Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho says his team are prepared to play Manchester United this weekend.
Louis van Gaal had only been Barcelona manager for a few months and, although he already knew the young Jose Mourinho offered much more than just being a translator, he hadn’t realised just how much. That would come, but thanks to an unlikely source.
It was September 1997 and the Catalans were preparing for a Champions League away match with Newcastle United. Before the game, Van Gaal’s then-assistant, Gerard van der Lem, had been discussing the English side’s attack, and was rather dismissive. He told full-back Sergi Barjuan that Newcastle winger Keith Gillespie could only cross off one foot and was “cojo” — the literal translation of which is “lame.”
Gillespie was anything but. He ripped Sergi apart, repeatedly setting up Faustino Asprilla in a 3-2 Newcastle win. The Colombian scored a hat trick, with two of the goals coming from Gillespie crosses.
After that, Van Gaal re-assessed how he prepared for games. He turned to another assistant, who had repeatedly offered valuable insight. Mourinho was made responsible for opposition scouting.
It wasn’t the last time in Van Gaal’s career that a blind spot about some aspects of defending was exposed. It wasn’t the last time Mourinho would display an aptitude for analysing opposition sides and offering the right response.
That difference could prove influential at Old Trafford on Sunday, as an exceptional Chelsea face an expansive Manchester United.
Before it, Mourinho couldn’t deny the immense influence of Van Gaal on his own career, even if the circumstances meant he didn’t quite want to get into it.
“It’s not the moment to talk about what might have happened without him,” the Portuguese said at his pregame news conference. “I have never hidden the respect and relation and his influence. He’s a great friend, but [Sunday] he’s my opponent … please don’t make me speak well of him for half an hour!”
Given the strident personality Mourinho has become, it’s rather incongruous to think of him as anyone’s pupil. Before even Van Gaal took over at Barcelona in 1997, though, Mourinho was seen by many as Bobby Robson’s teacher’s pet, and endured his share of insults after he arrived at Camp Nou with the great English coach in 1996.
Jose Mourinho served as an assistant to Louis van Gaal on Barcelona’s 1997-98 league winning side.
Typically, Mourinho was capable of responding to such comments in his own abrasive way, which made others at Barca realise he was not to be taken lightly. Van Gaal himself was famously swayed by their first meeting, in spring 1997. Mourinho gave an impassioned defence of Robson, who had just been abruptly cast aside by the club.
Van Gaal realised the value of such a force of personality, even though Mourinho himself said the Dutch coach helped bring out his confidence. The Portuguese had by then earned the respect of many players. Xavi — of all people, given how their careers proceeded — once said Mourinho knew more about football than anyone else he had come across.
“He was quite the character,” Ronald de Boer said to ESPN FC, the Dutch attacker having joined Barca in 1999. “I got along very well with him.
“I think he was a great listener and observer. He opened his eyes and ears, and I think he learned a lot from Louis, organisation-wise and structure-wise.
“Put it this way. When I saw Porto playing in the Champions League in 2004, I didn’t even know he was the manager at that time. I thought ‘Hey, that looks like how we play, with Ajax and Barcelona, the idea as a whole the team.’ Then, when I saw he was the manager, I understood. That was the hand of Mourinho, but learned from Van Gaal. He took a lot from him.”
Mourinho was not the only one. It would not be a stretch to describe Barcelona 1997-2000 as one of the most fertile coaching schools in recent European football history, given the managers who have come from that period under Van Gaal. There was obviously Mourinho’s one-time friend Pep Guardiola, as well as Ajax’s Frank de Boer, PSV Eindhoven’s Phillip Cocu and Barca’s own Luis Enrique.
There is one big difference between those figures and Mourinho, which Porto proved in 2004. He adapted the same fundamental principles from Van Gaal, but was more willing to be pragmatic with them.
Mourinho’s training ground focus on defence will be put to the test by Van Gaal’s attacking forces.
It marked a first departure from his mentor. Mourinho would later reveal that, in the last season at Barcelona, he was already wondering whether he would have made the same decisions as Van Gaal if he were in charge; that he was an “anguished assistant.” He found himself being “harsh and overly critical.” It’s difficult not to think that it often had to do with defending.
Even if Mourinho has always been more ultra-pragmatic than negative, his sides have never been as open as Van Gaal’s. The difference marked the only real dispute between them, when the issue was brought up before the 2010 Champions League, as Mourinho’s Inter Milan took on Van Gaal’s Bayern Munich.
“He trains to win,” the Dutch coach said. “I train to play beautiful football and win. My way is more difficult.”
Mourinho would describe the comments as like “throwing sand in your eyes.” Less than four years on, he would have tears in his eyes as Van Gaal spoke much more warmly about the Portuguese at a Football Writers’ Association dinner in London honouring Mourinho.
The pair now meet again, and there is a certain symmetry to the circumstances. Despite Manchester United showing the gradual evolution Van Gaal teams almost always have, they also display massive gaps in defence and defensive midfield. It is precisely the area that Mourinho always ensured is covered first and foremost, although he himself has also shown something of an evolution with this more open Chelsea.
“It’s not such a great tactical battle, because his team plays how I want to play with my team,” Van Gaal said on Friday. “I don’t think there are secrets anymore.”
That’s certainly true. Few modern managers know each other so well. On Sunday, we’ll all know a little more.