Not so special anymore: Antiquated Mourinho finished at the highest level

Just over a decade ago, Jose Mourinho took a Chelsea side to Anfield for a Champions League semi-final clash with Rafa Benitez's Liverpool. 

That the game was high on tension but low on quality appeared to bother only the much-maligned purists, chief among them, Jorge Valdano, who famously labelled the contest "sh*t hanging on a stick".

"If football is going the way Chelsea and Liverpool are taking it, we had better be ready to wave goodbye to any expression of the cleverness and talent we have enjoyed for a century," the Argentine warned.

Luckily, Barcelona opted to appoint Pep Guardiola rather than Mourinho as their new coach in 2008, thus completely altering the course of football history. The Catalan not only ushered in an unprecedented period of sustained success at Camp Nou, he also proved that technique could triumph over physique. 

Although not always. Not even Guardiola, Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta could prevent Mourinho's powerful Inter side from winning a historic treble in 2010.

Back then, Mourinho was the master of defensive football. With his almost impenetrable backlines, his chosen attackers were given the perfect platform on which to go about destroying opponents.

It is worth noting that his Real Madrid side scored 121 goals and racked up a record-breaking 100 points in winning the 2011-12 Liga title ahead of Pep's Barca.

However, his time at the Santiago Bernabeu ended in acrimony, after several high-profile disputes with senior players, as well as widespread dissatisfaction with the style of play among the board, the fans and the media.

Whereas at Porto, Chelsea and Inter he was championed for upsetting Europe's traditional superpowers, his reactive tactics were not well received at Real.

"Barcelona play football and dance, while Madrid just run back and forth constantly, tiring themselves out," club legend Alfredo Di Stefano lamented after watching a drawn Clasico in 2011. "Barcelona were a lion, Madrid a mouse.

"Barca treat the ball with adoration and respect, almost nurturing it. To see this team in action is a delight. You don't just watch their football with your eyes but you feel it inside."

Mourinho doesn't feel it, though. He doesn't even understand it. 

Getty/Goal

"People talk about style and flair but what is that?" he once asked. 

"Sometimes I ask myself about the future, and maybe the future of football is a beautiful green grass carpet without goals, where the team with more ball possession wins the game."

Mourinho has thus stubbornly stuck to his own philosophy. As outlined in Diego Torres’ book, ‘The Special One: The Dark Side of Jose Mourinho’, the 55-year-old's entire philosophy is rooted in fear. 

The team that has the ball is more likely to commit an error. Therefore, the team that has the ball is more at risk. What a depressing view of the game. 

"Even when playing in the garden with his father," Mourinho reasoned, "there is no kid that plays to lose." 

That may be true but there is no kid that grows up dreaming of winning a game by barely touching the football. Or being so afraid of losing possession, that he would rather not have it in the first place.

On Sunday afternoon, Mourinho was at Anfield again, this time with Manchester United. Only this time, things were different. This time, there was a stark contrast between the two teams in terms of quality and ethos. 

This time, it was only Mourinho's side who served up "sh*t hanging on a stick". And this time the limits of Mourinho's ugly approach to 'The Beautiful Game' was there for all the world to see.

That a Mourinho side had arrived at Anfield without any ambition was "nothing new", to borrow a line from his infamous reaction to United's Champions League last-16 elimination last season.

United had played for – and achieved – a scoreless draw on Merseyside 12 months previously, an utterly bizarre approach given Liverpool were struggling at the time. 

However, it offered mounting evidence of Mourinho's lack of evolution as a coach; his utter unwillingness to change with the times. Indeed, both his football and his tactics are outdated.

For years, he refused to even consider deviating from his tried-and-trusted 4-2-3-1 formation. He experimented this season with different shapes but only out of pure desperation as he attempted to redress United’s worst start to a season in 26 years. 

It was very much a case of too little, too late, anyway. He has been long since left behind by not only his nemesis, Guardiola, but also the likes of Jurgen Klopp and Maurizio Sarri. 

But then, Mourinho never wanted to be like them or, worse, to follow them. He was 'The Special One'. He stood alone, just the way he likes it, railing against the game's "philosophers", driven by the belief that his way is the right way; the only way, in fact, so determined is he to prove that he knows best; better than Pep, and better than Barca, where he came to be derogatorily referred to as 'The Translator' because of his origins at Camp Nou.

He has long been bemused by the respect and reverence afforded coaches such as Sarri, who are labelled as visionaries despite never having won a league or European trophy.

"There are lots of poets in football but poets, they don't win many titles," he pointedly sniped after last year's Europa League triumph.

The problem is, though, Mourinho is no longer winning major titles himself, having claimed just one league (at Chelsea) and no Champions Leagues in the past five years, after seven leagues and two Champions Leagues in the preceding decade.

He is no longer even a defensive mastermind. His United side had already conceded more goals this season than they had during the entirety of the 2017-18 campaign.

And when one takes away his defensive nous, or that once remarkable ability to create a unifying siege mentality at club, there really is nothing left but the fearful, dour football we again saw at Anfield at the weekend.

So, who would want him now? Certainly, none of Europe's elite.

As Diego Simeone has quite rightly argued, smaller clubs are sometimes forced to play defensively to stand a chance against financial heavyweights. But such negative tactics don't fly at the Bernabeu or Camp Nou. The game has moved on at the highest level.

As it stands, only a club as desperate as United were to return to winning ways would even consider hiring him... so, maybe Inter.

Like Mourinho, they are a club living off former glories, some of Mourinho's glories. Certainly, they could reassure one another that they have conquered Europe before; they can do so again.

But as we have seen at countless Manchester United press conferences, and even the late win over Juventus in Turin last month, that really is all Mourinho has left to offer: reminders of past victories.
 
Yesterday’s man certainly won’t be walking into a new job tomorrow.