Jose Mourinho FC Porto Tactic
The early 2000s were crazy years. But nothing prepared Europe for FC Porto’s dominance.
Dominance that was led by one man…Jose Mourinho…
He started his non-playing career as an interpreter for Bobby Robson first at Sporting CP and FC Porto, before both moving to FC Barcelona, after having an uneventful playing career as a midfielder.
He was born in 1963 to a large middle-class family in Setúbal (a city in the Lisbon metropolitan area), Portugal.
His father played football professionally for Belenenses and Vitória de Setúbal, earning one cap for Portugal during his career.
Jose Mourinho wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and joined the Belenenses youth team. Moving to the senior level, he left the club in 1980 to sign for Rio Ave, where he played for the reserves team. And in 1981, was joined by his father, who was named first team manager. There, he struck up a prolific partnership with veteran striker Mário Reis.
According to the former teammate Baltemar Brito (who would become his assistant early on his managerial career), the duo scored around 100 goals, with Jose Mourinho netting forty-seven times.
In addition to playing for the reserves, he was usually tasked with scouting other teams for his father.
When his father returned to Rio Ave, he did not go with him and continued to play in the lower levels of the Portuguese football league system, first with Sesimbra, and then for Comércio e Indústria - where he finished his career.
At the latter club, he was captain of the team.
Jose Mourinho decided that he lacked the required pace and power to become a professional footballer, so chose to focus on becoming a football coach instead.
After leaving his job as a physical education school teacher, Jose Mourinho looked for a path into professional football management in his hometown and became youth team coach at Vitória de Setúbal in the early 1990s.
Later, he accepted the position of assistant manager at Estrela da Amadora, then was a scout at Ovarense.
Then, in 1992, an opportunity arose to work as a translator for a top foreign coach: Bobby Robson, who had been appointed as the new manager of Sporting and needed an English-speaking local coach to work as his interpreter.
Jose Mourinho began discussing tactics and coaching with Bobby Robson as part of his interpreting role.
Bobby Robson was sacked by the club in December 1993 and when FC Porto appointed him as their head coach, Mourinho moved with him, continuing to coach and interpret for players at the new club.
After two years at Porto, the duo moved again, joining Barcelona in 1996. Jose Mourinho gradually became a prominent figure of the club's staff by translating at press conferences, planning practice sessions and helping players through tactical advice or analyses of the opposition.
Bobby Robson and Jose Mourinho's styles complemented each other: the Englishman favoured an attacking style, while Mourinho covered defensive options, and the Portuguese's love of planning and training combined with Robson's direct man-management.
The Barcelona attack at the time was led by a prime Ronaldo – whom Mourinho regards as the best player post-Diego Maradona.
The partnership was fruitful and Barcelona finished the season by winning the European Cup Winners' Cup, the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España.
Bobby Robson moved clubs the following season but this time, Jose Mourinho did not follow him, as Barcelona were keen to retain him as an assistant manager. The two remained good friends and Mourinho later reflected on the effect Robson had had upon him:
“One of the most important things I learnt from Bobby Robson is that when you win, you shouldn't assume you are the team, and when you lose, you shouldn't think you are rubbish.”
He began working with Robson's successor, Louis van Gaal, and he learned much from the Dutchman's style.
Both assistant and head coach combined their studious approach to the game and Barcelona won La Liga twice in Van Gaal's first two years as coach.
Van Gaal saw that his assistant manager had the promise to be more than a skilled assistant. He let Mourinho develop his own independent coaching style and entrusted him with the coaching duties of Barcelona B.
Louis Van Gaal also let Mourinho take charge of the first team (acting as Mourinho's assistant himself) for certain trophies, like the Copa Catalunya, which Barcelona won in 2000.
“When I spoke with Van Gaal about going back to Portugal to be an assistant at Benfica, he said: "No, don't go. Tell Benfica if they want a first-team coach you will go; if they want an assistant you will stay.”
And this is how Jose Mourinho started his managerial career.
His time as Benfica manager was not a poor one. However, the club held presidential elections, and his reign appeared to be at risk after Benfica's election turned against club president João Vale e Azevedo.
Although the new president had no intention of firing him immediately, Mourinho used the victory his team had over Sporting earlier to test the president's loyalty and asked for a contract extension.
Vilarinho refused the demand and Mourinho resigned from his position immediately. He left the club on 5 December 2000, after just nine league games in charge.
Upon later reflection, Vilarinho rued his poor judgement and expressed his frustration at losing Mourinho.
Jose Mourinho became the new manager at Unioao Leiria and this match-up was the platform he needed to show everyone the kind of manager he was becoming.
However, it was the next club he took over – FC Porto – the one that really put Jose Mourinho on the footballing map.
At the time, Porto was in fifth place in the league (behind Sporting CP, Boavista, União de Leiria and Benfica), had been eliminated from the Taça de Portugal and was in last place in their UEFA Champions League second group stage.
Mourinho guided the team to third place that year after a strong 15-game run (including 11 wins) and gave the promise of "making Porto champions next year".
And with players like Vítor Baía, Ricardo Carvalho, Costinha, Deco, Dmitri Alenichev and Hélder Postiga in the team. Signing Nuno Valente and Derlei from União de Leiria; Paulo Ferreira from Vitória de Setúbal; César Peixoto from Belenenses, Pedro Emanuel from Boavista and Edgaras Jankauskas and Maniche, who both had been out of contract at Benfica, Jose Mourinho began his charge for the Portuguese league title.
Using a playing style worthy of his pride, he won his first Primeira Liga being 11 points clear of Benfica, the team he quit two years earlier.
And it was all up from then on for Jose Mourinho and FC Porto.
The Portuguese Cup was also won, together with the UEFA Cup, where his team won over Celtic, in May 2003.
The following season, Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto raised the bar and won the Portuguese league and more prominently, the UEFA Champions League.
Playing a style of football which seemed structured, rigid, but was part of the plan to lure the opposition and counter them as swiftly as possible.
He employed a diamond 4–4–2 formation, with his midfield – consisting of Costinha or Pedro Mendes as defensive midfielder; Maniche and Dmitri Alenichev as wide central midfielders; and Deco as attacking midfielder– acting as a cohesive unit rather than a collection of individuals, providing Porto with midfield superiority while allowing the full-backs to move forward.
Defensively, the team played with a high defensive line and were known for their fitness and use of heavy pressing high up the pitch.
A 4-4-2 indeed, with a sweeper keeper on defend duty. As these are modern times, the goalkeeper must be a sweeper in the game, to help your team retain possession of the ball as much as possible.
The back four are a full back on attack duty, a ball playing defend, a central defender and a wing back on attack duty.
All four defenders interpret different roles, depending on the team’s needs. The full back goes up in the attack depending on the team’s possession game, but he is always there to offer a passing option.
The central defenders’ primary objective is to stop counterattacks, but the ball playing one becomes a passing option when needed.
And the wing back joins the attack often, providing width on his side and luring opponents onto him before sending a through ball or a cross to the forward players.
The midfield diamond is a narrow one in this Jose Mourinho team. This is to ensure the numerical advantage the team has in midfield is utilized as best as possible, capturing the ball and releasing it as fast as possible to the strikers.
A ball winning midfielder role on defend duty was preferred, as the defensive midfielders usually just recovered the ball and passed it quickly to the more creative midfielders.
Two central midfielders on support duty were chosen in the midfield are of the pitch. This is to maximise the creativity the players have, to counteract the opposition’s pressing game.
The right-sided one is asked to mark tighter, while the left-sided one is asked to mark tighter, get further forward and dribble more.
This is used like this for variety, but the right-sided one relies heavily on his player traits, so be careful what type of player you employ here.
And up top we have an attacking midfielder on support duty, a pressing forward on attack and an advanced forward on attack.
The attacking midfielder is expected to receive the ball and use his vision and intelligence on the pitch to play the best possible pass. As the playing style relies on counterattacking, this needs to happen quite fast.
Mark tighter is part of all three attacking player’s set of instructions.
This instruction is used to make sure that the players are as aggressive as possible out of possession and they harry their opponent so much that they end up losing the ball in a way or another.
The mentality is a positive one and it is very important to keep the team as a structured one.
In possession, fairly narrow attacking width and pass into space. Slightly more direct passing directness and a slightly higher or standard tempo.
And run at defence is used to make sure the players run towards the opposition’s goal as soon as the ball was recovered.
This is why you need quick and intelligent players, especially in the final third of the pitch.
In transition, regroup or you can leave this part unticked. Counter and distribute the ball to the defence.
And out of possession, as mentioned earlier, high press and a higher defensive line. And trigger press more often.
This tactic brought us 5 trophies – the Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup and the FA Community Shield in my save with Manchester City.
I know it’s Manchester City, but I wanted to test this tactic with one of the best teams in the world right now.
Jose Mourino has had an incredible managerial career so far and his counterattacking playing style suited all the teams he managed. More than 20 years have passed since his first trophy with FC Porto and we still expect him to deliver, regardless of the team. A legend.
