Of Little Horses, eggs and getting "Out-tactic-ed"

Jose Mourinho – Tactically the most comprehensive manager?

Chelsea went on to do what seemed like improbable to most people. Beating Manchester City at their own ground was one of the biggest scalps of the season for the “little” horses of the Stamford Bridge stable. The bizarre analogy was nothing new from Jose Mourinho, who earlier left Chelsea in 2007 after bickering over the quality of eggs with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.

Away from the mind games, the kind of match Chelsea played, it was not wrong to compare the Chelsea team with members of the Equidae family, albeit not horse but donkey, for the sheer brilliance of the work shift the team put in. This has been the feature as well as the yardstick for the current Chelsea squad. A yardstick that rendered Juan Mata completely obsolete and unfit for the team this season.

Though the game against City was won by the defensive discipline and positive play up front, it won’t be fair to discount the role Manchester City’s injuries played in the win. Losing Fernandinho and Sergio Aguero was tactically huge and the fact that they were staple fixtures in the City team also needs to be factored in.

It has been one of the benefits for Chelsea that Jose Mourinho has chopped and changed the squad throughout the season, having the luxury of choosing from variety of young and beautiful eggs so as keep all of them fresh for the final countdown as well as providing each of them with vital minutes on the pitch so as to slot in.

Hitting teams on the break has been one of the attributes that we relate to any Jose Mourinho side, be it earlier Chelsea managed by Jose, Inter Milan, Real Madrid or current Chelsea. With players like Willian, Eden Hazard, Ramires and Oscar more than willing to put in the shift and do the defensive covering as well as counter attack is what helps the tactic to work in this team. With the team still lacking goals from the strikers in the squad, the triumvirate behind the striker is what causes major trouble to the opposition.

Jose has been clear in his policies, he has looked for hard work from the team and has taken no player for his stature, be it Juan Mata or David Luiz and there have been players who have bought into the system and reaped the benefits, Willian being the best example, adapting to English football as a fish takes to water.

A solid defense, great work rate and sharp & stinging counters are what makes this Chelsea team a title contender, regardless of what Jose has to say at his press conferences. Another of the famous Jose’s quotable quotes was labeling West Ham’s negative tactics as “19th century football”.

In all earnestness, what can be characterized as 19th century football is football of the primitive kind, a football that we see toddlers play, football where a swarm of players surround the ball, try to attack and the other team tries to break the attack and reciprocate and attack with their own bevy of players as fast as they can and this continues all day long. This breaking of play and attacking the opponent is what is 19th century football and it is this feature that has been modernized and brought up to “out-tactic” (Doff of the hat to Big Sam) teams by Mourinho.