Jose Mourinho's FA Cup Tactics, Plus the Premier League Final Day Round-Up
- May 15th, 2018
- Tom Bean
To Jose Mourinho, a self-confessed 'Special One', football is all about the results, not the entertainment. Any football fan would be hard-pressed to argue against him on that when you take into account the successes throughout his career; however many fans still find themselves left frustrated and uninspired by his coaching style.
As he prepares to line up against his former club, Chelsea and old foe in Antonio Conte, it is probably a fair assumption that attacking flair and free-flowing football won't be top of Mourinho's agenda come 5:15pm on Saturday. Known to set out his side 'not to lose' rather than 'to go out and win' the big games, the focus will predominantly be on protecting his back four, shackling Paul Pogba to Nemanja Matic's side and ensuring the attackers are filling the gaps so not to concede.
The style of play has undeniably brought Mourinho great success over the years and it has resurrected Manchester United to the upper echelons of the Premier League once again. However, the Old Trafford faithful are an expectant bunch and are used to seeing an abundance of attacking talent given the freedom to play with pace and directness, something that has been all-too-absent this season.
To United, it wasn't always about the results; in their minds, it was about the entertainment and results would follow. This is a different United now though, it's a Mourinho United and despite many still dreaming of those not-so-distant-days, if Marouane Fellaini heads United to a drab 1-0 win accompanied by a plethora of David de Gea heroics, we can't imagine there will be too many complaining if it's a red shirt lifting the FA Cup on Saturday afternoon.
Mourinho has a distinct coaching style and has built a philosophy throughout his career. Create your own style with Sportplan's range of drills and coaching aids!
See if United can lift their second FA Cup in two years when they meet Chelsea on Saturday 19th May at 17:15 BST at Wembley Stadium.
The Final Day
The final day of the Premier League was a relatively quiet affair with the relegation and top four spots all but wrapped-up barring some kind of mini-miracles.
The Bottom Half
Before play began on Sunday, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion had already been condemned to the Championship for next season with Swansea City staring down the relegation barrell.
The Welsh club were hoping to pull off the, if not impossible, highly improbable to avoid the drop. Having lost their previous four games, they were left needing a huge result at home to Stoke and hope Manchester City would finish with a flourish on the south coast against Southampton. Unfortunately for the Swans, they stumbled to a 2-1 defeat which was enough to send them down regardless of Man City's sauntering 1-0 win over Southampton.
As for this season's promoted teams, they all escaped the drop with Huddersfield and Brighton finishing just above the drop zone despite final day defeats. Newcastle's 3-0 win over Chelsea however is sure to be a worrying sign for Swansea et al, illustrating how difficult it will be for them in the Championship next term. Predominantly equipped with the same Championship team from the 2016-17 season, Rafa Benitez's side secured an excellent top half finish with that win, keeping those on the black and white side of the Tyne happy for now.
The Top Half
At the top end, the Chelsea-Newcastle result put to bed any chopping and changing for places. Before a ball was kicked, there was still hope of Champions League football next season in west London, a win for Chelsea and a Liverpool slip-up against Brighton would have been enough to bring the glitz of Europe's elite to Stamford Bridge again next year. However, a Dwight Gayle inspired Newcastle quickly put paid to that, leaving the outgoing champions having to settle for Europa League football next season.
Liverpool were not willing to keep their side of the deal either and were quick to take the lead with golden-boot winner Mo Salah (who else?) opening the scoring at Brighton. They never looked back from there, romping home to a 4-0 victory and securing Champions League football for next season. It will be just the performance Jurgen Klopp would have been hoping for before a couple of huge weeks of preparation before the red side of Liverpool take to Kiev for the Champions League final.
Without doubt the game of the day was played out at Wembley as Tottenham bode farewell to their temporary home in style running out 5-4 winners against Leicester City. The England coaches would have kept an interested eye as Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy both threw their names into the starting XI hat for Russia 2018 with two goals each.
The Manchester clubs cruised to a pair of 1-0 wins with worthy champions, City, smashing yet another record as they reached the 100 point barrier; the first time three figures has ever been seen in a Premier League campaign. It caps a truly remarkable season for Pep Guardiola who will be hoping to build on their sizzling form domestically to push on in Europe next season.
Sportplan is looking forward to the Premier League getting going again come August. But in the meantime, we've got the small matter of a World Cup to get overly excited about before having our dreams dashed by a penalty shootout... and we can't wait!!