Mourinho; A Genius or Hypocrite

Jose Mourinho has always been the focal point be it his stay at Porto or Inter or Chelsea or Real Madrid. No one can forget his first press conference in England where he stated himself as, “The Special One” that was only the start of ‘Classic Mourinho’. Skepticism started to surround if this new guy can really pull the trophies out of his hat. And later he did! His tactical expertise, his psychological effect on other managers, his team’s versatility in adapting to different situations and his way of dealing with media lead to success.  With the success he had, it had to be said he is indeed a Genius.

But Mou has always been accused of hypocrisy, when he does something, it’s a Special one’s tactic but when same is done against him, he can’t take it, he condemns them. Like he castigated Sam Allardyce last season, claiming West ham played 19th century football in a 0-0 draw at Stamford bridge.

There have been instances where his hypocrisy is crystal clear in his statements. Like when Mou denounced Ashley Barnes for his hefty tackle on Matic last season, claiming it as a ‘Criminal Tackle’ just after a year ago when he defended Mikel’s tackle on Arteta as a part of, “Man’s game”. No doubt the tackle on Matic was a brutal one, could have ended his career but lucky it didn’t although the challenge from Mikel two seasons ago on Arteta, in a heated game, wasn’t anything short of a high risk, unsafe tackle. He was late and slow and broke the shin pad completely; leaving Arteta with big swollen ankle. When asked for his comments in it, Mou replied “The tackle is a hard one, an aggressive one – but football is for men”. Defending your players is one thing and overlooking their mistakes is another.

Though Mou is not always the same. Sometimes his hypocritical statements turn out to be witty dig at others. His recent statement after his first defeat to Mr. Wenger, “We were the best team. We had more initiative, we controlled the game by having ball possession. Arsenal defended with 10 players, they put everybody in front of their own line and they had good organization, congratulations to them.” This is not hypocrisy, rather a humorous dig at those who accused Blues for using ‘boring defensive’ tactics against big teams. Something similar was the case last season against United at Old Trafford, where Chelsea won by scoring the only goal and United had all the possession and controlled the game, and Chelsea were reprimanded for ‘Parking The Bus’, which was rather a tactical approach by Mou. And when Arsene Wenger did same against Chelsea, people were fine with it.

Sometime things go the other way round for Mou, maybe at times Mourinho isn’t deceitful, maybe it’s the people in the football world who always sees Mou with their hypocrisy glasses on.