No one plays games quite like Jose Mourinho.
Players and managers are the usual targets of the Portuguese' psychological plays, but in the last few months that has changed. The man in the hottest seat in world football has seemingly moved away from the likes of Pep Guardiola and Manuel Pellegrini and instead taken aim of the entire Chelsea fan base. Or - to be more precise - the ones inside Stamford Bridge every other week.
After a home game against local rivals QPR at the start of November, Mourinho claimed that playing at home felt "like playing in an empty stadium". It was a startling claim, bearing in mind these were the fans who have vocally lauded the return of 'The Special One' since August last year.
In what appeared to be another dig at Chelsea fans, after the first leg of the Capital One Cup semi final at Anfield, Mourinho said that if Stamford Bridge could "give 25% of the atmosphere at Anfield" they would safely progress to the final. As it happened, Chelsea did beat Liverpool and progress to the final, but there was still somewhat of a sour taste in the mouth of fans in spite of Mourinho's apologies.
But this is just one half of the games the Portuguese tactician is playing.
Mourinho and the FA have never exactly seen eye-to-eye. Countless fines, touchline bans and disputes have ensured that relations between the Blues' boss and the leading figures in the English game started from a very low base at the beginning of the season. But Mourinho took it one step further.
The Portuguese has never been one to hold back. Be it poor decisions or poor performances, Mourinho says it how he sees it - regardless of anyone else's view. It's perhaps one of his greatest strengths; his players know exactly where they stand with him, neatly summed up with left back Filipe Luis: "It is true that Mourinho deals equally in love and hate".
But at times it also seems like one of his few weaknesses. From the outside, Mourinho simply does not seem to learn. Regardless of fines and charges, he continues to make comments that, as the FA define it, "bring the Game into disrepute". So once deciding that calling out the individual performances of officials wasn't enough, Mourinho went as far as to claim that there is an active campaign against the side who currently sit top of the Premier League table. Severing the last possible ties to the suited officials of the FA sufficiently achieved, he somehow managed to go even further.
As if taking on Chelsea fans and the FA wasn't enough, Mourinho took aim of Sky and their pundits, blaming them for the ban of Diego Costa. Against league regulations, he refused pre and post match interviews and denied the Sky team access to training facilities on Deadline Day (an act, it should be mentioned, not unique to the London side).
It's a battle that is seemingly impossible to win. One man against the football authorities, media giants and endeared fans. Even King Leonidas might be tempted to call it a day when faced with those sorts of odds.
So why do it?
The answer became evident in the wake of the FA's decision to uphold the ban on Diego Costa, meaning he would miss the vital clash against league rivals Manchester City. In the first minutes of the match, cries of "DIEGO, DIEGO, DIEGO" echoed across the Blues' home ground. Those formerly quiet home fans were showing their solidarity with the banned Spaniard who had endeared himself to them with an explosive start to the season and hunger for victory only matched by his manager.
Twitter too was filled with support for the striker and opposition to the decision made by the FA. Whilst some fans felt that Chelsea had been hard done by over the years, Mourinho's public claim gave them the license pursue it even further.
Whether an actual campaign exists is, for this purpose, irrelevant; Mourinho knows that these extreme lengths will only distance himself further from the corporations he wishes to challenge.
Instead, what Mourinho has done is instil an island mentality in the playing and supporting levels of Chelsea Football Club. Be you a fan, a player or a member of the coaching team, Mourinho has played the field set for him and created an "us against them" approach for every game, every training session and every fan sitting in the stands. It's the sort of mindset that wins silverware year in, year out.
It's also the mindset that builds teams. This island mentality has been fed into Mourinho's sides since he began his career. Take the team he left after leaving the Blues in 2007. The spine of that side won the Champions League final in 2012, and not on merit - but on sheer determination and an unbreakable spirit.
Interestingly, it is argued that this was the approach that saw his time at Real Madrid come to a sour end. Big players and big dressing room egos fractured his collective approach to a season and when results started to suffer, the cracks got bigger. Thankfully however, this time Mourinho already has some former players who he can depend on.
Over the past decade, managerial changes have meant Chelsea have never been able to discover their own footballing identity. They have never played the same way for more than two consecutive seasons, and much of the playing staff change each year. But perhaps it is too easy to define sides by their style. But what many often fail to realise is that the leaders in the team rarely changed. For years, the likes of Cech, Terry, Cole, Drogba, Lampard and Ivanovic provided the stability that managers couldn't. They were able to keep the same mentality within the dressing room and is arguably the reason that the London side have been so successful in recent years.
Another big promoter of a psychological approach to each game was Sir Alex Ferguson. Simple things like running to take corners and throw-ins mounted the pressure on opposition teams. His berating of officials made them scared to make incorrect decisions. Be it morally right or wrong is another question. What cannot be contested is that it added another dimension to a hugely successful set of teams.
The fact of the matter is that the best teams know how to find a balance between playing style and mental approach. Playing free-flowing football that is beautiful to watch is not enough. Having technically brilliant forwards who mesmerise defenders is not enough. In the same way, having a team of players ready to track and defend for 90 minutes solid doesn't guarantee a win. Equilibrium has to be reached.
With this in mind, recall Germany's 7-1 triumph of Brazil during the World Cup. 90 minutes gone, 7-nil to the good at the time and Oscar manages to squeeze the ball past Manuel Neuer. What followed was scenes of a furious goalkeeper and captain, waving fists and fingers at the defence who had failed to do their job. A lot of teams would simply have picked the ball up an taken it to the centre circle again, but the mentality of the team meant they would not accept complacency regardless of the score.
Love him or loathe him, Jose Mourinho sees so much more to football than what happens on the pitch. What we have witnessed this season was perhaps his most risky yet, and only time will tell whether the ends justify the means. Whilst the Stamford Bridge atmosphere is somewhat lucklustre, riling home fans never provides a sure result. What is certain however is that if it works, Chelsea will be an even more formidable side than the one we have seen so far this year.
Agree? Disagree? What's your opinion? Leave a comment below or tweet me @crunchingcelery
Another big promoter of a psychological approach to each game was Sir Alex Ferguson. Simple things like running to take corners and throw-ins mounted the pressure on opposition teams. His berating of officials made them scared to make incorrect decisions. Be it morally right or wrong is another question. What cannot be contested is that it added another dimension to a hugely successful set of teams.
The fact of the matter is that the best teams know how to find a balance between playing style and mental approach. Playing free-flowing football that is beautiful to watch is not enough. Having technically brilliant forwards who mesmerise defenders is not enough. In the same way, having a team of players ready to track and defend for 90 minutes solid doesn't guarantee a win. Equilibrium has to be reached.
With this in mind, recall Germany's 7-1 triumph of Brazil during the World Cup. 90 minutes gone, 7-nil to the good at the time and Oscar manages to squeeze the ball past Manuel Neuer. What followed was scenes of a furious goalkeeper and captain, waving fists and fingers at the defence who had failed to do their job. A lot of teams would simply have picked the ball up an taken it to the centre circle again, but the mentality of the team meant they would not accept complacency regardless of the score.
