a tactics bible, and yet not being able to adjust your team setup
during the game, according to what is going on the pitch), the ability to build a team, to handle the pressure, etc.....
palermo's former coach (guidolin) is a genius, talking about tactical knowledge and tactical reading ability.... in this area guidolin is on par with lippi. the thing is in the other areas he's just not good enough. and that's why he'll never be a top class coach.
the same goes for mourinho. he's pretty much the opposite of guidolin. jose is a master in all those areas where guidolin is poor.... and is poor in those areas where guidolin is a master.
it's not really easy to spot his weaknesses though, as he's very very clever and always choosed those teams which suited his specs.
mourinho's chelsea and mourinho's inter have something very special in common. both teams have a "spine" formed by players with an amazing tactical imprint. terry-carvalho-makelele-lampard... samuel-vieira-cambiasso-stankovic. theese players are great professionals with a fantastic ability in reading the game. when the team his loosing the "grip" on the match, u don't even have to tell them, as they realise it by themselves.... and they also know what they're supposed to do..... this kind of "on the pitch-coaches assistants" are an amazing asset for every coach, as they make a coach's job much easier.
take roma or arsenal, for instance. both nice teams, with some high quality players, which can display some fantastic football (when they're on the right mood).
the thing is u can easily tell those teams could easily fall apart without their coaches, as they both lack of those kind of players who can guide and lead the team from the pitch (roma at least has de rossi, but having just 1 player with this abilities and charisma isn't enough.... to change the attitude of the team during a bad game, u need 2, 3 of theese players altogether).
and another evidence of the importance of theese kind of players is that when mourinho left chelsea, the team's performances weren't really effected at all.
sure many of em expressed their disappointment for mourinho's departure, but as a matter of fact, the team had a great 2nd half of the season, almost won the premier league, and reached the champions league final..... not bad for a team coach by an "average one" like mister grant.
on this topic #71, i feel ranieri's and grant's merits are really underestimated. as a matter of fact ranieri was the one who built chelsea's real spine: terry-makelele-lampard-drogba (even though he wasn't able to coach him, it was ranieri the one who asked drogba to abramovich). mourinho did an amazing job in working on ranieri's foundations, but ranieri's work must be taken into account, talking about the construction of that team. i'm actually almost sure that, if ranieri would have been given the time, he would have won what mourinho won.... and anyhow i don't rate ranieri as a top class manager aswell.
and as for mr. grant, i guess chelsea's performance in the second half of last season speak for themselves.
in italy we usually say that theese kind of teams almost don't need any coach at all, as they have so many coach-on the-pitch, they could even do without a real coach.
that's an exageration of course, but still gives the idea.
can u imagine what would happen if wenger or spalletti would leave the club
in the middle of the season? do u think the players would have the same reaction chelsea players had?
so credit to jose for his qualities, but let's not get blinded by his results, or by his coolness. to deserve the top class label, u must be on par with those monsters i mentioned before.... and mourinho just isn't, as he proved almost every week in italy.
and mind u, this has nothing to do with adaptation issues. coz when u commit the mistakes he did, when u say those things he said during the interviews, u're just proving u don't know some of the aspects of the game enough.... there's no other explanation.
and mourinho himself admitted it every time he gave credit to the opponent team coach in the last few months (and this already happened several times).
almost every week (even when inter won, like in the siena game) he lost the matchup against his antagonist coach.
and that's another reason why i can easily see him moving back to england. in uk the coaches don't change their tactical display to suit their opponents line ups, the journalists aren't able to spot his flaws, and the fans consider him as a genius for his "mentality", his silverware, his winning streaks and other bullshits like theese ones. to put it simple the epl is the perfect habitat for the special one
here in italy the standards (talking about coaches) are just too high for him, and everybody can see mourinho for what he really is; a decent coach, with some top class-like abilities, but also some little flaws... and some huge weaknesses.
mind u, it's not like we don't like him. personally i adore his attitude, his character, and i appreciate his qualities..... but i can also see his weaknesses, exactly as i can see guidolin's weaknesses.
i just realise that speaking about mourinho in a scolari thread is a monumental off topic, so sorry about that..... but it wasn't me the one who started it.
