Perhaps the strongest commonality between the Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho eras at Manchester United has been the style of play, and the criticism that naturally follows. The extremely defensive, non-attacking style of football that we have seen during both regimes has, of course, been widely criticized for lacking in entertainment value.
Even some die hard United supporters will tell you- if you want exciting, high scoring football to consume, then go watch Liverpool. Ahead of the FA Cup Final tomorrow, Manchester United’s style/game plan, and the excitement level, or lack there of that it provides came up during both manager press conferences.
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte wisely and expectedly dodged the question about United’s games being boring. His response went in a different direction that was more towing the company line, while Jose Mourinho confronted the idea head on.
“I still don’t understand these words of ‘entertaining’,” responded Mourinho as he expressed his disagreement with this reoccurring narrative.
“You think 6-0 is entertaining? I don’t think so.”
The reporter who asked the question then responded with “if you win, yes.”
Mourinho then continued: “I think entertaining is emotion until the end, is open result until the end, is everybody on their seats until the end, both dugouts nervous and tense with the unpredictability of the result, that for me as a football lover, that’s entertaining, so I think it’s going to be entertaining.”
It will be interesting tomorrow to see how United come out, and in what style of tactics they choose to employ. For both the Red Devils and Chelsea, this will be the last opportunity to acquire a trophy this season.
“When I analyze the work I did and the effort I put and everything we all did in the club – and that includes the most important persons in the club which are the players – I’m not going to analyze them because of one very important match,” said Mourinho as he summarized the season.
“But I know the effort [that has been put in] and I’m not going to change my analysis of the season because of one match, not at all.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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