- Jun 1, 2011
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His first Chelsea team would attack from the first whistle, score early, then adopt the low block to draw teams out that were chasing the game. He did exactly the same with RM when they blitzed the league,, only adopting the low block from the start against teams he knew would take the game to him, like Barca.Not having that at all. Until the last few years/decade games were far more open and the lesser teams would have a go rather than just determinedly sit back in a very low block and defend their goal. That is a big change, it was never common back in the 90's and 00's for teams to routinely have 70, 75, or more, percent of the ball.
Mourinho was ahead of the pack when it came to fast transitions and specifically making use of them - his 1st Chelsea and especially Madrid teams you and others might deem attacking but I saw score majority of goals using this exact mantra of dropping to a mid block, drawing teams out, and then spring on them and being experts at countering into the space. The game now though has caught up a lot, with the focus on them and how to attack and defend with them.
It is also easier when he's with strong teams, with outstanding individual players, to work it out themselves and make the difference. In his last two or three jobs the quality of player and strength of team available to him has decreased, and I feel his lack of comfort and tactical ethos for 'front foot' football has become more apparent.
It's been a source of debate recently that more and more "lesser" teams have tried to play more front foot Football, with Daniel Farque's Norwich, Potter's Brighton etc being examples of this. Why? Because they've stepped away from the norm for "lesser" teams to stay compact and "in the game." THAT has been the norm for decades, not this open game that you seem to believe was prevalent.
Like I said, the game has evolved somewhat, but not that much.