When Jose Mourinho first joined Chelsea under the fanfare of
the most unlikely of Champions League wins with Oporto, he would have felt
fully justified in referring to himself as the “Special One”. His managerial
record had been incredible up to that point, having won 6 trophies in just 2
years and very soon he was wielding the same kind of magic for Chelsea before
later doing, arguably, even great things with Inter Milan, with whom he won a
second Champions League in their “treble” winning season.
His strength always seemed to be the way he handled his
players. Whereas, Alex Ferguson, played the role of a father figure with his
players at Manchester United, Mourinho behaved more like the cool uncle to his.
He would defend his players to the death and created a loyalty that was
unsurpassed by many other coaches. He saved his scorn and criticism for
everyone else, using his attacks on the media, opposing coaches, referees,
pundits and even UEFA, to develop a siege mentality where it was “us” against “them”.
Although there would be disagreements with players, these were kept behind
closed doors to maintain that team cohesion that was to inspire his teams over
many years of success. Players such as Frank Lampard, John Terry and Zlatan
Ibrahimovic all remained loyal to Mourinho long after he had stopped managing
them because of the great rapport that he had developed with them.
Then, last year, Mourinho seemed to change his winning ways.
At Chelsea, the year after recapturing the Premiership, he started to become
more openly critical about his players. Nemanja Matic had the humiliation of
being substituted only 20 minutes after coming on as a substitute himself and
then the once loyal John Terry was dropped from the team for long periods for
no apparent reason. The disaffection among the team reached its peak when
Mourinho openly vilified club doctor Eva Carneiro after she, quite justifiably,
went to tend to the injured Eden Hazard when Chelsea were desperately trying to
get a goal in the closing moments of a match against Swansea. Although not a
player, Carneiro was very much part of the “team” and Mourinho’s handling of
this situation and his unwillingness to back down seemed to have played a
massive role in the mental approach of the team and their subsequent fall down
the Premiership table.
It seemed, however, that he had learned his lesson after
Chelsea with Manchester United seeming to become more positive under him.
However, although they are unbeaten in 20 games, half of these games have been
draws, leaving them 4 points away from the magic top four places for next year’s
Champions League and the pressure is beginning to tell. As a result, we find
Mourinho turning his wrath on his players again. Anthony Martial, Marcus
Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have all had to take some public
criticism from their boss but the main censure has been saved for the young
defender Luke Shaw.
Mourinho’s decision to inform the world that Shaw has no
brains on the pitch and questioning his commitment is hardly going to help his
already fragile confidence. To think that bullying a young player is going to
make them stronger is foolhardy at best and dangerous at worst. Mourinho’s
record of bringing on young players is appalling and this illustrates why. Rather
than creating a culture of free flowing, positive football, this kind of
treatment will only serve to instil a fear of failure in his young players. It’s
all well and good the likes of Gary Neville saying that Shaw has to respond to
this in his performances but, psychologically, it is like making a player wear
a rucksack full of lead and then telling them to go out and prove themselves.
Surely, Mourinho could learn from his past self and work on building bridges
with his players rather than burning them down. As my father always said to me,
“Respect and admiration cannot be demanded, they can only be earned”.
Andy Barton
Mental Performance Coach
