Damien Duff doesn’t reckon much has changed with Jose Mourinho.
Duff was governed by the Portuguese for three years during his spell at Chelsea. It was the most fruitful period of Duff’s career, the Ballyboden native winning two League titles and a League Cup between 2004 and 2006 with the Blues.
He never had a problem with Jose Mourinho. His manager opened his players’ eyes with a ‘scary’ attention to detail and the Chelsea squad responded to Mourinho’s tactical slaving with an iron will and a desire of their own.
It made for the perfect cocktail. Mourinho’s Chelsea stampeded their way to two Leagues in a row, overrunning and outworking any side that tried to match them.
Duff reckons it’s still the same Jose Mourinho now. But where time has passed and football has changed, Mourinho doesn’t know or hasn’t tried to come up with any other way.
Analysis leading to borderline paralysis was always Mourinho’s way. This led to success when his players responded with complete commitment and total faith, but where the Chelsea players were ready and willing to intercept a hospital pass without thinking about it for their manager, Duff reckons the United lads would think twice.
And that’s not a big slight on these United players, it’s just the way the football environment and game has gone that an ego is becoming an inescapable thing in football. Where some managers are able to massage their players self-pride to get the best out of them, Manchester United’s man just doesn’t really have the patience.
Duff was speaking on RTÉ’s Soccer Social One after Tuesday night’s bore draw with Valencia in Europe and he maintains that Mourinho is still putting in the hard yards on the training ground.
“I’ve no doubt he still does all his work on the training ground, because what made him a great manager was his level of detail. His level of detail was absolutely scary on and off the pitch…”
Duff just can’t understand why or how a Mourinho team could be so all over the shop as a result of those intense levels of preparation.
“That’s the hard thing to understand,” continued Duff. “We all knew our jobs with our eyes closed…It’s similar to when I had Roy Hodgson, it’s just drilled into you day in, day out, whereas now you look at them and it’s just disjointed.“
Anthony Martial, Duff feels, sums up this ego or this lack of desire in the United side. As a winger, Duffer knew he had to gallop up and especially down the field with Mourinho watching on. The Frenchman just doesn’t do that and that’s why Duff isn’t one bit surprised that he’s been frozen out this year.
“Looking at wingers, I always knew I had to track back and double up with my full back, whereas Martial…Does he not see it, like Pogba, or is he just plain lazy? With him I’d be veering towards the lazy side and that’s why he doesn’t play because he doesn’t give anything going back the way.”
It’s a bunch of players and a manager at loggerheads now, both of them too stubborn to change their ways. It looks like Mourinho’s days at United are as good as over.
