Roma coach José Mourinho can become the most successful coach in European competitions. With a football that polarizes, because for Mourinho only the result counts. In Rome they love him for it. This Wednesday (May 31, 2023, 9 p.m., in the live ticker at sportschau.de) Mourinho meets with AS Roma in the final of the Europa League against FC Sevilla.
sugar in the tank. puncture tyres. Not everyone likes that. Ask in Leverkusen. There they know what they think of José Mourinho’s understanding of football. The performance of AS Roma in the semi-finals of the Europa League “an impudence” been, said Bayer midfielder Nadiem Amiri.
Kerem Demirbay felt the Roma victory as “very, very bitter for football”. As “big prank” scourged Leverkusen’s sporting director, Simon Rolfes, the time game of the Mourinho squad. In the end, however, there was a place in the final – in the final on Wednesday evening (May 31, 2023) against FC Sevilla in Budapest.
Past 15 Rome home games sold out
In Rome they can’t understand what they’re talking about in Leverkusen and the rest of the world anyway. The Roma fans adore Mourinho, who once said during his time at Inter Milan: In football you also have to give your opponents a hand “Pour sugar in the tank and puncture the tires”to win a game.
At Rome’s Olympic Stadium, where Mourinho football is currently staged, the past 15 home games have been sold out with over 64,000 spectators each. Not even in the last championship season 2000/2001 so many people wanted to see AS Roma.
“Mou-mental” entry into the final
Reading out the team line-ups is always Mourinho’s celebration. The fans always call his name loudest. Joséééé Mouuurinhooooo. The Roman football radios broadcast hymns of praise on a continuous loop and the most widely read sports newspaper in Rome, the “Corriere dello Sport”reads like a Mourinho fanzine.
After the appearance in Leverkusen there was talk of one “masterpiece” and one “fairytale night”from “Willingness to suffer and dedication”. Above that, as a bow to the coach, the headline: “Moumentale”.
Mourinho has Rome under control
Mourinho has Rome under control like no city he has worked in before. Here, where enthusiasm for football has been at odds with achievement for decades, they are honored that one of the greatest coaches of all time is now joining Roma.
And has led the club to a European final twice in two years, which has only happened three times in the previous 95 years. Mourinho’s style also suits the city, which has known about pathos, peasant cunning and ruthlessness in conflicts since Romulus.
The football he lets play in Rome is Mourinho 2.0. Even in England, where the Setubal man has worked longest, they were amazed when Roma presented themselves in a pre-season match against Tottenham this summer. LiveScore founder Mitch Fretton tweeted: “It’s ridiculous to see the bus being parked in a friendly game and time wasted after the 50th minute.”
Extension of the catenaccio
To accuse Mourinho and the Roma of catenaccio is an understatement – and technically incorrect. The original catenaccio invented by Helenio Herrera had impressive moments and also owed his victories to offensive, fast full-backs who made the counterattack successful from a massive defensive line.
Mourinho has neglected the offensive part of the catenaccio this season, also due to form crises and injuries to his wingers. Often not just a one-story bus was parked in front of the gate, but a double-decker.
Above average many standard goals
At the same time, Mourinho pours more sugar into the tank. Time play, provocations and a bench that keeps referees and opponents under fire throughout the game. The few goals (48 in 37 games) that are below average for a top team come from set pieces more often than average. Roma score 40 percent of their goals from dead balls, more than any other team in Italy.
The qualification for the Champions League in Serie A was clearly missed. In the all-or-nothing games of the Europa League, the sugar in the tank works better.
Which is not always met with enthusiasm in Italy either. In the much-clicked streaming format Bobo TV, former national and Roma striker Antonio Cassano cursed that it was ashamed of others how Mourinho had qualified for the final with his team. The football that Roma are playing this season, said Cassano, who tends to make drastic judgments, “fa cacare”. Which means almost literally: The Roma play a, sorry, shit football.
AS Roma alone against all
Mourinho not only took his tactics on the pitch to a new level in Rome, but also his mental games off the pitch. Starting with the Wagenburg principle, always an important feature of Mourinho’s successes. Motto: We move closer together, because only enemies lurk outside. The opponents, the referees, the football association, dark forces everywhere.
Mourinho’s complaints about the referees are legendary, but his three red cards in Rome are a record, as are the eight dismissals of members of his coaching staff. No bank is in such permanent disruptive mode during the game as AS Roma. Always according to the motto: We are unsympathetic? That also welds together!
Memories of EURO 1996
Even from Roma’s unusual injury woes this season, Mourinho drew motivational juice. Theatrical complaints about the failure of service providers were absent from every press conference. And fueled the “despite everything” mentality.
The way AS Roma struggled through the season is a little reminiscent of the German national team at EURO 1996, which bit its way through the tournament paved and bandaged and ultimately won the title less with footballing class than with mentality and team spirit.
A title win for Roma “against all odds” in Budapest would also be a personal triumph for Mourinho. With six triumphs in European competitions, the self-proclaimed “Special One” rose to become the most successful coach of all time, ahead of Giovanni Trapattoni, at least in this discipline.