Jose Mourinho kicks Ajax while they’re down: ‘They will watch final at home with their philosophy’

Jose Mourinho, a Champions League-winning manager with Porto and Inter Milan, has criticised Ajax‘s adherence to an attacking philosophy in the wake of their dramatic 2-3 loss to Tottenham in their European semi-final second leg.

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Working as a pundit with BeIN Sports, he analysed the match with former Ballon D’Or-winning player and manager Ruud Gullit after the final whistle. Gullit in particular praised Ajax’s attacking play which had seen them defeat Real Madrid and Juventus on the road to the semi-final.

Responding to Ruud Gullit’s discussion of Ajax’s tactical philosophy, Jose Mourinho responded: “Well, they are going to watch the final on television with their philosophy!”

Credit is due

“The philosophy lost against the strategy.”

Jose Mourinho on Tottenham's turnaround against Ajax.#beINMourinho pic.twitter.com/D6jvwdS0p1

— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) May 9, 2019

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When queried on what he meant by that interjection, he discussed his views on Ajax’s defensive structure: “Every team grows up, you need that base, you need that philosophy, you need that style of play adapted to the quality of the players.

“Ajax deserve all the credit for that and all the admiration of people like us who love football, and we give them the credit they deserve.

“But football is a sporting battle and in battles you need strategy and to win matches, especially special matches, for special matches you need sometimes not to be tied to your philosophy. You need sometimes to go against your philosophies to win a football match and I think if Ajax, in the second half, hide their weaknesses better, but everybody knows their weaknesses, they have to cope with that.

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“We saw many example in their attacking situations, we had other situations where Blind and De Ligt were outside. The basic thing you do when you have an advantage is to keep your balance all the time, never imbalanced.

“The balance starts with the defensive line in position and after that a certain number of players always behind the ball. But they stuck with their philosophy, they played the second half like they were playing against Vitesse in the Dutch league. They played like it was a group phase game, or one more game in their own league.”

Maturity issue

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Mourinho added: “My thoughts are that we thought Ajax had achieved a certain level of maturity, and they didn’t. They showed in the second half that there is still naivety in that team, and I think that the philosophy lost against the strategy.

“The philosophy brought Ajax to a disposition of playing fantastically well and arriving with one and a half feet in the final, but then the strategy won.

Blind couldn’t cope with Llorente. The defensive line couldn’t cope with the long ball. Llorente’s chest was the link for everything, and strategy beat philosophy. But in the end, for us and for everyone, the other side of the cameras, as you were saying – two unbelievable football nights and two lessons for life. In life, a lesson coming from football – in life, anything is possible.”