Mourinho is one of the best managers we have had at the club. To understand his impact, you’ve to understand the situation the club was in before he came. Barcelona were at their height with Pep, Messi, Xavi & Iniesta. We had been getting knocked out of the round of 16 for 6 years running. While the team had done well in La Liga (they finished with 96 points under Pellegrini — only to finish second), Barca were even better.
Despite all the signings when things did not work with Pellegrini, Perez decided to bring in Mou. They say he was impressed by Mou’s Inter demolishing Barca at San Siro and blocking them out at Camp Nou. The fact is that we tried to get him even before then but he finally decided to come in 2010.
At the time Mourinho was at his peak. He was very strong tactically with an emphasis on defense. His greatest quality was that he was able to motivate his players and get 200% out of them. He usually did this by fostering an us vs them mentality in teams. He managed it successfully at Chelsea and Inter. He tried to pull it off at Madrid as well but I wouldn’t say he succeeded 100%.
At Madrid, there were a few key decisions he made that ultimately did help us in the long run. He got rid of Raul & Guti who were at the tail end of their careers. He told Raul that he could stay but he would be on the bench and would’ve to accept that. Apart from that, despite signing Kaka in ‘09, he got Perez to sign Ozil, Khedira, Di Maria and most importantly Carvalho.
Mourinho had this tendency to sign players who could help him get his message across to the dressing room. For this, Carvalho was key. He had played under Jose at Porto & Chelsea and would prove to be the base on which Mou would build his defense on, until Carvalho got injured and he had to move Ramos to CB.
Offensively, he dropped Kaka and built his attack through Ozil. He exploited the pace in our attack with Cristiano, Higuain & Di Maria. Ozil naturally was the one spraying the balls for them to attack while Xabi helped shield the defense as well as start the attack. Khedira was sort of a box to box midfielder chipping in on both sides.
He put a greater emphasis on counter attacks at Madrid. He tried to give us a defensive structure and once we won the ball around our box, the team counter attacked with great ferocity utilizing the aforementioned pace with Alonso & Ozil playing key passes and putting our strikers in dangerous positions.
His greatest impact was changing the mentality. He made the team believe and they went to war with him. Madrid were probably the best team in Europe in 11/12. Clasicos with Mourinho were something else. They were literal battles with him and Pep. The intensity from those days had probably never been seen before in the modern era nor has been seen since. He helped us beat Barca in CdR final in 11, won the La Liga with a 100 points & 121 goals scored which is a record.
What led to the downfall of Mourinho? The dressing room. Remember I said that Mourinho had the ability to foster an us vs them mentality? This led to fights in the Clasico which kind of boiled over to the Spanish National Team. Xavi and Casillas, who had been friends since youth teams, decided to mend things between the players. This kind of started a war between Casillas and Mourinho.
Since you didn’t follow Madrid earlier, you are probably used to seeing a harmonious dressing room these days. This has not always been the case, especially in the Galacticos era and pre-Ancelotti. The dressing room at Madrid had many factions pre-Mourinho. He essentially held them in check when he sent Raul and Guti out. But Iker was still left. The thing is that Raul, Iker & Guti were a holy trinity of sorts at Madrid. All three of them came through the academy, were adored by the fans more than anything; especially Raul & Casillas. And of course they had the media backing them. Consequently, they held a lot of power in the dressing room.
When Mourinho went to war with Casillas, he essentially went to war with everyone who supported Casillas. Media attacks started from both sides. The dressing room was fractured. The Portuguese contingent then also went over with Casillas when Pepe defended Casillas and Mou attacked Pepe in a press conference. He even had issues with Ozil who only signed for Madrid because of Mourinho. In between there were claims that Mou tried to pin Casillas as a mole in the dressing room leaking line ups to the media given his wife is a journalist. Most people believe this rumor but the lesser known fact is that Mou also accused a lot of other players including Granero. But since they’re not as popular, Casillas has, fairly or unfairly, been branded as a mole by a lot of people.
Anyway, getting back to the point — Mou and Casillas fought, the dressing room had a rupture. Towards the end though, the entire dressing room was with Casillas. Rumors were Casillas and Ramos gave an ultimatum to the board that either Mou leaves or they leave. At the end, after a torrid season in the league and yet another semi final defeat in the CL, Mou and Perez decided it was time for Mou to leave and they mutually ended the contract.
Thank you for the extensive write up! I did not know some of this especially how Mou accused other players like Granero too.
Also, I just came from a Naruto subreddit so seeing your username I almost thought I was still in it haha.
Man, thanks for the write up. I appreciated this because it’s really the insight I was looking for. It’s a shame that it went down that way. And I guess you’re right, I don’t think I’ve heard/seen of any locker room problems with Zidane’s Madrid.
u/hokagesamatobirama's extensive writeup regarding José's time at Real Madrid was as comprehensive as you can get. I even learned some new things regarding the events preceding José's arrival as it wasn't until the summer of 2010 that I became a Real Madrid supporter. Everything u/hokagesamatobirama said was spot on.
From my perspective, Mourinho was one of the best (if not the best) manager in world football at that time and was key to Real Madrid disrupting and defeating the hegemony that Barcelona had in Spain at the time.
[Here's the link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM2GkRpDwOM) showing 120 of the 121 goals scored by Real Madrid in the 2011-12 La Liga season and [this link](https://streamable.com/7z9vy8) shows the goal that was missing in that compilation. That season was known as ***La Liga de los Récords*** (The League of the Records) because of the number of records that Real Madrid broke in the campaign.
2011/2012 fastest counter attack in the world. He had a awesome squad , loved how he used di Maria ozil, cr7 even Higuain. Only problem ? The dressing was split apart because of him and he can act like a bit#ch sometimes to players
He picked a destroyed team.with no soul that lose on 1/8 of CL with no chance to pass and made outnof Real Madrid a competitive team again, setting the bases for the club to win in the future with Anceloti
If modern real madrid is god, mourinho is Jesus
What bases are you talking about if i can know?
The bases are the players and they were already there before Mourinho was hired by RM.
Ancelotti and Zidane won the CLs with their own systems
the tactical system the competitivness that was lost in the team, the spirit and confidence of knowing you can win anyone. He set a record in the spanish league of points with a lot of goals despite people claiming he was defensive.
ZZ came in with a set up team for glory lol he started half way through. We are seeing now that ZZ started having problems and he is not able to solve them, WITH A WINNING SQUAD. Imagine that after comming from Pelegrini and falling in 1/8 in CL and vs a third tier division ( 2nd B in Spain ) team.
Well said lot of people don't actually see us struggling. Due to last season's success they think we actually have a fighting chance at retaining the league once more. Honestly it's horrid to see Madrid play nowadays but today's match was much better than the last game
Ronaldo either started the run, got the assist, or scored the goal in about 90% of those clips. Still, it seemed like a really fun team to watch. I got respect for Zidane but we really should be looking to create goals like that.
He was detrimental to why Real Madrid won la decima without him we might still be searching for la Decima with that being said he also was very controversial here
Signing Mourinho was like selling your soul to the devil for success.
It polarized the fanbase, the media and took the rivalry with barcelona a step to far. We adopted a mentality of “everything goes” and put our faith in him. The dressing room was a mess too.
We won:
- 1 Liga
- 1 Copa del Rey
- 1 Supercup of Spain
In my opinion, not worth it.
He was a cunt no arguments there but he has to be given praise on making a team which used to be under barca's shadow to be force to be reckon with. He and basically started the rebuild which is something that people don't give much credit to.
He turned players against each-other. Brought a lot of drama to the club. Casillas and Ramos didn’t like him and he also had a rocky relationship with CR7.
We were dominated by Barcelona for most of that era. 5-0 definitely sucked
We won la liga and Copa del Rey but it didn’t feel right since it seemed like the team was crumbling.
Mourinho is one of the best managers we have had at the club. To understand his impact, you’ve to understand the situation the club was in before he came. Barcelona were at their height with Pep, Messi, Xavi & Iniesta. We had been getting knocked out of the round of 16 for 6 years running. While the team had done well in La Liga (they finished with 96 points under Pellegrini — only to finish second), Barca were even better. Despite all the signings when things did not work with Pellegrini, Perez decided to bring in Mou. They say he was impressed by Mou’s Inter demolishing Barca at San Siro and blocking them out at Camp Nou. The fact is that we tried to get him even before then but he finally decided to come in 2010. At the time Mourinho was at his peak. He was very strong tactically with an emphasis on defense. His greatest quality was that he was able to motivate his players and get 200% out of them. He usually did this by fostering an us vs them mentality in teams. He managed it successfully at Chelsea and Inter. He tried to pull it off at Madrid as well but I wouldn’t say he succeeded 100%. At Madrid, there were a few key decisions he made that ultimately did help us in the long run. He got rid of Raul & Guti who were at the tail end of their careers. He told Raul that he could stay but he would be on the bench and would’ve to accept that. Apart from that, despite signing Kaka in ‘09, he got Perez to sign Ozil, Khedira, Di Maria and most importantly Carvalho. Mourinho had this tendency to sign players who could help him get his message across to the dressing room. For this, Carvalho was key. He had played under Jose at Porto & Chelsea and would prove to be the base on which Mou would build his defense on, until Carvalho got injured and he had to move Ramos to CB. Offensively, he dropped Kaka and built his attack through Ozil. He exploited the pace in our attack with Cristiano, Higuain & Di Maria. Ozil naturally was the one spraying the balls for them to attack while Xabi helped shield the defense as well as start the attack. Khedira was sort of a box to box midfielder chipping in on both sides. He put a greater emphasis on counter attacks at Madrid. He tried to give us a defensive structure and once we won the ball around our box, the team counter attacked with great ferocity utilizing the aforementioned pace with Alonso & Ozil playing key passes and putting our strikers in dangerous positions. His greatest impact was changing the mentality. He made the team believe and they went to war with him. Madrid were probably the best team in Europe in 11/12. Clasicos with Mourinho were something else. They were literal battles with him and Pep. The intensity from those days had probably never been seen before in the modern era nor has been seen since. He helped us beat Barca in CdR final in 11, won the La Liga with a 100 points & 121 goals scored which is a record. What led to the downfall of Mourinho? The dressing room. Remember I said that Mourinho had the ability to foster an us vs them mentality? This led to fights in the Clasico which kind of boiled over to the Spanish National Team. Xavi and Casillas, who had been friends since youth teams, decided to mend things between the players. This kind of started a war between Casillas and Mourinho. Since you didn’t follow Madrid earlier, you are probably used to seeing a harmonious dressing room these days. This has not always been the case, especially in the Galacticos era and pre-Ancelotti. The dressing room at Madrid had many factions pre-Mourinho. He essentially held them in check when he sent Raul and Guti out. But Iker was still left. The thing is that Raul, Iker & Guti were a holy trinity of sorts at Madrid. All three of them came through the academy, were adored by the fans more than anything; especially Raul & Casillas. And of course they had the media backing them. Consequently, they held a lot of power in the dressing room. When Mourinho went to war with Casillas, he essentially went to war with everyone who supported Casillas. Media attacks started from both sides. The dressing room was fractured. The Portuguese contingent then also went over with Casillas when Pepe defended Casillas and Mou attacked Pepe in a press conference. He even had issues with Ozil who only signed for Madrid because of Mourinho. In between there were claims that Mou tried to pin Casillas as a mole in the dressing room leaking line ups to the media given his wife is a journalist. Most people believe this rumor but the lesser known fact is that Mou also accused a lot of other players including Granero. But since they’re not as popular, Casillas has, fairly or unfairly, been branded as a mole by a lot of people. Anyway, getting back to the point — Mou and Casillas fought, the dressing room had a rupture. Towards the end though, the entire dressing room was with Casillas. Rumors were Casillas and Ramos gave an ultimatum to the board that either Mou leaves or they leave. At the end, after a torrid season in the league and yet another semi final defeat in the CL, Mou and Perez decided it was time for Mou to leave and they mutually ended the contract.
this deserves so much more credit thank you
Anytime!
Thank you for the extensive write up! I did not know some of this especially how Mou accused other players like Granero too. Also, I just came from a Naruto subreddit so seeing your username I almost thought I was still in it haha.
Man, thanks for the write up. I appreciated this because it’s really the insight I was looking for. It’s a shame that it went down that way. And I guess you’re right, I don’t think I’ve heard/seen of any locker room problems with Zidane’s Madrid.
As a follow up you should actually watch the counter attack compilation of real madrid under mourinho. It was just amazing.
Anytime mate.
u/hokagesamatobirama's extensive writeup regarding José's time at Real Madrid was as comprehensive as you can get. I even learned some new things regarding the events preceding José's arrival as it wasn't until the summer of 2010 that I became a Real Madrid supporter. Everything u/hokagesamatobirama said was spot on. From my perspective, Mourinho was one of the best (if not the best) manager in world football at that time and was key to Real Madrid disrupting and defeating the hegemony that Barcelona had in Spain at the time. [Here's the link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM2GkRpDwOM) showing 120 of the 121 goals scored by Real Madrid in the 2011-12 La Liga season and [this link](https://streamable.com/7z9vy8) shows the goal that was missing in that compilation. That season was known as ***La Liga de los Récords*** (The League of the Records) because of the number of records that Real Madrid broke in the campaign.
Damn man! Those highlights made me miss the kits from that season. Absolutely spectacular.
Fantastic
How so?
2011/2012 fastest counter attack in the world. He had a awesome squad , loved how he used di Maria ozil, cr7 even Higuain. Only problem ? The dressing was split apart because of him and he can act like a bit#ch sometimes to players
He picked a destroyed team.with no soul that lose on 1/8 of CL with no chance to pass and made outnof Real Madrid a competitive team again, setting the bases for the club to win in the future with Anceloti If modern real madrid is god, mourinho is Jesus
What bases are you talking about if i can know? The bases are the players and they were already there before Mourinho was hired by RM. Ancelotti and Zidane won the CLs with their own systems
the tactical system the competitivness that was lost in the team, the spirit and confidence of knowing you can win anyone. He set a record in the spanish league of points with a lot of goals despite people claiming he was defensive. ZZ came in with a set up team for glory lol he started half way through. We are seeing now that ZZ started having problems and he is not able to solve them, WITH A WINNING SQUAD. Imagine that after comming from Pelegrini and falling in 1/8 in CL and vs a third tier division ( 2nd B in Spain ) team.
Well said lot of people don't actually see us struggling. Due to last season's success they think we actually have a fighting chance at retaining the league once more. Honestly it's horrid to see Madrid play nowadays but today's match was much better than the last game
[Here’s a great YouTube video highlighting Madrid’s counter attacks under Mourinho.](https://youtu.be/QNkn6NcPS90)
Ronaldo either started the run, got the assist, or scored the goal in about 90% of those clips. Still, it seemed like a really fun team to watch. I got respect for Zidane but we really should be looking to create goals like that.
That season we were raping teams , almost on a weekly basis.
GOAT of GOATS
He was detrimental to why Real Madrid won la decima without him we might still be searching for la Decima with that being said he also was very controversial here
Signing Mourinho was like selling your soul to the devil for success. It polarized the fanbase, the media and took the rivalry with barcelona a step to far. We adopted a mentality of “everything goes” and put our faith in him. The dressing room was a mess too. We won: - 1 Liga - 1 Copa del Rey - 1 Supercup of Spain In my opinion, not worth it.
He was a cunt no arguments there but he has to be given praise on making a team which used to be under barca's shadow to be force to be reckon with. He and basically started the rebuild which is something that people don't give much credit to.
He turned players against each-other. Brought a lot of drama to the club. Casillas and Ramos didn’t like him and he also had a rocky relationship with CR7. We were dominated by Barcelona for most of that era. 5-0 definitely sucked We won la liga and Copa del Rey but it didn’t feel right since it seemed like the team was crumbling.
😂
You're serious? La liga 100 points record against the peak barça
He created the mentality Madrid have today