Classic Mourinho Chelsea Season At United

Classic Mourinho Chelsea Season At United

When Portugal`s  José Mourinho was manager at Chelsea, the Blues were mean in defence and mean in attack, because the team won trophies by conceding fewer goals than their opponents, although they scored fewer also. A typical Chelsea team under Morinho`s management was like that of the first Manchester United team to win the inaugural Premier League title in 1992-93. The defence was tight, conceding 31 goals with Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister at the heart of it, while Mark Hughes top scored with 15. Third placed Norwich City had more goals scored against, 65 to 61, which illustrated the value of a Manchester United mean defensive unit that also had Paul Parker at right back and Denis Irwin at left back. The following season, 1993-94, saw United concede only 38 goals, with the same defense, although the addition of Eric Cantona, who`d won the last League Division One title with Leeds in 1991-92, and who got 18 goals compared to Hughes` 12, saw meanness at the back allied to devastating attack, which became the style for the future of the club under the stewardship of manager Alex Ferguson, and Manchester United also won the F.A. Cup Final that 1993-94 season against Glenn Hoddle`s Chelsea, with two penalties from Cantona settling the match in the 60th and 66th minutes, 2-0. A mistake by defender, Frank Sinclair, allowed Hughes to slot home in the 69th minute, 3-0, and  an unselfish pass from midfielder, Paul Ince, when he could have scored easily, afforded center forward, Brian McClair, an unmissable chance in the 92nd minute, 4-0. Mourinho, in his first Chelsea season, 2004-2005, won the Premier League by conceding just 15 goals and his top scorer was midfielder, Frank Lampard, with 13. Lampard was top scorer with 16 in 2005-2006 and Chelsea conceded only 22 goals as they again won the title in the style of that United team of 1992-93, which won by having the meanest defence and a lethal, though unprolific striker, Mark Hughes.

 Bizarrely, Chelsea hadn`t won the league since 1955, and 2006-07 was the last for Mourinho at Chelsea, who had given them two league championships in his first two seasons but, despite winning both the F.A. Cup, 1-0 against United, and the League Cup, Chelsea chairman, Russia`s Roman Abrimovich, sacked Mourinho after what he seemed to view as a disappointing European Champions` Cup draw with Norway`s Rosenborg at home, 1-1, in the qualifying group. Replaced by Israeli, Avram Grant, Chelsea were runners-up to Manchester United for the second successive season after 2006-07 when, despite conceding the fewest goals, 24, United scored more through Portugal`s right winger, Cristiano Ronaldo, 17, and England center forward, Wayne Rooney, 14. Chelsea center forward, Ivory Coast`s Didier Drogba, top scored with 20 in 2006-07, but in 2007-08 England`s marauder, Frank Lampard, was again top scorer with 10, while Ronaldo, 31, Rooney 12, and Argentina`s Carloz Tevez, 14, made sure United won the league. As fate would have it, Ferguson`s team would face Chelsea in the European Champions` League Cup Final and,  after a Cristiano Ronaldo header, and a typical run and shoot from midfield by Frank Lampard, the game ended, 1-1, which meant a penalty decider. Chelsea`s England central defender, John Terry, infamously fell on his arse in the rain as he hit the post, which left winger, Ryan Giggs, to famously stroke home his spot kick winner for the `Red Devils`, 6-5.

 Jose Mourinho`s first season at Manchester United brought a first trophy. The team beat Southampton, 3-2, in the 2016-17 League Cup Final after left winger, Jessie Lingard, scored United second goal in the 38th minute, 2-0. It was uncannily similar to his 110th minute extra time strike to win the F.A. Cup Final, 2-1, against Crystal Palace, the previous, 2015-16 season, after which former Dutch team manager, Louis Van Gaal, lost his tenure as United boss, because of his failure to win the league, a failure that had also meant the end for retired Ferguson`s successor, Everton`s David Moyes, whose only measurable success was to win the English Shield with the championship winning team he`d inherited in 2013 against the F.A. Cup winners, Wigan, 2-0, with a 6th minute header, and a 59th minute left footed strike, after cutting in from the right, from Dutch center forward, Robin Van Persie, who`d been brought from Arsenal for £ 22. 5 million to score the 26 goals that spearheaded yet another successful United league campaign in what, through illness, became Ferguson`s retirment season. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a Swedish center forward brought by Mourinho from Paris St. Germain, aged 34, where he`d won four consecutive French titles after leaving A.C. Milan with whom he`d won the Italian championship in 2010-11, and who finished the 2016-17 season as top scorer at United with 17 goals, had opened the scoring in the 2017 League Cup Final, with a great free kick in the 19th minute, bent around the Southampton wall from well outside the penalty area. A brace from Italy`s striker, Manolo Gabbiadini, either side of half time, in the 46th and 48th minutes, and who`d struck deftly each time he was played in a few yards from the goal`s mouth, levelled after Lingard put United ahead, 2-0, before Ibrahimovic`s header in the 87th minute, won it, 3-2.

 Although Chelsea won the league title in 2016-17, and United finished sixth, it was with the fewest goals conceded, 29, a Mourinho trademark, and United`s end of season was far from unhappy. Mourinho steered the team through to the Final of the UEFA Cup against Netherlands` club Ajax of Amsterdam, at the Friends Arena, Stockholm, Sweden. It was a game Sweden`s Ibrahimovic missed, because of a cruciate ligament knee injury incurred against Belgium`s Anderlecht at home in the quarter-final second leg at Manchester`s Old Trafford stadium, which saw the striker taken off in the 90th minute, although United won, 2-1, through an extra time goal from center forward, Marcus Rashford in the 107th minute, after drawing, 1-1, in Brussels. There were doubts that Ibrahimovic would recover a career that had first taken off with Ajax, where he`d won titles in 2001-02 and 2003-04, before going on to  Internazionale of Milan, where he won three successive Serie A titles, 2006–07, 2007–08, and 2008–09, and then at Barcelona he won the 2009-10 Spanish league title, and the 2009 World Club Cup that the Spaniards had qualified to participate in by beating Manchester United, 2-0, in the 2009 European Cup Final before Ibra`s arrival and from whence he`d go on to further success. As for United, they had to overcome the handicap of playing without Zlatan in the semi-final against Spain`s Celta Vigo.

 A 1-0 win away in Spain, after an outswinging free kick from Marcus Rashford out on the right that struck into the left side of the net in the 69th minute, meant a 1-1 draw at United`s Old Trafford stadium was enough to reach the Europa Cup Final against Ajax on May 24, 2017, although a sending off for Eric Bailly, together with Argentinian defender, Facundo Roncaglia, in the 88th minute, meant the United center half would miss it through suspension. Celta Vigo had gotten their late equalizing goal from a glancing Roncaglia header, after Bailly had failed to judge a corner correctly in the 85th minute, but the `Red Devils` had taken the lead through a headed goal from midfielder, Marouane Fellaini, in the 17th minute at the right post. Rashford had crossed  from the left, far behind Fellaini`s forward run, and the header inside the right upright subsequently proved to be enough. The Final itself was won against Ajax with a goal in the 18th minute from the world`s most expensive midfield purchase, France`s Paul Pogba, followed by another just after half-time from Armenia`s captain and right winger, Henrik Mkhitaryan, in the 48th minute. Pogba had been bought from Italy`s  Juventus, and after he`d signed for the Italian club when he hadn`t renewed his contract at United for 2012-13. Four consecutive Serie A titles later, Pogba returned to Old Trafford for £ 89. 3 million to take his place in a starting line-up largely constructed by Mourinho`s predecessor, Dutchman Van Gaal, apart from Mkhitaryan, who arrived from Borussia Dortmund at the beginning of the 2016-17 season for around £ 30 million, and Ivory Coast center back, Eric Bailly, an eventual adequate £ 30 million replacement for England`s much-missed Rio Ferdinand, who seemed to have left, without any attempt by then manager, Van Gaal, to keep him, to join QPR for the 2014-15 season. Ecuador`s Antonio Valencia, bought by Ferguson from Wigan for £ 16 million as a right winger for the 2009-10 season, but switched to right back by Ferguson`s successors, was captain, and although Bailly was absent through suspension, England`s Chris Smalling, another survivor from the Ferguson era, proved once again that he was an excellent stand-in in an emergency. Italian Matteo Darmian, bought from Torino for around £ 13 million by Gaal for the 2015-16 campaign, was at left back, and Daley Blind was the other central defender, bought from Ajax for around £ 14 million for the 2014-15 term, and completed the defence for what had been the meanest Premier League outfit in 2016-17.

 Without Ibrahimovic, Mourinho opted for the three man midfield that had been the hallmark of his days at Chelsea; Pogba. Spain`s Ander Herrera, bought from Athletic Bilbao for the 2014-15 season for around £ 29 million, and Marouane Fellaini, brought from Everton by Moyes at the commencement of his year long 2013-14 tenure. Up front Mourinho went for two wingers, Mkhitaryan was on the left, although right footed, and Spain`s Juan Mata, bought from Chelsea for £ 37. 1 million in January 2014, during Mourinho`s second spell there as manager, where he`d been taken by Mourinho`s predecessor, Portugal`s André Villas-Boas, from Valencia for 2011-12, was on the right, although left footed, because of the ex-Chelsea boss`s belief in fluidity, and that wide players cutting inside, like old-style inside forwards of the 1950s, can prove more effective, although wing switching also seems to be a feature of Mourinho`s United, so observers shouldn`t pay so much attention to the pundits` idea of team formation, and how the players are expected to line up at the start. While at Chelsea for the second time, Mourinho won the league and League Cup double in 2014-15, with his usual meanness in terms of goals conceded in the title race, 32, although the Blues were more balanced with Belgium`s Eden Hazard, 14 goals, performing the role that Lampard had in Mourinho`s earlier sojourn at Stamford Bridge, while Spain`s Diego Costa, struck 20 times. Mata, however, was deemed surplus to requirements by Mourinho, who preferred the Brazilian Oscar, although the pair were to be reunited at Old Trafford with great success. Mourinho`s center forward for the Europa Cup Final was Marcus Rashford, who`d emerged as an 18 year old in 2015-16 and played in the F.A. Cup Final win over Palace, 2-1, while England center forward, Wayne Rooney, who`d been captain that day, and for whom goals and appearances in the first team were becoming scarcer since the emergence of teenager, Rashford, and the arrival of Ibrahimovic in the twilight of a great career, was on the substitutes` bench. Pogba`s opening goal was scored from well outside the `keeper`s area after an infield pass from Fellaini on the right to the center of the pitch where Pogba struck a left-footed shot that rose into the top center of the net beyond and through the `keeper`s despairing grasp. After half-time Mkhitaryan hooked in a close-in shot, falling backwards, and with his right foot, 2-0, from a corner headed towards goal by Smalling, and that was the way it stayed. Manchester United had won the UEFA/Europa cup that had eluded them for so long, and had now won all of Europe`s major soccer tournaments.