Apotheosis, are you deliberately ignoring Özil while feeling sorry for Kaká? Özil played regularly. He's an attacking midfielder very much in the mould of Kaká. Can't really play the two of them together and still fit Ronaldo and Di María in, can you?
Ozil is employed in a position where any risks he takes, have the most minimal effect. You would never see Mourinho play Kaka or Ozil play where Fergie has been recently playing Giggs, that's my point Siorac.
Also: Mourinho never played 4-4-2? So what? Since when has 4-4-2 become the quintessential attacking formation? It's no more attacking than 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 - that depends on the attitude and the mindset, not the formation.
You know my point, we play with 4-4-2 because it is our most attacking formation considering the players we have. To generalise was a little mischievious on your part because we both know a formation can be varied and adapted to be either defensive or attacking depending on the personnel employed within it.
You're contradicting yourself: you say Mourinho doesn't let flair players play their natural game but also say that the only reason Madrid play with flair is because of the quality of the players. How does that work? Doesn't Mourinho restrict them? Would he curb our players' natural abilities if he joined us? Would he - shock, horror - play Rooney out wide in big games, or what?
It's not a contradiction, you totally misunderstood the point Siorac. When you have great players they are obviously capable of great football, my point was the moments of quality are a by product of great players not as the direct result of attacking emphasis placed by the manager. If Mourinho took a few more risks with his attacking players we would see much more from his team than an occasional counter attack.
I do not know why he couldn't have had more of a go at Barca, Madrid's attacking talents must surely be good enough to cause Barca's defence some serious problems.
Fergie has moved Rooney to the left to accommodate others, not to restrict his attacking abilities, there is a difference.
You write that "if flair players can adapt their game to fit within this new restrictive structure, they are kept. If not they either become impact players or leave". Well that's precisely what happened with Nani: he's become an impact player for the biggest games because tactically and defensively he's not good enough, unlike Valencia. Who is a guaranteed starter in a big game, Park or Nani?
No again you miss the point, there is a difference between picking players who better fulfill specific roles than attempting to change or restrict a player's natural tendencies.
My argument is that Mourinho does not start the players he uses for impact. Nani regularly starts games for Utd, and Fergie opts for Valencia and Park because they are better defensively than Nani. He does not attemtp to turn Nani into Valencia or even expect him to do a similar job, He picks horses for courses, he does not attempt to change the horse to suit his course!
Can you not see you have strengthened my point. Mourinho would not use Nani at all apart from the last 10 mins, this is what he did with both Robben and J. Cole and he will do the same with Kaka.
And I'm sorry but Özil, Di María, Ronaldo and the likes very much played to their own natural ability throughout the season, with plenty of flair and panache and nothing suggested that Mourinho wanted them to become grafters like Park. Yeah, they parked the bus against Barcelona - after being bold in the very first Clásico at the Nou Camp and getting tonked 5-0.
And while I admit that Mourinho, in England, tended to somewhat overorganize his team against the lesser lights, in the big games he is actually a bit more courageous than Fergie. Not against Barcelona, obviously but Barcelona are a different animal.
Not really, Madrid are playing the majority of the season against teams who have much smaller squads and considerably less resources, so he can afford to be a little more adventurous. There is only one big game in Spain and Mourinho has not attempted to win any of them. He has been thrashed and then simply attempted to nullify the opposition. He has a bigger squad than Barca and some seriously good attacking options, how much did we see of that in any of the 4 games between the 2?
I see no reason why the self proclaimed 'special one' cannot be expected to do a little more than stick centre halves in midfield and have Ronaldo as the only serious attacking option.
Even Ronaldo was openly critical of mourinho's negativity and so he should be. When you are one of the best players in the world, playing in one of the best squads, with one of the best managers, such an admission of inferiority is unforgivable imo. Mourinho should have been telling his players that we can beat Barca and making the best possible use of the considerable talent at his disposal.
He got lucky in one game against Barca, but the rest of the games they did not win becuase there was little attempt made to do so. you may think that Fergie made an error in thinking he could playe some football against Barca, but would you rather he publicly admit with his tactics that we are completely inferior as mourinho did. Mourinho always goes on about how much he believes in his players but when it came to the crunch he believed in Barca's much more. I'm glad Fergie at least showed he had belief in our players however it eventually turned out.
