It's a pity Jose Mourinho devotes so much time in the media to waging psychological wars upon rival managers - particularly Arsene Wenger, where it seems Mourinho's barbs have transcended mere competitiveness to assume the place of an obsession - because he is quite clearly a brilliant football mind.
The Guardian are today carrying quotes by Mourinho pertaining to the tactics he will employ at United.
Mourinho talks openly of what he wants to change from the Van Gaal era tactics-wise. (The chronic lack of goals, intent and entertainment can be taken as given).
Mourinho stresses he needs time to succeed at United, emphasising what he needs to change tactically from the previous manager:
I want my players to get the ball and look straight away for solutions in the space between opponents’ lines. In training, when they don’t do that, you can stop, explain, repeat and so on, but in a real game the ball comes to you and you have no time, your reaction has to be automatic.
We are also trying to switch to zonal marking and that is also difficult if you have had two years of man-to-man. My central defenders have been chasing the opponent even when he goes 15 or 20 metres back down the pitch.
I am not saying that system is wrong, I am simply saying it is not my way to do it. I keep telling the players we play zonal now, you don’t follow the man and that way we stay compact as a team, but I only have a short time to change ideas that have been put in over two years.
Mourinho admits that it might be easier to sign 20 new players and start fresh were that possible, although was careful to stress that Van Gaal's tactics were different rather than poorer. Presumably criticism of a previous manager is ill-befitting of a United manager.
He went on to highlight a further aspect of his managerial career which sets him well apart from his cross-cty rival, Pep Guardiola:
I don’t have a particular way of playing football that I take from club to club, because you find yourself with different players at each club. What a coach must do is read the situation each time and adapt a game to suit the qualities of his players.
This is quite true: in his first spell at Chelsea Mourinho used a 4-3-3 formation; his latter spell was marked with a loyalty to 4-2-3-1.
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