Real Madrid manager makes his players think their fates are bound up with his, writes PAUL HAYWARD
JOSE MOURINHO kept up a barrage of instruction until Real Madrid scored for the fifth time on aggregate in this tie, berating players for losing possession, jabbing his hands at spaces where he thought his midfielders ought to be and scribbling notes which he then filed in the pocket of his cashmere overcoat. Why the stress, with a 4-0 first-leg lead? Because Barcelona have been seen on the edge of town.
Madrid, that is, not London, where Spain’s top two teams have ended the hopes of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in this Champions League campaign. This weekend Barca motor to the Bernabeu for the first of four Catalan-Castillian barnburners inside 18 days. Even without such provocations Mourinho always turns snake-serious around this time. He knows organisational rigour alone will not carry him to a third Champions League title as a coach, or peg back Barcelona in La Liga.
On these spring nights you see him demand intense dedication from his players: a mania to win. Under this psychological pressure from the bench his teams form an indivisible fighting force and take one hell of a lot of shifting.
This is the effect the Real coach was striving for as Cristiano Ronaldo started in a strong XI who must have had one eye on Barcelona’s visit on Saturday and the Copa del Rey final between the two great institutions in Valencia next Wednesday night.
The composition of the Real bench alone said all royalist forces have been ordered to report for duty as the struggles escalate. Kaka, Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain and Angel Di Maria all peered out from Tottenham’s luxury pitch-side seating as Emmanuel Adebayor sought to persuade Mourinho he is the big man for the even bigger occasion.
Behind the haughty exterior Real have probably written off the league. The Spanish Cup would be a useful catch but the Champions League urn is the one they really want: the prize Mourinho was hired to repatriate. Lately he has made a point of pledging himself to the Bernabeu for more than this one year. After the flirtations come the fidelity. This most mischievous of jobseekers knows he pushed his application to return to England as far as it would go and needed to renew his vows in Madrid, if only to stop his players thinking he would be off in the summer and so reducing their commitment to him.
It was a dangerous game he played with all those interviews saying England was a spiritual home to which he would one day return. Mourinho has never had a problem inspiring loyalty in his players but there is a change in chemistry when multi-millionaires start expecting a new man to come in. So the time had come to get busy again in the coaching zone and roll out his full repertoire of beseeching and reproachful gestures.
With their nine European titles Real tend to believe the big Cup is only ever out on loan, like something from the Prado. But the last of them came in 2002: a time-chasm Mourinho was employed to fill. Neither side will have regarded it as an ideal match, because Mourinho demands autonomy and likes tactics while the Real board think of football as a spectacle that generates economic and political power if you design it well enough.
From this uneasy marriage Real are challenging on three fronts for the first time at this point of the season since 1999-2000; and though Barcelona continue to monopolise the style pages the world’s most expensive footballer wears a Real shirt and is holding his own against Lionel Messi.
With his soft goal 49 minutes into this second leg, Ronaldo moved to 72 goals in 79 appearances for Los Blancos and to 43 for club and country this season. This latest strike from the Portuguese, which Heurelho Gomes spilled into his own net, was Real’s 900th goal in European competition.
These are mighty numbers, but for Mourinho to become the first coach to win the Champions League with three different clubs he will need a new tactical template in the two semi-finals against Barcelona and maximum input from more than just Ronaldo. He will need Mesut Ozil (still only 22) to be the equal of Xavi and Andres Iniesta and Real to impose their own game rather than firefighting all over the park.
Losing Ricardo Carvalho to suspension for the first leg after he picked up a caution here may prove pivotal. However, there remains a deeply tenacious streak in Mourinho, which he transmits to his players in an effort to make them think their fates are bound up with his. This is his message now, with Barcelona approaching in the night. It helps, though, if you can take off Ronaldo and send on Kaka, then add Benzema to the blend. Quality everywhere.
* Guardian Service