Jose Mourinho is enjoying his April.
After the month got off to a shaky start with a pair of draws, the Manchester United manager oversaw a 3-0 thrashing of Sunderland before he claimed an away goal in Anderlecht in the Europa League.
Most recently, he masterminded a 2-0 victory over his former side Chelsea in what will come as possibly his most satisfying result as United boss to date.
Mourinho is also experiencing plenty of good fortune away from the pitch as, apparently, he’s £1,000 richer thanks to Sergio Garcia’s dramatic Masters triumph last week.
On a tension-laden Sunday at Augusta, Garcia held his nerve in a thrill-a-minute playoff with Justin Rose to claim his first major in 74 attempts.
According to the Telegraph, Mourinho was involved in a pool with United’s players and staff which saw everyone select a golfer from the Masters field and put £10 each into the pot.
And, of course, Mourinho was lucky enough to pull Garcia’s name from the hat.
Said to have little to no interest in golf, it was a complete fluke that Mourinho so happened to pick Garcia but he has an extra £1,000 in his wallet because of it.
To be fair, £1,000 is pocket change for the 54-year-old who is understood to be earning £13.8 million a year at Old Trafford.
But still, a grand is nothing to be sniffed at and while it was pure luck that saw Mourinho come out on top in the golfing sweepstakes, there was far more intent behind his strategy for Chelsea’s test on Sunday.
“I want to say I was convinced even before the cup that controlling the two players that played behind Diego [Costa],” Mourinho said of his tactics, via Manchester Evening News. “Sometimes Hazard, sometimes Hazard-Pedro controlling the position of these two players, and controlling the full-backs because they go really deep with two wide men would create them lots of problems.
Worked a treat https://t.co/eAvo1tBqMf
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) April 17, 2017
“And I repeat the same: They are phenomenal in counter-attack, and when they have the ball it’s more difficult for them and when they have the ball we are compact and when they try to play counter-attack we were always in control of these link positions.
“Diego is very dangerous but the two link positions are the two positions we have to control. We did that at Stamford Bridge when we played with 11, with 10 it was more difficult and today we controlled.”
