"Mourniho finally figured how to beat Barcelona"

I cant find anything more insulting to throw on Mourinho. He just figured what a zillion coaches already know? That's beyond silliness if you ask me. Mourinho installed great determination in his squad. That's a plus. Another factor Mourinho adds to Real Madrid is that the players run out of any excuses. It is easy to put the blame on a coach when the team fails to perform, and players can smell such opportunity from far and abuse it to the extreme. This year it is not the case at Real Madrid. They have a proven and crowned coach who yielded success with each and every squad he coached. That fact installs confidence in the players mind, offers Mourinho a better opportunity to dictate his ideas, and most importantly put the players' backs to the wall. If the club fails, players carry responsibility as well. Needless to say he is a great motivator and he brings some of the little gains the team need in close encounters through his speeches and media shows.This was the case since day one and still the case now.

The only difference between the first clasico at Camp nou and the last CDR clasico is that in the first one - where Real Madrid were also the favorites in the eyes of the pundits- Mourinho tried to be innovative and this is not his thing. So he ended up with a game plan that not even a rookie coach would've considered. We know the outcome.

In the following clasico-s Mourinho went back to basics. And he did what he masters most, reactive tactics instead of innovative approach. He kept it simple, and applied a tactical approach that any rookie coach would've considered. He used the quality squad he has to stop Barcelona from scoring, keeping in mind that his offense enjoys enough quality to create scoring opportunities in return. Did he invent the wheel? No. He did it exactly as the majority of teams did against Barcelona, while having a better squad. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not. Sometimes the most amazing tactic is the least complicated one. So he gets the credit for that. He played the way that gives him a better opportunity to win.

So forget about those hindsight tactical analysis fairy tales storyboards that tells you how Mourinho asked his assistant to sneeze in Malaga after measuring the direction of the wind for the coming months, and it ended up that Messi got the infection just before the clasico. I bet that if Mourinho is reading and listening to all the craziness about his supernatural plans he will be rolling on the floor all the time laughing sarcastically.

Football is not that complicated and players are not robots tied to a string. If you collect all the applied tactics schemes you end up with a barely 150 pages pocketbook. 


(Ramzi)