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Rightly or wrongly, he hasn’t been considered particularly relevant from a tactical perspective for some time now. Whereas his great rival from back in the day, Pep Guardiola, continued to evolve, the common consensus was that Mourinho remained stuck in his old, defensive ways.<\/p>\n
However, he insists that he has always been as versatile as he has been pragmatic, and there is a case to be made that such flexibility will allow him to reclaim his place among the game’s elite managers, given he’s nowhere near as dogmatic as some of those who have come after him (Ruben Amorim immediately comes to mind).<\/p>\n
“I adapt very well to what’s available,” Mourinho said. “I praised Benfica’s squad [before the Champions League qualifier against Fenerbahce] and will do so again in the future.<\/p>\n
“If you ask me if I tried to play with words and emotions, to take the pressure off my team (Fenerbahce) and apply that pressure, obviously, I did. But I don’t take back a word of what I said at the time, that Benfica had done a great job in the transfer market, endowing the team with potential that, perhaps, it lacked last season.”<\/p>\n
The onus is now on Mourinho to extract that potential, which would mean sustaining a Liga Portugal title challenge, and at least matching Lage’s run to the last 16 of the 2024-25 Champions League – because this really does feel like something of a last dance for the supposedly ‘Special One’.<\/p>\n
Mourinho can say what he wants about Fenerbahce not being on his level but doing so has only ramped up the pressure on him to prove that he still belongs at Champions League level. He cannot continue to live on former glories – and he knows it too.<\/p>\n
Mourinho’s always claimed that he’s been a victim of his own success, that he’s held to a higher standard than many of his peers. But, in fairness to him, he wouldn’t have it any other way.<\/p>\n
“What I am today is what I am today, and not what I did in the past,” the three-time Premier League winner said.\u00a0“I’m judged on what I do in the present.” And what promises to be an utterly engrossing trial begins at the scene of some of his most memorably moments on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n