3 achievements and failures of Mourinho’s tenure at Real Madrid

The time is right to look back at Mourinho’s tenure and point out some of his achievements and mistakes. I’ve selected three of each in this quick post.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Ending Barcelona’s hegemony

Mourinho was brought in to do two very specific things: end Barcelona’s dominance in Spanish football, and bring Real Madrid its long-awaited 10th Champions League. He succeeded in the former (more on the latter in the “Failures” section of this post). Last season, Mou’s Real Madrid romped to the La Liga title while smashing various records along the way, including points total for the season (100, beating Barcelona’s 99 the season before) and goals scored (121, smashing the previous record of 108 that stood for over 20 years).

Mou spearheaded Real Madrid’s resurgence in Clasicos, with Los Merengues currently on an 8-match undefeated streak against their Catalan rivals. Whereas Real Madrid previously took to the field against Barca trying only to mitigate the scale of their defeat, Mourinho gave Real Madrid the confidence to take their game to Barca and it has produced undeniable results.

Bringing in excellent signings for the present and future

Mou has done very well for Real Madrid in the transfer market. He brought in the likes of Di Maria, Ozil, Khedira, Coentrao, Callejon and Modric. All are very young and have tremendous upside. And while it is unlikely that all six will still be at the club this season, Mou still deserves credit for laying the foundations for what could be a frighteningly strong Real Madrid side for the next several seasons. One name is missing from the above list of players, and that’s because he deserves special focus…

Raphael Varane

While Zinedine Zidane may have been the man who brought then-unknown Varane to Real Madrid, it was Mourinho who had the courage to play the baby-faced Frenchman in place of the experienced Pepe in several big clashes this term against the likes of Barcelona and Manchester United.

Prior to this season, Varane showed signs of his serious potential in several games against weaker opposition. But his performances against Barcelona in particular have boosted his confidence and have made it clear to the world that in Raphael Varane, Real Madrid have a 19-year-old who looks dead cert to become the best defender in the world, and could be the lynchpin of the team’s defensive line for the next decade.

Mourinho will go down in history as the coach who gave Varane his start at Real Madrid.

FAILURES

No La Decima

Mou’s failure to deliver La Decima will go down as his biggest failure at Real Madrid. Three consecutive semi-final appearances is a massive achievement, coming as they did after several seasons of not even making the quarterfinals, but the fact is that Mourinho fell short of his primary goal, which was to bring home La Decima.

In 2010-11, Real Madrid were undone by some high quality play-acting and diving from Barcelona players coupled with very shoddy refereeing. In 2011-12, the team were a penalty shoot-out away from the final with the squad’s two strongest penalty kick-takers, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, both conspiring to miss. But Real Madrid’s poor away performance in the first leg this season against Dortmund was hugely disappointing and as head coach, Mourinho takes responsibility.

Tactically one-dimensional

Mourinho’s Real Madrid is arguably the best counter-attacking side in the world, and has mastered the art of turning defence into attack with speed and dynamism. However, the team has constantly struggled against teams that sit back and pack the box with defenders. Real Madrid’s tactical setup calls for space for its attackers to run into and when this space is taken away, the team struggles. In three seasons at Real Madrid, Mourinho has not been able to find a way to consistently break down park-the-bus defences.

Off-the-pitch drama

From the Vilanova eye-poke to the Barca/UNICEF rant to his public comments on Casillas and Pepe, Mourinho has needlessly given Spain’s ruthless football journalists plenty of fodder for their stories. Mourinho has seemingly failed to recognize that Real Madrid is not Inter Milan, Chelsea or Porto, where good results mean that any drama will be forgiven and forgotten. Real Madrid is a club that is intensely conscious of its image, and the majority of football followers will agree that Mourinho’s words and actions have hurt the club’s image.