José Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo’s tactical transition – 02/20/2024 – The World Is a Ball

Titled “The Special One” when he was on the rise in football, Portuguese José Mourinho, 61, stopped being special some time ago.

His glory days as a coach are in the past and becoming more distant every day.

Mourinho won the European Champions League twice, once with Porto (2004) and once with Inter Milan (2010). It’s far away.

National championships, he won with Porto (2003 and 2004), Chelsea (2005, 2006 and 2015), Inter Milan (2009 and 2010) and Real Madrid (2012). Also far away, the most recent nine years ago.

From 2016 onwards, Mourinho managed, in this order, Manchester United, Tottenham and Roma. He even won cups, in the first and last, as the Europa League and Conference League, respectively.

The difference, however, is noticeable, as the Europa League is the second most important tournament on the old continent, and the Conference League, the third (and last, as there is no other tournament in the region yet).

Just over a month ago, the charismatic Mourinho was released by Roma after two consecutive defeats, to Lazio and Milan, in the Italian Championship, even though the team was still in contention for the Europa League.

He considered the dismissal “unexpected and unfair” and stated that he was “eliminated” from the club by “someone who understands little about football”, an indirect reference to American businessman Dan Friedkin, owner of Roma.

He also warned that he intends to return, “with even more enthusiasm and confidence”, to the world football scene.

While this doesn’t happen, Mourinho takes the opportunity to give interviews here or there. One of them on the FIVE channel, on YouTube, is Rio Ferdinand, former Manchester United and England defender and currently a football commentator.

In it, one of the focuses was Cristiano Ronaldo, Mourinho’s compatriot and one of the greatest players in the history of football, still active at 39 years old, at Al Nassr (Saudi Arabia).

Mourinho coached CR7 from 2010 to 2013, at Real Madrid. Or rather, he didn’t train. Because, according to the coach, the attacker did not need to be trained.

“You don’t train him. Motivation, you don’t need to give it to him. Ambition, you don’t need to give it to him. Technique, you don’t need to give it to him. You give some tactical adjustments and make the guy happy.”

On the tactical side, Mourinho stated that it was at Real Madrid that Cristiano Ronaldo changed his positioning, which made him a better scorer than he was before, at Manchester United.

“Real Madrid was a kind of transition because he was [antes] a dribbling winger. In Madrid, he stopped playing so wide and having to chase the full-back [na marcação]. And he became a better scorer than he had been in his career.”

At Man United, Cristiano Ronaldo’s highest scoring season was 2007/2008, totaling 42 goals.

In his nine seasons at Real, he scored more than 50 goals in six, and in two of those he hit the 60 mark – 61 was the record, in 2014/2015.

After leaving the merengue club in 2018, going to Juventus (Italy), returning to Man United and migrating to Saudi Arabia, CR7 was no longer able to achieve four dozen goals in a season.

The Portuguese’s artillery data, always considering matches only for clubs, not counting those for the Portugal team, are from the website Goal.com.

In the current season, 2023/2024, Cristiano Ronaldo has a real chance of returning to the 40 goal mark.

It totals 32, and there are still at least 15 games left for Al Nassr to play – 14 of them in the mediocre Saudi Championship.

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