Sorry Hughton - Mourinho Doesn't Work That Way

Last updated : 12 February 2010 By Footy Mad - Editor

I don't think anyone can doubt the managerial skills of Jose Mourinho during his time in the Premiership, and he often made changes after TEN MINUTES if things didn't look right.

After spells working as an assistant manager and a youth team coach in the early 1990s, Mourinho became an interpreter for Sir Bobby Robson.

And he said many times that he learned much from the veteran coach, while working with him at top Portuguese teams Sporting Clube de Portugal, FC Porto, and at Spanish giants FC Barcelona.

Mourinho: "I learned from Sir Bobby Robson that, if you set out a plan and it does not seem to be working, you don't sit back and watch your team get beat.

"You make changes, shuffle the pack, turn things around". 

Chris Hughton: “It was a game where they were putting a lot of pressure on us, and there wasn’t a lot of space.

“What you generally tend to do is give it that little bit longer, and hope that you can turn things around.

“I thought, re the performance, were they three goals better than us? No.

“They just scored the goals at good times, and we weren’t able to.

“I’m bitterly disappointed.

“We did something that we haven’t done all season in the league, which is concede three goals.

“When that’s the case, it’s very difficult to win a football match.

“The goals they scored were, for them, at very good times.

“Just before half-time we had an opportunity to go level through Wayne Routledge, but it wasn’t to be.

“The penalty decision almost determined the game – it was difficult to come back from that.

“Of course, it was one which went very much in their favour.

“Our argument was that it was the linesman that gave it.

“The referee was 15 yards behind the play, and didn’t give it.

“He by far had the best view of the incident.

“It’s more to the point that the referee didn’t give it, and the linesman didn’t.

“It was going to be difficult to come back from that.

“If I look at the penalty, whether it was or wasn’t, it was a soft one to give away.

“The first goal, the lad Hulse gets between two defenders, and, of course, the third one the centre-half is allowed to compete in the air, and then come down for the second ball.

“For us, they’re bad goals. It’s not like us. It’s been a particular strength of ours, and we’ve certainly got to make sure we address that.”