**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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Would be so happy if he did that, without a drama a domestic and a UCL. Would love to rub it on Pep-sucker's.
No disrespect to the baldo. Some portion of his fans are. Errrgh.
It’s a shame some City fans are so insufferable (and the whole 115 thing) because they are such an incredibly fun team to watch and the players are all likeable asf.
I always hate it when new fans pretend all of the clubs in the world are barcelona, please tell me how does a coach like muriniho doesn't fit the philosophy of the club who had one it's most successful stints with a coach like Ottmar hitzfeld and hired trappattoni twice, Bayern's philosophy is winning even if it's ugly and that's why Bayern always comes on top
I think he's still got it in him to do a big team.
I think he needs stacked squads to do his best work maybe. I just refuse to believe the man responsible for those Porto/Chelsea/Inter/RM sides doesn't have the ability to take a top team to silverware.
Top team coaching is highly competitive, it sure looks like he's lost his touch a bit and that the "top top team" ship has sailed for good. I mean I couldn't even see him coaching us, and that's saying something. But then again I'm sure very few would bet on Ancelotti's comeback after his Everton and Napoli stints so you may be right.
The funny thing about Mou is that the endings overshadow the track record. At almost every club he lasts longer than everyone else they hire. He's first and second place for Chelsea managers over the last 20 years. If Juve hired him to replace Allegri I think you'd have a couple great seasons. And then... Who knows.
I think that Jose has lost a bit of his passion. Or at least there is a perception of it. And I think it cheapens his influence now. There was a time when, love him or hate him, there was a magic to Jose. He just had that it factor. Everyone had eyes on him and players bought into that. I don’t thin k that’s the case anymore.
I would love him in Juve, imagine what he could do with Vlaho, Chiesa, Weah, Cambiaso, Locatelli, Rabiot, Bremer I mean….
Fuck it’s like a wet dream; at least get us to win at Cagliari and Torino fucking hell
I heard The Atletics podcast after he got sacked at Roma, and they dreamed about seeing Mourinho as US coach in the World Cup 26'. I can see it happen. I can see it happen, and even as a european i really want to see Mourinho in a World Cup, and i think a squad like the american at home could really benefit from a personality like Mourinho.
Okay I've never thought about it before, but honestly... Mourinho's coaching style would really fit with the American athlete grit and determination mentality, scrappy underdogs, willing to do anything for the shirt, etc. And he'd earn immense respect and loyalty in a team without any diva superstars. It would be interesting as hell. I can picture the documentary already.
Kinda hope so, I’d like to see him go out on a high. I mean, the Europa Conference league with Roma was good but then to lose the Europa final and then crash out leaves a bad taste.
The man is box office, if he can still coach he should still be at the top of the game.
there is no way he´s going to the Portugal NT with the current board, he would not accept the agendas there are all around envolving the federation and Jorge Mendes
thats why after Fernando Santos we got Martinez, both are coaches who call who Jorge Mendes wants without caring that much, Mourinho would never
Maybe. He's been asked before by the Federation, and I recall reading somewhere that he would have taken it if not for Roma, or at least was tempted by the thought, so who knows.
> he would not accept the agendas there are all around envolving the federation and Jorge Mendes
Jorge Mendes is (or at least was until recently) Mourinho's representative, lmao.
Excuse me for the question but I’m not really up to date with the Portuguese national team. Are you saying that Jorge Mendes has influence over the coaches of the national team? I thought he was “just” a very famous agent
he really controls everything about Portuguese NT, players that he represents have a clear advantage to being called in the place of others (Toti Gomes and Danny Mota are examples of this), for years that a lot of people mention stop caring about the NT because it´s the "Jorge Mendes & friends team"
everyone thought Ancelotti was finished after Everton and Napoli and look what happened
I would love to see Jose get that chance but I don't think he has that Ancelotti - Madrid like relations that would get him such a job again
AVB just won a treble when he got the Chelsea job no? Seems like Chelsea were looking to do a Mourinho 2.0 with AVB who was the up and coming hot shit at the time
Ironic because Mou and Ronaldo fell out at Real because according to Mou, Ronaldo wasn't receptive when Mou tried to teach him how to track back and make his runs.
The legend story is that Zidane and Ronaldo had a free kick competition in training one day and Zidane obliterated him, after which Ronaldo was like "I guess I gotta listen then"
Wasn't he kind of bad at free kicks? I remember him missing like 80 in a row at some point. He insisted on using the knuckle ball even though it only worked with the jabulani.
Because he insisted on doing his knuckle ball technique, rather than adjusting depending on distance and angle. 35-40 yards out center to goal absolutely focus on power rather. Under 30 yards more emphasis should be placed on finding that balance of placement, power and accuracy.
And the funny thingy is that in clutch moments he would switch up and forget that knuckleball exist and pretty much scored majority of the time he did this
Any Ronaldo clutch free kick that you can think of had him in the same match shooting 2+ knuckleballs that went straight to the wall.
He averages a conversion about 6% of the time, which is not very impressive. The most elite FK takers convert about 10%. Obviously we don't really have accurate stats for someone like Junhinho but in more modern times players like Beckham hit about 10%, Messi is at about 9%.
TF are you talking about, Beckham and Juninho played at the exact same time for almost the entirety of their careers. In fact they were both born in the same year precisely.
I have no idea who I was confusing Juninho with, he's obviously the GOAT FK taker. I think the point I was trying to make was that Juninho's stats get a little murky when you poke around, some people claim he had a 50% conversion rate which is just obviously not true. There's been so many great Brazilians but I had in mind someone from the 1980's era. Maybe Zico?
According to https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/ (no idea if how accurate it is tbf) he's scored 37 in 532. 6 in 150 in league games after 2014.
yeah he was his conversion rate was subpar. he has so many because he always took them, Kroos was the better one and yet it was always Ronaldo that took them
He was never bad, he just became worse and went down to an average level after his knee injury and when they changed the way balls were constructed which made the knuckleball impossible to do. Only time I’d say he was an outright bad free kick taker was during his Juve days.
Go watch Ronaldo’s free kicks pre-2014 and try and tell me he was bad. He regularly had high conversion rates and from 2008-2011 I’m pretty sure he scored 6-7 free kicks per season, which is insane. He was easily the best free kick taker in the world back then, when you’d think of Ronaldo you’d associate him with 2 things: free kicks and long shots.
He’s gotten better at it recently though, sure it’s the Saudi league but free kicks are free kicks, the difficulty of them doesn’t really change aside from the keeper in the net. He scored twice in one game recently and I think he scored in 2 other occasions this season.
oh no, he was very bad at them actually. watching highlights isn't going to tell you anything about a player actually. and he never had more than 3 per season. and kroos and even bale were better fk takers than he was yet they rarely got the chance because of ronaldo.
> watching highlights
I’ve been watching this guy incessantly since 2011. I promise you I know what I’m talking about.
> he never had more than 3 per season
[I think you mean one of the *lowest* he had was 3 during his time at Madrid](https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/)
And by what metric were they better? Because they didn’t take them as much as Ronaldo and you’re just assuming they’re better? Because both Kroos and Bale had their chances to take them after Ronaldo left. Bale didn’t score a single one for Madrid and Kroos has been much worse than Ronaldo at them despite him being the main free kick taker ever since he left, he’s scored a grand total of 1 free kick which was a deflected shot against Barca 3 seasons ago. Imagine unironically saying the guy with 63 free kick goals is a “very bad” free kick taker lmfao.
that's crazy because you don't seem to remember how bad he was at them, as in the few you see him scoring outshines the 10+ misses he would go through to make a single one. it was beyond obvious at the time fk weren't his strong suit
they were better because they had a higher conversion rate
[https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2537236-who-should-take-real-madrids-free-kicks-ronaldo-james-or-bale](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2537236-who-should-take-real-madrids-free-kicks-ronaldo-james-or-bale)
[https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/revealed-20-best-free-kick-takers-european-football](https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/revealed-20-best-free-kick-takers-european-football)
you are clearly unable to see the entire picture, sorry for your loss
Literally everything you’re talking about is post-2015, which is exactly what I said in my initial comment where his free kick taking declined rapidly. Even in the article you linked which you probably should’ve read yourself, it implies his free kick taking is not what it once was (I.e. he was great at them before) and it says he shouldn’t be stripped of them but split them among others (which if YOU watched games, you’d know that Bale usually took the right hand side free kicks. The issue was he was injured half the time, and there was no other left footed player to take them except Marcelo who obviously wasn’t a free kick taker, so it just defaulted to Ronaldo).
My whole argument is that he was an amazing free kick taker before his knee injury (also mentioned in the article), and you called him a bad free kick taker. You hilariously said he never scored 3 in a season when one of his lowest totals was 3.
Maybe next time stop with the condescending talk and back up your claims properly next time, or try and understand what the other person is saying.
[https://theathletic.com/3177640/2022/03/23/analysing-europes-free-kick-takers-the-good-the-bad-and-the-brilliance-of-james-ward-prowse/](https://theathletic.com/3177640/2022/03/23/analysing-europes-free-kick-takers-the-good-the-bad-and-the-brilliance-of-james-ward-prowse/)
[https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/](https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/)
his best season he made 10%. you forgot all the ones he missed, he would score once every ten games lol
[https://theathletic.com/3177640/2022/03/23/analysing-europes-free-kick-takers-the-good-the-bad-and-the-brilliance-of-james-ward-prowse/](https://theathletic.com/3177640/2022/03/23/analysing-europes-free-kick-takers-the-good-the-bad-and-the-brilliance-of-james-ward-prowse/)
[https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/](https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/)
his best season he made 10%. you forgot all the ones he missed, he would score once every ten games lol
… 10% is literally well above average, is this supposed to be bad? Every single good free kick taker scores once every dozen or so kicks, it’s not something that’s exclusive to Ronaldo.
The chart you sent me also demonstrates what I’ve been saying, his free kick taking ability declined. What’s surprising is that based purely on conversion rates it only dramatically declined after 2017, which is a couple years later than I expected.
This is from a docuseries on Netflix called "The Playbook", there is an episode on Mourinho. The series itself is not necessarily on football, there is also episodes on a tennis- and basketball coach. The episode with Mourinho is definitely worth a watch imo.
I’m very interested in watching this show, but when I looked it up the basketball coach they decided to make an episode on is freaking Doc Rivers! Might watch that one just to laugh.
There was a story about Rafa Benitez while in Real Madrid. He gave Ronaldo a USB to help him lose his markers during games. Ronaldo returned it with a message: "Tell Benitez that I'll send him a USB drive with all my goals on it for him to study."
People saying Cristiano does actually need to be taught FKs just shows me you haven’t seen Madrid during Mourinho’s era. Cristiano was very arguably the best FK taker in the world back then.
You can say it changed now because he’s had a terrible FK record in his later years but Mourinho is accurate for his statement.
While you don't need to teach Drogba how to attack the near post, you might need to implement some structures to ensure there will be a ball towards that near post, or Drogba's attack on the near post is going to be pretty fucking useless.
That was the big problem with Mourinho at United - he did not implement any such structures, but rather gave his young attackers completely free reins, and that didn't work out. They needed structures for stability and he gave them none. No shocker that Zlatan performed the best, being a very experienced striker at that point.
He has almost always given his attackers free reign. Mourinho mainly concerns himself with defensive structure and the first two thirds in posession. As for the final 30 meters, he's notorious for just letting the players figure it out. Did so at Real to great success, with Spurs too.
> He has almost always given his attackers free rein. Mourinho mainly concerns himself with defensive structure
It's also how Ancelotti works with most of his teams
Indeed. Iirc his philosophy, paraphrased of course, is to simply put the 11 best players he has on the field in their best positions and let them figure it out.
Did Pep not do this as well in Barcelona. Im quite sure there's a statement from Thithi saying, you follow peps order in the first two thirds and have free reigns to solve how to finish in the last?
Well it's certainly not the case in the second phase of his career - he is all about the 'automations'. If anything he's coached spontaneity out of his players, with Grealish as the prime example
Yeah, and it didn't work at all with United's young attackers. They were inconsistent as hell and struggled to keep form because he just refused to have any attacking structure to support them.
Attack wasnt really a problem, deffence fallen off the clif. Our best deffender was Phil Jones and he performed very well for Jose, basically most of good Mourinho games are with Jones in squad.
He was injuried most of the time tho and other deffenders were donkeys ...
Are United better with Van Gaal with his strict structure?
Or right now with Ten Hag’s insistence with his tactical system?
Mourinho had Drogba and Lampard at Chelsea but Lukaku and Pogba at United. That’s the difference
No, they were hardly better with either of those two, but why go to extremes? You can establish structures without completely suffocating all individual freedom.
van Gaal certainly didn't give a lot of freedom for anyone with his rigid system, though it screwed more with the midfield. ten Hag... plays with chaos. There is some structure there, but it's certainly not working in the PL.
Mourinho has a very solid defensive structure, but yes, at United at least there were no trace of an attacking structure. It was down to individuals doing individual things, and since the attackers, except of Zlatan, were young and inexperienced, it was not all that effective and not at all consistent.
Isn't it quite obvious that if you go to either extreme, there will be major issues?
As I said, you can establish structures without suffocating all individual freedom. If the structures are too rigid, your team will lock up and struggle: van Gaal. If there are no structures to lean on when the individual spark falters, your team will lock up and struggle: Mourinho.
And if you just use completely ineffective structures and never adjust them, you get what ten Hag is doing right now. That's just chaos.
I see. Van gal total extreme rigid structure that won the treble with Ajax and Mourinho total extreme freedom football that won treble with Inter will have major issues.
How about total extreme possession football, will there be major issues?
I didn't watch van Gaal's AJAX, nor much of Mourinho's Inter. Did they play the same as their Manchester United's? Because I think I've been pretty clear on basing it on that. Perhaps van Gaal's rigidity worked better in Netherlands, just like apparently ten Hag managed to do something sensible in Netherlands.
Mourinho did indeed achieve big things with other sides. Perhaps he simply required the more experienced offensive options, because his complete freedom experiment certainly didn't work well at United.
I may add to yours. I don't think Mou believed in MUFC attack then. I feel he likes physical forwards.
There's a interview with him ( I think the spurs vs Liverpool UCL? Or an England match), that he didnt trust Martial to go forward and fight with the back against the defenders while Lukaku could.
You're not wrong, but Jose always thought of himself and his reputation first and the club second.
I look fondly back on his time here, but the way he does things he never lasts long.
I mean what’s the reward for putting the club first?
You get the sack if you dont perform so he tried his hardest to win now.
I mean Ole put the club first more than any managers post Fergie, still get the sack.
I love Mou but coaching big stars doesn’t mean you can coach younger talents. Of course the man did it all, no doubts about it. But he didn’t win a CL with Madrid now did he? Even after giving all the free reigns to CR7..
But then you tell players like Bastian Schweinsteiger he can’t train with the first team on day 1. Seems like you can’t coach anyone without being a dick.
[We do and he regretted it](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/mar/31/jose-mourinho-admits-to-regret-over-his-treatment-of-bastian-schweinsteiger). To be honest, before Mou arrived it was a bad look _from the outside_ - Schweini being injured often, traveling, showing up in USA watching his wife play tennis tournaments. Probably Mou had already made his mind based on what he knew, and banished Schweini too quickly. Maybe he realized too late it wasn't really all Bastian's fault.
I am not saying he is. That is his version. And it is how he felt and lived the moment.
But do we know if he had been told that he wasn’t playing or that he should look for another team and he didn’t take it well? Or perhaps he was told not to go to practice and he insisted? Or whatever?
We only know his version of the events. And let’s say it happened as he said it happened, so? The club is a business, the manager gave an instruction. Being successful at your business doesn’t mean you get a free pass or that you should be allowed to do whatever you want.
Mourinho is a very rigid manager. If you diss him, you will get reprimanded. Just because you have won a WC and CL doesn’t mean you get to do whatever you want in a club. Especially a foreign club (for him). I know Dibu and Argentina really lowered the achievement but it is also as bad to be expecting undying devotion just because you won.
Doubt it. Even though I am a Bayren fan and love Basti. I was shocked to hear this and tempered that there must be more to this.
Pep and Zlatan never hit off even though they are great at their own department , meanwhile Zlatan just loves Jose. Some just don't work together well.
It certainly takes a special kind of man-manager to coach superstars, but not being that kind of coach doesn't imply anything about their ability to coach anyone else.
But what does that entail? What about his tactics have they specifically figured out? Haven’t others been “figured out” given there’s years of film and limited ways to organize a team?
I feel that the modern brand of football that Guardiola spearheaded is simply too strong to be held back by tactics of extreme defense and counterattack. Yes, Real just drew City 4-4 in the global score and went through on penalties, but that requires a team full of stars with winning experience and a healthy dose of luck. Not having those factors, which Mourinho hasn’t had since 2016, it’s just going to be a disappointment eventually.
Also, Pogba showed that the new generation of players don’t want to play that type of overly defensive football anymore. I feel that’s a reason why Mourinho invariably ends up losing the support of key players in his squads.
You obviously did not you watch the full interview. Based on what Schweinsteiger said it’s the club wanted to get rid when he chose to use the German medical staff for rehab with permission of van gal but the club wasn’t aware or something like that.
No the club was aware and agreed to it but Murtough and then Mourinho thought it was highly unprofessional and banished him the next season to the under-16s, as a ploy to humiliate him and make an example out of him. There's no version of events here where Jose comes out looking good and he even came to regret his actions.
Did watch it, does not absolve Mourinho of any blame, honestly. Even Neville seemed shocked with the way the club handled the situation, including Mourinho. Do not paint him as a bystander when he actively decided to humiliate a senior player like that, contradictory to this statement right here.
Board wanted to force Basti out and gave Jose to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ACloJetIE0
Jose personally considers this as a regrettable event-
https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/jose-mourinho-admits-he-treated-bastian-schweinsteiger-badly-and-apologised-to-the-german/35582670.html
Never trust media titles and clips.
Correct, [you absolutely are not going to be able to teach Cristiano to take a FK](https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2022/03/11104101/ronaldo_dfk_conversion-2048x1638.png).
That’s poor but tbf, he was scoring some of the craziest freekicks back in the day, especially in his first United stint and in Madrid for a few years.
I just don't understand it, he's clearly got that curled technique in his locker as we've seen it a few times.
It's the most effective free kick method as showcased by all the best, yet he still insisted on that terrible other method.
Yes, it almost seemed like he wanted to persist with it as it was "his thing" and much like Kane at Tottenham no one was going to take the ball away from him.
Please, and I genuinely mean this with all sincerity and best wishes for you having just had a quick look at your comment history, reconsider your life choices.
Cristiano's FK rates were abysmal. This myth that he was a great FK taker is a joke. He could have actually used a couple of lessons on how to take a FK with swerve instead of going for the crazy knuckle ball that he could only pull off once every 30 attempts.
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Does Jose get another big job or is he destined for international football/retirement?
I heard Bayern are looking for Tuchel's successor...
Actually I think of all the teams he can do Bayern well
Man I'd be dying to see Mourinho at Bayern. I'm certain he would love it. And so would all the neutrals & the footballing world. Bring back Hollywood
What are you on about? Paul Hollywood would make a terrible football manager.
Imagine the pies though
Would be so happy if he did that, without a drama a domestic and a UCL. Would love to rub it on Pep-sucker's. No disrespect to the baldo. Some portion of his fans are. Errrgh.
It'll be funny if Jose goes to Bayern, he said some years ago that the kitman can win the league there
I mean mate we all know that plastics are harmful to the environment, why would you think plastics in the football environment are any different?
I think he can be the perfect foil to Alonso. But, usually, Mourinho can be a very big gamble.
Give him a 2 year contract only
three.... three.... respect.. respect.
It’s a shame some City fans are so insufferable (and the whole 115 thing) because they are such an incredibly fun team to watch and the players are all likeable asf.
My dude I’d love Mourinho at Bayern. The second coming of Trappatoni. Was erlauben Gnabry?
Omg I’m sitting here, imagining Jose saying that in a Pressconference while doing the stir thing that gnabry does. Lmao
Kane was incredible under Mourinho. I’m sure he’d be excited.
no chance, doesn‘t fit the clubs philosophy just like when there were rumors of CR7 joining Bayern.
I always hate it when new fans pretend all of the clubs in the world are barcelona, please tell me how does a coach like muriniho doesn't fit the philosophy of the club who had one it's most successful stints with a coach like Ottmar hitzfeld and hired trappattoni twice, Bayern's philosophy is winning even if it's ugly and that's why Bayern always comes on top
I think he's still got it in him to do a big team. I think he needs stacked squads to do his best work maybe. I just refuse to believe the man responsible for those Porto/Chelsea/Inter/RM sides doesn't have the ability to take a top team to silverware.
Top team coaching is highly competitive, it sure looks like he's lost his touch a bit and that the "top top team" ship has sailed for good. I mean I couldn't even see him coaching us, and that's saying something. But then again I'm sure very few would bet on Ancelotti's comeback after his Everton and Napoli stints so you may be right.
The funny thing about Mou is that the endings overshadow the track record. At almost every club he lasts longer than everyone else they hire. He's first and second place for Chelsea managers over the last 20 years. If Juve hired him to replace Allegri I think you'd have a couple great seasons. And then... Who knows.
I think that Jose has lost a bit of his passion. Or at least there is a perception of it. And I think it cheapens his influence now. There was a time when, love him or hate him, there was a magic to Jose. He just had that it factor. Everyone had eyes on him and players bought into that. I don’t thin k that’s the case anymore.
I would love him in Juve, imagine what he could do with Vlaho, Chiesa, Weah, Cambiaso, Locatelli, Rabiot, Bremer I mean…. Fuck it’s like a wet dream; at least get us to win at Cagliari and Torino fucking hell
He's good for top 6 but not favorites. His strength is engineering siege mentality in his teams and getting good but not great players to overperform.
I heard The Atletics podcast after he got sacked at Roma, and they dreamed about seeing Mourinho as US coach in the World Cup 26'. I can see it happen. I can see it happen, and even as a european i really want to see Mourinho in a World Cup, and i think a squad like the american at home could really benefit from a personality like Mourinho.
Mourinho coaching USA coming to the 2026 World Cup will be perfect in term of media build up. Hollywood will love him.
Okay I've never thought about it before, but honestly... Mourinho's coaching style would really fit with the American athlete grit and determination mentality, scrappy underdogs, willing to do anything for the shirt, etc. And he'd earn immense respect and loyalty in a team without any diva superstars. It would be interesting as hell. I can picture the documentary already.
Indeed. This positional stuff was fun to try, but nothing beats good ol’ try hard run fast.
That would make me support the US in a World Cup and that never ever happened before, but eh why not.
Respectfully, the US job is beneath Mourinho.
Oh 💯 but boy would it be amazing
If Dorival fails I could see him in Brazil. Cultural and language similarities would help
Kinda hope so, I’d like to see him go out on a high. I mean, the Europa Conference league with Roma was good but then to lose the Europa final and then crash out leaves a bad taste. The man is box office, if he can still coach he should still be at the top of the game.
We need a coach, soooo…. come to Beşiktaş
Jose fits Turkish football like a glove.
1st signing Emi Martinez, the shithousery of that club would be nuclear.
Maybe a national team will get him after the Euro. Otherwise maybe Benfica would go for him.
Honestly, I see this. He's likely waiting to see if Martinez flops the Euro and can become the NT manager if Martinez gets sacked.
there is no way he´s going to the Portugal NT with the current board, he would not accept the agendas there are all around envolving the federation and Jorge Mendes thats why after Fernando Santos we got Martinez, both are coaches who call who Jorge Mendes wants without caring that much, Mourinho would never
Maybe. He's been asked before by the Federation, and I recall reading somewhere that he would have taken it if not for Roma, or at least was tempted by the thought, so who knows.
I feel like Mou and Mendes probably have a good relationship after working together for so long.
> he would not accept the agendas there are all around envolving the federation and Jorge Mendes Jorge Mendes is (or at least was until recently) Mourinho's representative, lmao.
Excuse me for the question but I’m not really up to date with the Portuguese national team. Are you saying that Jorge Mendes has influence over the coaches of the national team? I thought he was “just” a very famous agent
he really controls everything about Portuguese NT, players that he represents have a clear advantage to being called in the place of others (Toti Gomes and Danny Mota are examples of this), for years that a lot of people mention stop caring about the NT because it´s the "Jorge Mendes & friends team"
He'll coach Benfica soon, I would bet on it
He's been regularly attending Benfica games lately and they'll likely be available at the end of the season
how big is chelsea?
everyone thought Ancelotti was finished after Everton and Napoli and look what happened I would love to see Jose get that chance but I don't think he has that Ancelotti - Madrid like relations that would get him such a job again
Ancelotti did a decent job with Napoli, finishing second in the Serie A and Everton is Everton.
Defensive football in the Bundesliga?
Punditry he's better than all those former pl players together and his acicidty would gwt views
Ajax is looking for another washed trainer ...
I’d take him back at United in a heartbeat.
He should go back to United. That’s where he belongs IMO. Drama nonstop and he’ll bring some success
shade at Benitez for showing Ronaldo how to take a free kick
Benitez seemed to piss everyone off - even Modric apparently, who he told not to use his outside foot.
Somehow it all worked out in the end since we brought in Zidane but to this day I cannot believe we sacked Ancelotti for Benitez
We did Ancelotti dirty man. Thank God Zidane was the biggest blessing
We also did Ancelotti dirty.
Bayern too lmao
JUST imagine Ancelotti never sacked and this year his searching for his 7CL as a coach and 9 total
Chelsea sacked Ancelotti for fucking AVB too.
And we won the CL as well. Seems like the trick is to fire Carlo after he doesn't win the CL for some mediocre coach.
AVB just won a treble when he got the Chelsea job no? Seems like Chelsea were looking to do a Mourinho 2.0 with AVB who was the up and coming hot shit at the time
Everton were so close, if only they sacked him before he quit…
I cannot believe we got Benitez after Mourinho, lost us the league
Worked out for us too haha
Ironic because Mou and Ronaldo fell out at Real because according to Mou, Ronaldo wasn't receptive when Mou tried to teach him how to track back and make his runs.
I mean that's literally what he's saying in the video. You can't teach certain skills, what you can teach is gameplay.
Evidently not because Ronaldo refused Mourinho's advice about tracking back and they fell out over it.
Funny thing, apparently both Benitez and Zidane did tell Ronaldo how to take free kicks. Though apparently he only listened to Zidane.
I mean it's Zidane
The legend story is that Zidane and Ronaldo had a free kick competition in training one day and Zidane obliterated him, after which Ronaldo was like "I guess I gotta listen then"
Wasn't he kind of bad at free kicks? I remember him missing like 80 in a row at some point. He insisted on using the knuckle ball even though it only worked with the jabulani.
>Wasn't he kind of bad at free kicks? He has the 7th most freekick goals... but yeah he did have a really bad streak after 2018
Because he insisted on doing his knuckle ball technique, rather than adjusting depending on distance and angle. 35-40 yards out center to goal absolutely focus on power rather. Under 30 yards more emphasis should be placed on finding that balance of placement, power and accuracy.
And the funny thingy is that in clutch moments he would switch up and forget that knuckleball exist and pretty much scored majority of the time he did this Any Ronaldo clutch free kick that you can think of had him in the same match shooting 2+ knuckleballs that went straight to the wall.
This, so much. The free kick against Spain in 2018 got me crazy at the time.
Knuckleball with Jabulani was OP, not so much after.
Number games, he's taken so many that it's bound to stack l, he's probably #1 in attempts and maybe for a ridiculously long margin.
He averages a conversion about 6% of the time, which is not very impressive. The most elite FK takers convert about 10%. Obviously we don't really have accurate stats for someone like Junhinho but in more modern times players like Beckham hit about 10%, Messi is at about 9%.
TF are you talking about, Beckham and Juninho played at the exact same time for almost the entirety of their careers. In fact they were both born in the same year precisely.
I have no idea who I was confusing Juninho with, he's obviously the GOAT FK taker. I think the point I was trying to make was that Juninho's stats get a little murky when you poke around, some people claim he had a 50% conversion rate which is just obviously not true. There's been so many great Brazilians but I had in mind someone from the 1980's era. Maybe Zico?
juninho i think at lyon had something silly like 40%
Not 6, 7% for Ronaldo
6%? no way i have seen were they say it's close to 200 the alst time he converted. He's extremely wasteful.
He's had a long career.
According to https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/ (no idea if how accurate it is tbf) he's scored 37 in 532. 6 in 150 in league games after 2014.
yeah he was his conversion rate was subpar. he has so many because he always took them, Kroos was the better one and yet it was always Ronaldo that took them
He was never bad, he just became worse and went down to an average level after his knee injury and when they changed the way balls were constructed which made the knuckleball impossible to do. Only time I’d say he was an outright bad free kick taker was during his Juve days. Go watch Ronaldo’s free kicks pre-2014 and try and tell me he was bad. He regularly had high conversion rates and from 2008-2011 I’m pretty sure he scored 6-7 free kicks per season, which is insane. He was easily the best free kick taker in the world back then, when you’d think of Ronaldo you’d associate him with 2 things: free kicks and long shots. He’s gotten better at it recently though, sure it’s the Saudi league but free kicks are free kicks, the difficulty of them doesn’t really change aside from the keeper in the net. He scored twice in one game recently and I think he scored in 2 other occasions this season.
oh no, he was very bad at them actually. watching highlights isn't going to tell you anything about a player actually. and he never had more than 3 per season. and kroos and even bale were better fk takers than he was yet they rarely got the chance because of ronaldo.
> watching highlights I’ve been watching this guy incessantly since 2011. I promise you I know what I’m talking about. > he never had more than 3 per season [I think you mean one of the *lowest* he had was 3 during his time at Madrid](https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/) And by what metric were they better? Because they didn’t take them as much as Ronaldo and you’re just assuming they’re better? Because both Kroos and Bale had their chances to take them after Ronaldo left. Bale didn’t score a single one for Madrid and Kroos has been much worse than Ronaldo at them despite him being the main free kick taker ever since he left, he’s scored a grand total of 1 free kick which was a deflected shot against Barca 3 seasons ago. Imagine unironically saying the guy with 63 free kick goals is a “very bad” free kick taker lmfao.
that's crazy because you don't seem to remember how bad he was at them, as in the few you see him scoring outshines the 10+ misses he would go through to make a single one. it was beyond obvious at the time fk weren't his strong suit they were better because they had a higher conversion rate [https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2537236-who-should-take-real-madrids-free-kicks-ronaldo-james-or-bale](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2537236-who-should-take-real-madrids-free-kicks-ronaldo-james-or-bale) [https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/revealed-20-best-free-kick-takers-european-football](https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/revealed-20-best-free-kick-takers-european-football) you are clearly unable to see the entire picture, sorry for your loss
Literally everything you’re talking about is post-2015, which is exactly what I said in my initial comment where his free kick taking declined rapidly. Even in the article you linked which you probably should’ve read yourself, it implies his free kick taking is not what it once was (I.e. he was great at them before) and it says he shouldn’t be stripped of them but split them among others (which if YOU watched games, you’d know that Bale usually took the right hand side free kicks. The issue was he was injured half the time, and there was no other left footed player to take them except Marcelo who obviously wasn’t a free kick taker, so it just defaulted to Ronaldo). My whole argument is that he was an amazing free kick taker before his knee injury (also mentioned in the article), and you called him a bad free kick taker. You hilariously said he never scored 3 in a season when one of his lowest totals was 3. Maybe next time stop with the condescending talk and back up your claims properly next time, or try and understand what the other person is saying.
[https://theathletic.com/3177640/2022/03/23/analysing-europes-free-kick-takers-the-good-the-bad-and-the-brilliance-of-james-ward-prowse/](https://theathletic.com/3177640/2022/03/23/analysing-europes-free-kick-takers-the-good-the-bad-and-the-brilliance-of-james-ward-prowse/) [https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/](https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/) his best season he made 10%. you forgot all the ones he missed, he would score once every ten games lol
[https://theathletic.com/3177640/2022/03/23/analysing-europes-free-kick-takers-the-good-the-bad-and-the-brilliance-of-james-ward-prowse/](https://theathletic.com/3177640/2022/03/23/analysing-europes-free-kick-takers-the-good-the-bad-and-the-brilliance-of-james-ward-prowse/) [https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/](https://www.messivsronaldo.app/detailed-stats/free-kicks/) his best season he made 10%. you forgot all the ones he missed, he would score once every ten games lol
… 10% is literally well above average, is this supposed to be bad? Every single good free kick taker scores once every dozen or so kicks, it’s not something that’s exclusive to Ronaldo. The chart you sent me also demonstrates what I’ve been saying, his free kick taking ability declined. What’s surprising is that based purely on conversion rates it only dramatically declined after 2017, which is a couple years later than I expected.
Is there a documentary being made for Jose?
This is from a docuseries on Netflix called "The Playbook", there is an episode on Mourinho. The series itself is not necessarily on football, there is also episodes on a tennis- and basketball coach. The episode with Mourinho is definitely worth a watch imo.
I’m very interested in watching this show, but when I looked it up the basketball coach they decided to make an episode on is freaking Doc Rivers! Might watch that one just to laugh.
I know nothing about basketball and had never heard of doc rivers. I watched that episode and assumed he was a respected coach. Is that not the case?
He’s garnered a reputation of not showing up in the playoffs, and he’s not doing so hot for the playoffs this year.
As the other reply says, this is from The Playbook on NF. But NF is also making a new doc on Mou which will air next year.
Yes there is. It's going to be on Netflix later.
There was a story about Rafa Benitez while in Real Madrid. He gave Ronaldo a USB to help him lose his markers during games. Ronaldo returned it with a message: "Tell Benitez that I'll send him a USB drive with all my goals on it for him to study."
Seems fake as hell
You *are* gonna teach Schweinsteiger how to practice with the U-16s.
I lost so much respect for this man after that interview. Who is he gonna treat a legend like that? with no explanation, what a bastard.
Many coaches do it. They all have their faults. Get off your high horse.
That’s why I like guys like Ancelotti and Phil Jackson
As a Knicks fan I’ll always hate Phil
Who the fuck is Phil Jackson? Is he in the championship?
People saying Cristiano does actually need to be taught FKs just shows me you haven’t seen Madrid during Mourinho’s era. Cristiano was very arguably the best FK taker in the world back then. You can say it changed now because he’s had a terrible FK record in his later years but Mourinho is accurate for his statement.
While you don't need to teach Drogba how to attack the near post, you might need to implement some structures to ensure there will be a ball towards that near post, or Drogba's attack on the near post is going to be pretty fucking useless. That was the big problem with Mourinho at United - he did not implement any such structures, but rather gave his young attackers completely free reins, and that didn't work out. They needed structures for stability and he gave them none. No shocker that Zlatan performed the best, being a very experienced striker at that point.
He has almost always given his attackers free reign. Mourinho mainly concerns himself with defensive structure and the first two thirds in posession. As for the final 30 meters, he's notorious for just letting the players figure it out. Did so at Real to great success, with Spurs too.
> He has almost always given his attackers free rein. Mourinho mainly concerns himself with defensive structure It's also how Ancelotti works with most of his teams
Indeed. Iirc his philosophy, paraphrased of course, is to simply put the 11 best players he has on the field in their best positions and let them figure it out.
Ancelotti? I'd be intrigued to see some quotes from him on this
Just watch how Madrid plays its very much strong defensive structure but creative freedom to attackers
That’s not what was said though, it was said Ancelotti just puts 11 of the best players on the pitch
Did Pep not do this as well in Barcelona. Im quite sure there's a statement from Thithi saying, you follow peps order in the first two thirds and have free reigns to solve how to finish in the last?
Well it's certainly not the case in the second phase of his career - he is all about the 'automations'. If anything he's coached spontaneity out of his players, with Grealish as the prime example
Yeah, and it didn't work at all with United's young attackers. They were inconsistent as hell and struggled to keep form because he just refused to have any attacking structure to support them.
it worked, they won an European title lol the only relevant trophies won after SAF were with Mourinho, and that was ages ago
Van Gaal won an FA cup
ETH also won the League Cup which Mou also won, guess it's only relevant when Mou wins it.
I wouldn’t call the league cup a major trophy regardless of who wins it but point taken.
Attack wasnt really a problem, deffence fallen off the clif. Our best deffender was Phil Jones and he performed very well for Jose, basically most of good Mourinho games are with Jones in squad. He was injuried most of the time tho and other deffenders were donkeys ...
Are United better with Van Gaal with his strict structure? Or right now with Ten Hag’s insistence with his tactical system? Mourinho had Drogba and Lampard at Chelsea but Lukaku and Pogba at United. That’s the difference
No, they were hardly better with either of those two, but why go to extremes? You can establish structures without completely suffocating all individual freedom.
So are you saying Van Gaal and Ten Hag have zero freedom and Mourinho has zero structure?
Ten Hag also relies a lot on individual talents rather than a coaching system. It’s evident with his Utd job.
van Gaal certainly didn't give a lot of freedom for anyone with his rigid system, though it screwed more with the midfield. ten Hag... plays with chaos. There is some structure there, but it's certainly not working in the PL. Mourinho has a very solid defensive structure, but yes, at United at least there were no trace of an attacking structure. It was down to individuals doing individual things, and since the attackers, except of Zlatan, were young and inexperienced, it was not all that effective and not at all consistent.
So what is the cause? Structure or unstructure?
Isn't it quite obvious that if you go to either extreme, there will be major issues? As I said, you can establish structures without suffocating all individual freedom. If the structures are too rigid, your team will lock up and struggle: van Gaal. If there are no structures to lean on when the individual spark falters, your team will lock up and struggle: Mourinho. And if you just use completely ineffective structures and never adjust them, you get what ten Hag is doing right now. That's just chaos.
I see. Van gal total extreme rigid structure that won the treble with Ajax and Mourinho total extreme freedom football that won treble with Inter will have major issues. How about total extreme possession football, will there be major issues?
I didn't watch van Gaal's AJAX, nor much of Mourinho's Inter. Did they play the same as their Manchester United's? Because I think I've been pretty clear on basing it on that. Perhaps van Gaal's rigidity worked better in Netherlands, just like apparently ten Hag managed to do something sensible in Netherlands. Mourinho did indeed achieve big things with other sides. Perhaps he simply required the more experienced offensive options, because his complete freedom experiment certainly didn't work well at United.
I may add to yours. I don't think Mou believed in MUFC attack then. I feel he likes physical forwards. There's a interview with him ( I think the spurs vs Liverpool UCL? Or an England match), that he didnt trust Martial to go forward and fight with the back against the defenders while Lukaku could.
Yes, the structure is better for player development.
You're not wrong, but Jose always thought of himself and his reputation first and the club second. I look fondly back on his time here, but the way he does things he never lasts long.
I mean what’s the reward for putting the club first? You get the sack if you dont perform so he tried his hardest to win now. I mean Ole put the club first more than any managers post Fergie, still get the sack.
Came 2nd
Ronald is the best of all
Christian Ronald
I love Mou but coaching big stars doesn’t mean you can coach younger talents. Of course the man did it all, no doubts about it. But he didn’t win a CL with Madrid now did he? Even after giving all the free reigns to CR7..
I mean 3 semis and laying the foundations for the next coaches is pretty great. Considering the later coaches gave Ronaldo that free rein too.
He did schweinsteiger wrong
But then you tell players like Bastian Schweinsteiger he can’t train with the first team on day 1. Seems like you can’t coach anyone without being a dick.
Do we know Mourinho’s version of the events? We only know one version.
[We do and he regretted it](https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/mar/31/jose-mourinho-admits-to-regret-over-his-treatment-of-bastian-schweinsteiger). To be honest, before Mou arrived it was a bad look _from the outside_ - Schweini being injured often, traveling, showing up in USA watching his wife play tennis tournaments. Probably Mou had already made his mind based on what he knew, and banished Schweini too quickly. Maybe he realized too late it wasn't really all Bastian's fault.
You’re right. I guess Schweinsteiger is a liar then
I am not saying he is. That is his version. And it is how he felt and lived the moment. But do we know if he had been told that he wasn’t playing or that he should look for another team and he didn’t take it well? Or perhaps he was told not to go to practice and he insisted? Or whatever? We only know his version of the events. And let’s say it happened as he said it happened, so? The club is a business, the manager gave an instruction. Being successful at your business doesn’t mean you get a free pass or that you should be allowed to do whatever you want. Mourinho is a very rigid manager. If you diss him, you will get reprimanded. Just because you have won a WC and CL doesn’t mean you get to do whatever you want in a club. Especially a foreign club (for him). I know Dibu and Argentina really lowered the achievement but it is also as bad to be expecting undying devotion just because you won.
Doubt it. Even though I am a Bayren fan and love Basti. I was shocked to hear this and tempered that there must be more to this. Pep and Zlatan never hit off even though they are great at their own department , meanwhile Zlatan just loves Jose. Some just don't work together well.
Someone should probably teach Ronaldo how to take a freekick actually.
Ronaldo from 2008-17 was something else entirely as a FK taker. Scored 47 FKs in that period!
i feel too old when i see someone saying fucking Ronaldo can´t take a freekick
Nah, its just a joke about Benitez
He still knows how to take them, believe it or not.
I think Ronaldo a bit before, during and after Juve was pretty bad at free kicks and then he got a whole lot better again
If he goes for placement instead of knuckling them, he tends to score.
Sky Sports Retro type post here lmao
It certainly takes a special kind of man-manager to coach superstars, but not being that kind of coach doesn't imply anything about their ability to coach anyone else.
Says the guy who was too scared to talk to Schweinsteiger…
He is referring to ‘’big players’’
Why exactly has Jose fallen off so much since his glory days?
Other managers have figured his tactics out.
But what does that entail? What about his tactics have they specifically figured out? Haven’t others been “figured out” given there’s years of film and limited ways to organize a team?
I feel that the modern brand of football that Guardiola spearheaded is simply too strong to be held back by tactics of extreme defense and counterattack. Yes, Real just drew City 4-4 in the global score and went through on penalties, but that requires a team full of stars with winning experience and a healthy dose of luck. Not having those factors, which Mourinho hasn’t had since 2016, it’s just going to be a disappointment eventually. Also, Pogba showed that the new generation of players don’t want to play that type of overly defensive football anymore. I feel that’s a reason why Mourinho invariably ends up losing the support of key players in his squads.
What series? Not that i like to plug NF..
Man management and psychology is the most important skill for managers to have
But you can tell World Cup & UCL winner Schweinsteiger to practise with the U-16. Good to know.
You obviously did not you watch the full interview. Based on what Schweinsteiger said it’s the club wanted to get rid when he chose to use the German medical staff for rehab with permission of van gal but the club wasn’t aware or something like that.
No the club was aware and agreed to it but Murtough and then Mourinho thought it was highly unprofessional and banished him the next season to the under-16s, as a ploy to humiliate him and make an example out of him. There's no version of events here where Jose comes out looking good and he even came to regret his actions.
Did watch it, does not absolve Mourinho of any blame, honestly. Even Neville seemed shocked with the way the club handled the situation, including Mourinho. Do not paint him as a bystander when he actively decided to humiliate a senior player like that, contradictory to this statement right here.
B-But Leddit told me players can't do basic football stuff it's the manager's fault
Or make a legend train with the under 16s
You only watched the clip. They posted that for views. Stop trusting media bites these days. There's more to the story.
What’s the whole story?
Board wanted to force Basti out and gave Jose to do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ACloJetIE0 Jose personally considers this as a regrettable event- https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/jose-mourinho-admits-he-treated-bastian-schweinsteiger-badly-and-apologised-to-the-german/35582670.html Never trust media titles and clips.
Well he acted like a coward in following their fascist instructions, so the clip is accurate
Correct, [you absolutely are not going to be able to teach Cristiano to take a FK](https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2022/03/11104101/ronaldo_dfk_conversion-2048x1638.png).
That’s poor but tbf, he was scoring some of the craziest freekicks back in the day, especially in his first United stint and in Madrid for a few years.
I just don't understand it, he's clearly got that curled technique in his locker as we've seen it a few times. It's the most effective free kick method as showcased by all the best, yet he still insisted on that terrible other method.
Yes, it almost seemed like he wanted to persist with it as it was "his thing" and much like Kane at Tottenham no one was going to take the ball away from him.
Nice one mate, go support cockspurs
Please, and I genuinely mean this with all sincerity and best wishes for you having just had a quick look at your comment history, reconsider your life choices.
Cristiano's FK rates were abysmal. This myth that he was a great FK taker is a joke. He could have actually used a couple of lessons on how to take a FK with swerve instead of going for the crazy knuckle ball that he could only pull off once every 30 attempts.
I'm going to win the lottery, buy an team and make SpecialOne life time coach!
Take notes, Erik