Mourinho's tactical brilliance meant Inter left Chelsea in pieces

[Blue_Tires]

José Mourinho slipped away at the end, as he had promised, without celebrating in the sight of the fans who once worshipped him and would no doubt love the chance to do so again. By removing his old club from the Champions League he had achieved the one feat guaranteed to reinforce his legend in west London. And now they may even start to love him in the black and blue half of Milan as well.

The Portuguese coach masterminded many memorable victories during his three seasons at Stamford Bridge but few were as impressive as this, given the stakes and the back-story. Tonight Internazionale looked a team moulded by his vision while Chelsea resembled a side deprived of and badly in need of it.

Seldom does the mere arrival of the teamsheet create the first authentic thrill of the night. But given the identity of the man writing down the visitors' starting XI, perhaps it was no surprise. Coming to London to defend a 2-1 lead from the first leg, Mourinho picked a side containing three out-and-out strikers.

One wondered what Helenio Herrera, the most illustrious of his predecessors at Internazionale, would have made of his apparent audacity. Herrera, known as Il Mago – the magician – when he was guiding the club to consecutive European Cup victories in the mid-1960s, was the father of catenaccio, the system of uncompromising defence that made the Italian teams of that era so hard to break down. It is his achievements that Mourinho was specifically hired to emulate.

But the Special One has his own ideas. For him the best method of defence is to keep the opposition's rearguard fully stretched. His degree of sophistication means this does not usually involve committing all his resources to attack. What it does entail, as we saw again tonight, is a mastery of the art of transition, requiring not just pace and alertness but positional discipline.

When he arrived at Chelsea, he reshaped the team with a 4-3-3 formation in which the emphasis was on a fast switch from defence to attack, deploying a power and an athleticism that no Stamford Bridge side in living memory had ever shown. The results made him the most revered manager in the club's history.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/mar/16/championsleague-chelsea


love him or hate him (and i've hated him), the Premier league has been that much more dull without him...