Jose Mourinho's Best XI of all time

There is a personal touch to all the teams Jose Mourinho has managed, such that he is one of the few football coaches in the world who can be called auteurs. The selection policy he follows is often strangely nuanced too. His teams defend hard and strong, have some good passers in the midfield, and have a lone goal-poaching striker as the most prolific source of goals hovering around the opponent’s penalty box. Those players who do not fit into this scheme of things, even if they are exceptionally talented, are not valued very highly by Mourinho. Cases in point – Juan Mata and David Luiz.This is an attempt to get into the mind of the ‘Special One’, something he is himself famous because of the mind games he plays, and select for him a team of dreams. For all his whimsicalness, Mourinho has gathered around him a cult of loyal players, some who have followed him from club to club. When Samuel Eto’o was asked why he was joining Chelsea even when he was receiving better financial deals from other places, he replied,”Those other places do not have Jose Mourinho”. He has managed to acquire individuals who have fitted into his plan easily, non-exceptional players who have followed their manager’s orders and found it reaping success. Deco(who followed him from Porto to Chelsea), Diego Milito(Inter Milan) and Oscar(Chelsea) make up the hypothetical bench for this hypothetical team. These Mourinhistas line up in a 4-3-3 formation.

#1 Petr Cech

Petr Cech was one of the first batch of people Mourinho brought to Chelsea when he joined in 2004, as part of his grand plans of world conquest. He has been a dependable presence at the Blues goal for the ensuing decade, but it was during the first three years that Cech’s rise to the top seemed instrumental to a similar turn in Chelsea’s destiny.

Cech was adjudged the best goalkeeper in the Champions League for three years straight, and it was in that tournament that Chelsea announced their arrival as a superpower. Cech holds the Premier League record for requiring the least number of matches to reach 100 clean sheets – 180. In his first season, he went for 1025 minutes without conceding a goal, a record which stood till Edwin van der Sar beat him by a few minutes during the 2009-10 season.

#2 Ashley Cole

Ashley Cole had a troubled time with Arsenal before he was swooped up by Mourinho to bring him to the rival London club, where he fitted in like a hand in a glove. In 2005, both Mourinho and Cole were fined for sneakily trying a deal for the player behind Arsenal’s back. The next year the two could not be kept separate any longer, and Ashley Cole’s flailing career was resurrected.

While previously Cole’s attacking forays often left a gap at the back, Chelsea’s almost-straight backline meant that he could improve the defensive side of his game. Cole’s marking sense was finally as good as his pace.

In 2008, Mourinho had to leave Chelsea under acrimonious circumstances, and Cole was one of the players majorly upset with the parting of ways. On Mourinho’s return, a 33 year old Cole was benched, but was given the honour of wearing the captain’s armband on the last match of the 2013-14 season.

#3 Ricardo Carvalho

Ricardo Carvalho became a first-choice defender for Porto in 2002, during the season when Mourinho was appointed as manager for the Portuguese outfit. The next year, Carvalho hit a run of golden form and Mourinho arrived with a prancing run down the touchline after having got one over Sir Alex in the Champions League quarter final.

Mourinho was appointed as manager the Chelsea the year after that, but he did not leave behind his best defender in Porto. Defender and manager were inseparable for the next few years, till in 2007 a source from Madrid is known to have said: ”We have never been able to get Carvalho because of his connection with Mourinho. Now he has left Chelsea, we feel there's a real chance."

Carvalho’s worth was not recognized by Guus Hiddink and Luis Scolari, and he demanded that he be sold to Inter Milan, where his former boss was presently stationed. This deal never came to fruition, but again in 2010, Carvalho’s desire to re-unite with Mourinho surfaced after the latter moved to Real Madrid. "If there was a possibility to sign with Real Madrid, I would go there right now swimming or running."

#4 John Terry

Mourinho brought some of his favourite players from Porto when he moved to the Chelsea dugout in 2004, but as the leader of his great team he chose none other than the greatest English defender from recent times, John Terry.

Terry lived up completely to what Mourinho had seen in him, being an exemplary captain and rallying the team to their first league title of the Premier League era.

If Mourinho is credited for being the moulding hand behind creating the beast of a team that is Chelsea, John Terry would definitely qualify as the heartbeat of this beast.

On Mourinho’s return to Chelsea, not everybody was sure how the coach’s reunion with his old club would turn out to be. Talking about the kind of role Terry played at this time, Mourinho has said, ”It's a help for me, the way he communicates with other players, the way he can make them know me sooner rather than later...he helps the others to analyse some of my ideas, some of my reactions.”

#5 Paulo Ferreira

Paulo Ferreira was a right-sided midfielder until the age of 23, when Jose Mourinho ended his days of obscurity by signing him on for Porto in his first spate of transfer deals in 2002, and dropping him back to the defence.

Having found his feet, this versatile defender was an un-highlighted but vital part of all of Mourinho’s plans; such that he shifted to Chelsea in 2004 holding Mourinho’s shirt-tail. Always more reliable than charismatic, Ferreira was a silent performer for the Blues over the next seven seasons.

Mourinho had once described him as “a player who will never be man of the match but will always score 7/10 for his individual display.”

#6 Michael Essien

The greatest strength of Mourinho’s teams is that they can break up the most persistent opposition attacks with the strength and conviction of their defensive work-rate, and Michael Essien has been the man mainly responsible for spearheading this operation for Mourinho for the larger part of his coaching career.

Essien was brought to Stamford Bridge in 2005 after a long and controversial transfer deal, and at £24.4 million was Chelsea’s most expensive signing till date.

In 2012, Essien was falling out of favour at Chelsea, and was finding himself playing in the right-back position instead of his familiar place in front of the backline. Mourinho, then the coach of Real Madrid, brought him to Spain to help him out. The Ghanaian scored a goal in the last match of the La Liga season and dedicated it to Mourinho, the coach who had always kept faith in him.

The two have been seen in recent press conferences referring to each other as ‘Daddy’ and ‘Son’.

#7 Frank Lampard

In all the years of Mourinho’s reign at Chelsea, he got himself a whole new set of loyal soldiers,but managed to retain the ‘soul’ of the previously existing Chelsea by not tinkering with the core of important players –John Terry, Joe Cole and Frank Lampard.

Of the very few players who have affected Mourinho’s ideas as much as he has affected them, Lampard stands tallest. During the 2005-06 season, when both player and coach were enjoying a spell of unprecedented success, Mourinho once professed that Lampard was ‘the greatest player in the world’.

Mourinho said on the eve of the recent Chelsea vs Manchester City match when Lampard scored against his team that Lampard will succeed him as manager of Chelsea. Even if Essien is who he calls son, Lampard is who ‘The Special One’ has annointed his prince.

#8 Eden Hazard

On Mourinho’s return to Chelsea, Eden Hazard has been the most eye-catching player in the Blues lineup. Hazard is a creative and technically gifted attacking midfielder who can create openings with a sudden turn or a sudden burst of pace.

Mourinho is eager to get a new generation of players who know their places in his second stint as Chelsea coach, and the Belgian has proved most equal to the task, before a injury derailed his World Cup 2014 preparations – an injury he has still not shaken off completely.

Comparing Hazard with the young Messi and the young Ronaldo, Mourino said last year,"He still has to improve but he is probably the best young player in the world with legs to go there (to the level of Messi and Ronaldo). Give him time.”

#9 Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho have not shared the best of relationships, but a deadly player-coach duo such as this have been seldom replicated in any other time or place. Mourinho has publicly criticized Ronaldo’s lack of professionalism, but knows only too well the added dimension that the Portuguese star can bring to any team.

In the three years that these two shared the Real Madrid dressing room, Ronaldo was always seen trying to impress Mourinho: tracking back a lot more, and putting more and more off-the-ball pressure on opponents; Mourinho, on the other hand has always played the tough-love master with him, perhaps to keep his ego in check and manageable.

His reply on being asked about the Messi-Ronaldo debate is proof as to how highly he regards his one-time ward. He said that Messi might be the best in the world, but Ronaldo was the best in the universe. The Mourinho-Ronaldo partnership was a similarly cosmic partnership, it was too good to last longer than three years.

#10 Samuel Eto\'o

Samuel Eto’o and Jose Mourinho have had a turbulent love-hate relationship over their careers, the passion of which is rare to be seen between two working professionals.

Early in 2005, Eto’o said that Chelsea going past Barcelona in the Champions League was a ‘disaster for football’, abused Mourinho in the tunnel, and said,“I’d rather sell groundnuts in my village than to play for a pathetic team like Chelsea.” In 2009, Eto’o played under Mourinho at Inter Milan, and Eto’os flagging career as a centre forward was resurrected by a typically shrewd move by Mourinho. Convincing Eto’o of his worth as a consummate team man, he shifted the Cameroonian to the right side of attack in a 4-3-3 formation, and this was a move which was massively beneficial both to club and player.

Eto’o now looks on Mourinho as the best coach he is to have played under, having explained his inconsistency thus –”As an opponent he can p--- you off, you can end up hating him. Yet if he is on your side, you know that he is the best for how he motivates you.”

Eto’o rejoined Mourinho when he took over Chelsea for the second time, taking a major pay-cut in his stride, only for the opportunity of playing under the man he had once said he never would.

#11 Didier Drogba

A lone striker who can outmuscle defenders with his powerful and intrusive approach has always been the source of goals for Mourinho’s sides – most recently, Diego Costa.

Back in 2004,Drogba only had a successful Uefa Cup campaign in his kitty when Mourinho saw in him the striker of his dreams and signed him on for new club Chelsea. Drogba racked up 157 goals for the London club in his eight years there, and his celebrating expression has been a connotative image of Chelsea glory.

Drogba was one of the players who voiced a feeling of being left in the lurch at the way Mourinho was shown the door in 2007. He said,”Many of us used to play first and foremost for the manager. Now we need to forget those feelings and find another source of motivation". He perhaps found another source of motivation till he left for distant shores of China and Turkey after 2012, but the possibility of a reunion between the coach and his favourite striker was too good to refuse, and Drogba is back on the Chelsea bench – watching Costa do prolifically what he used to do some years ago.