Vítor Pereira and Abel Ferreira, from Flamengo and Palmeiras, have Mourinho as their inspiration

José Mourinho will be at Mané Garrincha when Palmeiras and Flamengo dispute the title of the Brazilian Super Cup, next Saturday. Not in physical terms, but conceptually. The way one of the greatest Portuguese coaches of all time sees football inspired Abel Ferreira and Vítor Pereira, coaches of both teams. The duel will serve to show who drank more and better from the source of the “Special One”.

Vítor Pereira is the direct heir of the current coach of Roma. He was in Porto, taking his first steps as coach of the youth divisions, when Mourinho gained worldwide fame, by leading the Portuguese team to the Champions League title, in 2003/2004. Time passed and he climbed stairs. He became assistant to André Villas-Boas, who had been Mourinho’s right-hand man.

When they were national champions, Mourinho, from afar, made a point of praising Pereira. He gave an interview stating that the current coach of Flamengo had been more than an assistant to Villas-Boas. The similarities between the two could be perceived later on, when Vítor Pereira himself took over Porto and repeated the feat of his predecessors, winning titles in Portugal.

There was less concern with creating a beautiful, authorial style of play, and more with making the team competitive. Then came the supremacy of results against arch-rivals Benfica. Pereira learned from Mourinho the value of adapting his playing style to the opponent depending on the circumstances. Last year, against Flamengo, in the final of the Copa do Brasil, he left aside the way Corinthians played in the Brazilian Championship, with more possession of the ball, and started to attack on the counterattack, playing a very vertical game. He almost succeeded, taking the dispute against the red-black favorite to penalties.

Strategists
Between being a coach who tries to impose his game system on the team he will face or being a coach who thoroughly analyzes opponents looking for a gap, even if taking advantage of it means making good changes in his own way of playing, Abel Ferreira is left with the second option . And this is the point of congruence between him, Pereira and Mourinho. In 2021, after being champion of Libertadores on top of Flamengo, the Palmeiras coach went on vacation to Portugal. There he spoke with the local press, who asked who he believed he had more affinity with in reading the game — Mourinho or Jorge Jesus, whose feats for the red-black two years earlier still had strong repercussions, both in Brazil and in Lusitanian lands. The answer was Mourinho. Without blinking.

By having Mourinho as a reference, Abel ends up looking fondly at his opponent’s style in the final of the Brazilian Super Cup. Vitor Pereira is ten years older and even gave talks with the Palmeiras coach — then still in the process of training as a coach —, among those present They did not face each other in Portugal, but on the occasion of the classics between Corinthians and Palmeiras, year In the past, coach alviverde made a point of praising his opponent. That didn’t stop him from winning all three matches. Pereira got in the way last year with the fact that he was facing an opponent whose work was much more evolved, standing since 2020. As he changed clubs, he left Corinthians to transfer to Flamengo, he should have similar problems. At least the quality of the human material available has evolved considerably when closing with the red-black team.