Livescore
Can Mourinho Take AS Roma to Champions League?
Jose Mourinho is a legendary football manager with 2 Champions League titles, 2 UEFA Europa League titles, and numerous other trophies. Countless fans follow his career and have been betting on his teams for close to 2 decades. But over the last several years, his employers have been less than thrilled with his results. His adventure at Manchester United ended prematurely, in the 3rd year, after just 17 Premier League games. He then went to Tottenham, where he spent even less time (just 17 months!). Now he’s attempting the impossible again, this time with AS Roma.
Jose Mourinho’s Previous Experience in Serie A
In many ways, it’s understandable why Jose Mourinho chose to return to Italy after being sacked by Tottenham. The Italian championship offered him the best experience of his career as a football manager. During his two years with Inter Milano, back in 2008 – 2010, he won absolutely every important trophy in Italy, as well as the Champions League.
Mourinho once said that playing in Serie A was the most challenging experience of his career and he stated that every match is really difficult not just because of how good players are, but also because of how well-trained managers are. From a strategic standpoint, you need to do intense and detailed preparations for every game. Otherwise, you don’t stand a chance.
With Inter Milano, Mourinho managed to do something extremely challenging. The club hadn’t won anything significant at the international level in a long time and Roberto Mancini, the previous manager of Inter, had won the Serie A multiple times before leaving. This left Mourinho in a delicate position. On the one hand, he was expected to continue to win trophies in Serie A. But on the other hand, he also needed to conquer the world. And that meant winning the Champions League.
2008 - 2009
Mourinho did not falter. He won Serie A in 2008 – 2009, continuing the excellent run of his predecessor. But in the Champions League, he got eliminated by Manchester United in the Round of 16. This was a disappointing result, but later it became obvious why it occurred. Manchester’s run ended in the Final, which they lost against Messi’s FC Barcelona.
Given the short amount of time he had had to prepare, the board of Inter understood that it was not realistic for them to expect him to win the Champions League in his first season at the club. But still had great expectations for season 2.
2009 - 2010
In his second year at Inter Milano, Mourinho won Serie A with a record of 24 W – 10 D – 4 L and a total of 82 points, just 2 points ahead of AS Roma. Fortunately for him, his direct rival lost against Sampdoria in the 35th round, while his team finished the race with 5 consecutive wins.
During the same season, Inter also won the Italian Cup, defeating AS Roma in the Final (1 – 0). And most importantly, the 2009 – 2010 season brought Inter Milano its first Champions League trophy in many decades, bringing tears to every Inter fan and Mourinho himself. It was a very emotional moment and a challenging Final, which was won against Bayern thanks to 2 goals scored by Diego Milito.
Mourinho’s New Adventure in Serie A
More than a decade after his first success in Serie A, Mourinho is now trying to repeat his performance with the club that used to be his main rival: AS Roma. The only problem, however, is that this team did not finish the previous season at the top as the league’s champion (as Inter had done in 2007 – 2008). Instead, its record for the previous season is quite poor: 18 W – 8 D – 12 L. AS Roma scored just 62 points in total, while Inter, the champion, had 92, while Juventus, the 4th place participant, had 78.
The difference between where AS Roma was before Mourinho and where the fans hoped it would be after his signing is huge. But somehow, the legendary football manager had a spectacular start: 5 wins, 0 draws, and 2 losses in the first 7 matches. But now, 5 more matches later, the team is clearly struggling to continue its great run.
AS Roma had 1 win, 1 draw, and 3 losses over the past month and people are starting to question Mourinho’s leadership. Although to be fair, his team is only 3 points behind Atalanta, which currently occupies 4th place with 22 points.
The next month will be decisive for Mourinho’s team. Thanks to his system of play, the offense is clearly working but the defense is struggling quite a bit. And in Italy, that’s unacceptable. Italian football and Serie A are known for the formidable defensive tactics that allow teams to simply defend all game and then score one goal on the counter-attack. Mourinho loves that kind of football as well. But he’s yet to find the success formula with AS Roma.