“They had big names, big players and dominated. Mourinho was lucky.”
A former Manchester United player has essentially dismissed Jose Mourinho’s managerial career as “lucky.” Andrei Kanchelskis said the current United manager is a “great coach”, but he has had several lucky breaks throughout his career and his team would be outside the Champions League places were it not for their goalkeeper David de Gea.
Kanchelskis played for United between 1991 and 1995, and won two Premier League titles and the FA Cup as a key part of Alex Ferguson’s first great team at Old Trafford. He left for Everton in 1995, in a transfer worth £5m, and ended up at Manchester City on-loan in 2001.
The former Russian international told reporters in several interviews this week that he hopes United win Sunday’s derby game at Old Trafford, but the manager’s “defensive” approach contradicts the style of the United team he played in.
“Mourinho plays more defensively. When I played during my period, we played to enjoy games,” Kanchelskis said.
“There would be improvisation, sometimes we would play in a different way. Cantona, Giggsy, myself, Mark Hughes. Now, for me, you’re looking at one or two good players. Rashford is good but De Gea is the best player. If not for De Gea, United would not be in second position but fifth or sixth.”
That's all it took! https://t.co/uv4dqDocy8
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) December 4, 2017
The former winger went on to say that Mourinho has been quite “lucky” in his managerial career. The United manager won the Champions League with Porto in 2004, knocking out the Red Devils along the way, and then won two Premier League titles with Chelsea. At Inter Milan, he guided the Serie A club to a treble and a Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich in 2010. He then won the Spanish title with Real Madrid in 2012, before being sacked the following year after allegedly falling out with a host of senior players.
Mourinho won the league title with Chelsea in his second season back at the club, but was sacked before Christmas the following season after a disastrous run of form and more reports of disharmony behind the scenes. At United, he finished sixth in his first season, but won the Europa League and the EFL Cup. The team are currently in second place, eight points behind City at the top of the Premier League.
Mourinho has been one of the best coaches in the world football over the past 15 years, but Kanchelskis reckons he has a lot of good fortune along the way.
“Mourinho worked with Bobby Robson, a great coach, and came straight in and very soon took on a great team at Porto,” the former winger said.
“They had big names, big players and dominated. Mourinho was lucky. He knew he would never dominate in small teams, second teams.
He then said Mourinho was “lucky” to get the better of United with Porto in 2004, and continued to get lucky as he career progressed.
“I remember that game – that referee – where there was a free kick and Tim Howard made a mistake. So then it was all Mourinho, Mourinho, Mourinho. It was easy for Porto against Monaco in the final, then he takes over at Chelsea: good money, good players. It was just easy work, you know? Milan – working for [Massimo] Moratti – great, a lot of money and good players again. Real Madrid – only one season was good but the next two seasons there were problems. Then back to Chelsea where there were problems as well. He’s a great coach, but that was an important season for Mourinho at Porto. Look at it and see what happened.”
