Jose Mourinho has defended his reputation of playing ‘park the bus’ football, describing the perception of his style as a ‘lie’.
The former Manchester United boss was asked about comments made by Gary Neville that his style wasn’t suitable at Old Trafford, and pointed to his successes at both Chelsea and Inter Milan as evidence those opinions are incorrect.
“You are in the direction of ‘a lie told a thousand times becomes truth,’ and it is not true,” he said on BeIn Sports.
“When people remember the incredible match that Inter played in Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final with 10 men, people say that was a masterclass of defensive football but was two buses parked.
“You don’t say that two weeks before [it was] Inter 3 Barcelona 1. We put ourselves in the position to go there and defend that result, playing with 10 men against the best team in the world, because two weeks before we beat them 3-1 and it should be four or five.”
“When I came to Chelsea for the second time and we were champions, we were champions when we were not the best team in the country,” Mourinho added.
“To be champion when you are not the best team in the country you have to be more strategic than philosopher.
“And then, when Chelsea was champion again with Antonio Conte, Chelsea was a counter-attacking team – very defensive and phenomenal on the counter-attack.
“Once more they did it by the strategic point of view. But, because it was Antonio and not me, you didn’t mention it.”
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