“The rule was”- John Terry recalls curious Jose Mourinho strategy to help Chelsea win games

John Terry explains the Jose Mourinho strategy used by Chelsea to win games

Former Chelsea captain John Terry discussed how Jose Mourinho’s brilliant thinking enabled Chelsea to dominate their opponents throughout the games.

Mourinho is one of Chelsea’s greatest managers in history. He oversaw 320 games with us, winning 204, drawing 65, and losing 51. Mourinho helped Chelsea win three Premier League as he also won three League Cups, one FA Cup, and one Community Shield.

As the England international became a mainstay at Chelsea, the Portuguese manager played a crucial part in assisting Terry in developing into one of the top defenders in the Premier League.

Chelsea legendary defender John Terry.
Legendary Chelsea defender John Terry.

The defender described how Mourinho instructed him to collide with Garry Cahill and collapse to the floor as plan of time wasting

As time ran out, the play was unable to resume because the referee was unable to instruct two players to leave the field for medical attention.

He went on to describe how Mourinho was fixated on it and didn’t care about anything else except wins in an interview with beIN Sports (h/t Express.UK), and he said:

“Just to win. He didn’t care about anything else. He did anything to get an edge. I remember, the rule was, if we were 1-0 up and the ball got delivered into the box, if two defenders went up together and both went down on the floor after, you didn’t have to go off the field of play.”

“So for the last 10 or 15 minutes, he would sit Gary Cahill and me down and say, When the ball comes in the box, make sure you both go down—bump into each other, and both go down because you can’t both go off.”

Is Mourinho Chelsea's greatest ever manager?
Is Mourinho Chelsea’s greatest-ever manager?

However, the former manager of Inter Milan implemented various strategies at Chelsea, one of which was known as “park the bus,” whereby the Blues would score a goal and then defend their advantage with everything they had.

Many managers employed this tactic in an effort to irritate their opponents, but Mourinho truly had an astute mind because his team only allowed 15 goals all season long—a record that is yet to be broken.

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We’ve had many managers since the Portuguese icon – some good, some not so good – but none of them have quite made Chelsea a frightening force as they were under Mourinho. He may not have won the UEFA Champions League with us, but that’s no way to measure his greatness here. It was visible on the field – in the eyes of the opponent when they came out to face Chelsea.

He is now at AS Roma doing his thing, while we have Graham Potter at the helm. The Englishman is not really the enigmatic, trash-talking and expressive personality that Mourinho was, but he has his own way of getting things done. Hopefully, he is the right fit for us at a time we are searching for an identity.