Jose Mourinho: The footballing psychologist
Jose Mourinho is arguably one of the most successful managers in the world, winning the biggest trophies everywhere he goes with a guaranteed success rate. However, Mourinho is also known for his arrogance, and playing “mind games” with the opposition. His mind games is certainly something that comes from psychology, using his head to play games with the opposition before the actual game has even started.
When studying sports science at the Technical University of Lisbon, Jose Mourinho was taught by Prof. Manuel Sergio, learning that football is not just about what happens on the pitch, but it’s also about the psychology behind it, the emotions of players, the morale of the team, how the manager motivates his players, and etc.
Mourinho’s methods in the past and even today have brought a lot of criticisms, especially his man management. Wherever the Manchester United boss has gone to manage in the past, he’s never stayed at a club for any longer than 3 seasons. This is because there tends to be a consistent trend with the morale of his team and the performance, which correlates positively. In the first at a club, he will usually lay down the foundations and start building the team he wants, keeping some of the fringe players as well to see whether he needs them or not. Usually, Mourinho does not win the domestic title at the end of his first season, but will win trophies. Followed by the first season, Mourinho will clear out most of the deadwood players of the team and bring in new players to make the team a “title winning side.” Winning a title is not just about being the best team on the pitch, but is also about having a strong mentality, never thinking that you’ve won or lost until the final whistle blows. Strong mentalities are usually embedded in Mourinho’s teams, and are most effective in his second seasons at clubs, when he usually wins the league (this season may be an exception).
Man Management
Mourinho’s method is very simple, “my way or get out”. He will not change his methods for certain players, and only has one way to manage his players. While this can sometimes draw out a reaction out of players and motivate them, this can also damage their self confidence and make the players turn on Mourinho. He plays with player’s emotions and motivation and keep them working, finding several methods to get his players performing better. Wherever he goes, what Mourinho demands for is loyalty. He wants every player he has to play for him, to perform to the best of their abilities just for him. If they start having a dip in performance, however, Mourinho will soon phase the player out from the starting eleven, dropping the player on many occasions, before the player leaves. This is evident in the case of Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Mkhitaryan began his second season at Manchester United in great form, bagging many assists and being one of the first players in the team. But, when it came to play against the top 6 teams, and Manchester United were without Paul Pogba, Mkhitaryan failed to step up and because of that dip in performance, Mourinho completely dropped for a number of several matchdays, and eventually sold him to Arsenal. His man management tactics are harsh and can temporarily draw great results, however, towards the end of his tenure at certain clubs, the players will start turning on him and would no longer want to play for him.
Mind Games
Mourinho loves playing mind games and it’s all part of his game plans. In his recent feud with Antonio Conte, we see Mourinho makes controversial statements that isn’t necessarily directed towards anyone. For example, during a press conference in early January, when asked about his desire to win, Mourinho stated that, “I prefer to behave the way I’m doing it. Much more mature, better for the team, better for myself. I don’t think you have to behave like a crazy guy on the touchline to have that passion.” Jose Mourinho didn’t really say anything controversial at first, just claiming that he’s become more mature as a person and manager, however, someone saw as a dig: Antonio Conte. Conte thought that Mourinho was having a go at him because he runs around the touchline and he exhibits a lot of passion, however, Mourinho never directly mentioned Conte in that statement.
This statement could have been towards Jurgen Klopp, a manager also renowned for his passion on the touchline, however, Conte chose to bite, assuming that it was directed towards him. Whether that was directed towards Conte or not intentionally, Conte made a mistake by trying to play a game that’s he second best that in this situation, and can interpret every statement the wrong way. Mourinho wanted to put Conte on edge and wanted to address in a way of which it wasn’t too obvious. After Conte replied, asking him to remember his past, Mourinho played his best card, saying that he’ll never be caught for “match fixing”. After that, Conte called him a “little man”, but those comments by Mourinho had an effect on the pitch, as Chelsea experienced 3 draws in a row and a 3–0 defeat at home to Bournemouth. During that same time, Manchester United weren’t doing to well either, but Mourinho spoke mainly about this feud with Conte just to distract the media away from the dip of Manchester United’s form. Mourinho has a game with the media and always seems to have a card ready to play depending on the situation. Despite occasionally being a hypocrite, he’s able to win games mentally before the match on the pitch even starts. This also has to do with his emphasis on his teams having a strong mentality, never thinking they’ve won the game until the match is over.
Motivation
Because Mourinho wants unconditional loyalty from his players, he’s giving the players an extrinsic motivation to perform; himself. While the players also can be incentivised through monetary benefits, Mourinho wants the players to play for him so then no matter what he says, they’ll follow, minimising the risk for disunity in the team. However, as proven by previous psychology research, intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation as intrinsic is durable, whereas extrinsic is temporary. In the case of Mourinho, this perhaps why he only last 3 seasons at a club, because the motivations for his players temporary. Once the players feel they’ve been treated harshly by him, they’ll turn against him and start creating a divide, and will no longer be motivated to play for him, but motivated to play in a certain way to get him sacked. As seen in the case of his second tenure at Chelsea in his third season, players such as Diego Costa no longer wanted to play under Mourinho. As a result, the team intentionally played poorly at times just to get him sacked, because at the end of the day, you can’t sack a whole squad in favour of a manager.
Jose Mourinho is probably one of the few managers in football that puts a huge emphasis on psychology, and uses it in a daily basis. Even though his man management techniques are occasionally questionable and his methods only have short term rewards, he’s able to determine the outcome of a game just by the comments he makes beforehand, which can put doubts in the opposition’s head.
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