Portuguese ensures that more giants play into his hands
By Tony Cascarino
Eventually, there comes a point where it is clearly not coincidence. Chelsea did to Paris Saint-Germain last night what they have done, in the year and a half since José Mourinho’s return, to Manchester United, Manchester City (twice) and Liverpool (twice). They outfoxed them. Outsmarted them. And they did it, effectively, with the blessing of the man meant to be locked in combat with the Portuguese. Nobody understands the psychology of football better than Mourinho. One of the most striking aspects of the first half in the Parc des Princes last night was how friendly it was. This PSG team are not exactly a horrible, intimidating bunch — and it is no longer a horrible, intimidating ground — but Chelsea seemed to be doing all they could to take whatever edge there might have been off the game.
It was most notable with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Every time he went down, across went a Chelsea player, picked him up, gave him a cuddle. Told him what a great star he is. Because Mourinho is Mourinho, it was tempting to wonder if he had told his players to draw PSG’s sting. Play nice. Make them feel special. Soothe their egos, pat them on the back. Allow themselves to be seduced by their own glamour. Superstars do not work, after all. They are too good for that. That would be just the sort of psychological edge that makes Mourinho a match-winner, a trophy winner. But that was not the most important trap the Chelsea manager set in Paris. No, that honour fell to his ability to make his opposite number do precisely what he wants them to do.
We saw it at Old Trafford. We have seen it in successive years at the Etihad, and at Anfield too. Teams who set up to match and mirror Chelsea, to go like for like all over the pitch. That is what Laurent Blanc did, just as it was what Brendan Rodgers and Manuel Pellegrini and even Louis van Gaal did. They looked at their sides and deployed them to nullify their opponents, keep it tight, try and strike when you can. Just like Chelsea. There is just one problem: Chelsea are rather better at being Chelsea than anyone else. That way leads to ruin: if you do that, Mourinho will beat you, and in a fashion that quite frequently involves a goal from a set-piece, or at least from Branislav Ivanovic. PSG escaped with a draw — like City, like United — only because, belatedly, in the second half they changed their approach.
Strange as it is to say it, there is a lesson for the Champions League elite at Bradford City. Now, that was obviously a one-off, as all great upsets are. Could Bradford do it again? Probably not. But their blueprint offers a clue to bigger, better teams: give Chelsea problems they are not expecting and they can be hurt. Get players forward. Try and get at them. Have a bit of courage. You have to have the confidence to be yourself. If you try to beat them at their own game, you cannot win.
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