Mourinho trash-talks Manchester United for Chelsea’s benefit
At first impression it serves no purpose - if Mourinho was trying to put the Manchester United camp under pressure by claiming that Chelsea would be on top of the table pretty soon, he’d know from experience and common sense that Manchester United are hardly going to be bothered with such petty shots, especially if they come from Chelsea’s direction.
The other ‘convenient’ theory is that Mourinho says what he thinks, but it’s not as simple as that. Chelsea players will tell you that Mourinho’s public and private personas are 180 degrees different - he’s kind and considerate in the dressing room, brash and antagonistic in front of the press pack.
It’s an act that he’s living, and he’s doing it pretty well. But not to rile Ferguson or Manchester United up - because United have been in the title-winning business long enough to disregard such petty comments.
Mourinho’s bluster is eventually there to cheer up his own players - the bravado serves only Chelsea’s morale, and maybe along the way detracts attention from Chelsea’s misfiring stars.
It’s an effective but crude formula - distort the stats in your favour, make bold claims and pretend to be completely serious while doing so.
Managers have been doing it for a long time, and the media lap it up. At the end of the day, it has no bearing on what United do or Chelsea do. And as predictions go, it’s pretty much a blind shot in the dark.
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Discussion - 6 Responses
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It could be a nine point gap at the top next time chelski play and Mourinho knows it could have an effect on team morale. He’s worried! Brilliant!
But Manchester United are going to be bothered, cos they’d have hoped that after two home games, one easy, and Chelsea’s two tough away games, they’d have pulled further ahead. Instead, Chelsea are still there, despite having started slowly, with a completely new system, having lost four key players in the summer, without the world’s no 1 goalkeeper and still bedding in new players (give me a stuttering Ballack over Carrick any day).
Given Chelsea’s form from November onwards in the past two seasons, I think there’s only one manager who is worried, and that’s the one who has been eating dust since 2004.
Anyway, trash talk is a bit strong. He said United were a good side on a good run. That’s more than you’d ever get out of Wenger…
good point steve
Reading too much into it Ahmed my friend. If this little piece is bothering you then you must have pulled your hair out earlier as Mourinho is famous for his provocative candor….. Anyway, like you said, all managers try to play mind games so I don’t see anything wrong with it…. and from Mourinho’s perspective, he’s running a defending champion line-up, loads of talent and knows the consistency blue machine can demonstrate…. I REALLY doubt if he’ll have ANY serious urge to spread panic as a “tactic”, that too before December!! And let’s be fair, what Mourinho said isn’t all that “impossible” either, he wasn’t talking about Liverpool or Arsenal, he was talking about a team which is trailing by only so many points that can be closed by a coinciding Chelsea win and ManU defeat (sounds like ONE bad weekend to me - ignore the GD for the moment as I can bet all my money that EPL won’t be decided over GD). However, converse is just as true. Chelsea losing might open up 6 points. So before December, I feel he will not have any genuine need to resort to these tactics. I completely disagree that Mourinho is nervous, too early for that, too early for a guy who drove Porto to the sky.
Well said Azar!! Think ahmed is the worried one. Pure reading into it too much. hes not directing attention away from his “misfiring” stars at all. who scored the winner last night??
Azar, you’re saying Ahmed is reading too much into it but he isn’t. Mourinho has always had a healthy respect for SAF and vice versa. They have always ducked the mind games because Mourinho has never considered us a real title threat since his tenure began, and SAF has kept out of it because maybe he knew United where not realistically a threat to Chelsea. He kept his powder dry so to speak. The fact then that the gloves may well be off says Mourinho is taking us seriously and SAF fancies the scrap. Its a good season whoever wins because its not gonna be a one horse race this time around. As I said before, Brilliant!!