Jose Mourinho's Transfer Window Stroke of Mad Genius

Sports fans love to psychoanalyze coaches. The bigger the coach's reputation, the greater the scrutiny. And among the most picked-apart coaches out there—in any sport—is Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho. Mix an ego the size of a minor celestial body with a winning record like Mourinho's, and it becomes difficult to look away. You get the feeling that if you succumb to his gravitational pull and pay close attention, the game's secrets might reveal themselves.

Yesterday was one of those times. Mouinho made a couple of late plays in the January transfer window, selling Andre Schurrle, the 24-year-old German attacking midfielder/winger you all remember from the time he won the World Cup, and replacing him with Juan Cuadrado, a 26-year-old winger who also made an impression at the World Cup; playing sidekick to Colombian superhero James Rodriguez, the two were the tournament's assist and goal leaders, respectively.

Mourinho, perhaps more than any other elite coach, speaks openly and often about the specific traits he looks for in players. This is especially true with his wingers, a position where he has, over time, described a kind of archetype. Many pundits have turned to this archetype as a way to explain the Schurrle/Cuadrado deal: Cuadrado is a better fit than Schurrle. But it's not a great explanation. And it's one that Mourinho, a guy who prides himself on his own flexibility more than almost anything else—he's won titles in four countries, after all—would bristle at.

Mourinho's supposed archetypical winger isn't particularly complicated: it's a player with all the attacking qualities you could hope for—vision, dribbling ability, movement, passing—and a commitment to team defending, through both tactical nuance and physical sacrifice. "A common belief is that Mourinho can't abide players—wingers especially—not tracking back," is how Gary Neville summed it up when writing about an interview he had with Mourinho back in October.

There's a lot of evidence for this. All the way back in 2004, Mourinho called out Joe Cole for his lack of defensive discipline: "Joe can be a regular but he has to improve when the team needs him to be part of a defensive organization." The criticism didn't come after a mistake. Cole had just come off the bench and scored the winning goal against Liverpool, but that's how serious Mourinho was. Cole took the criticism to heart. His game changed, and he became a more important part of Mourinho's team. They went on to win the league together—twice.

Mourinho has challenged other players, too. When Juan Mata didn't accept his new defensive responsibilities, Mourinho shipped him to Manchester United. He called out Eden Hazard last year, sparking speculation that the Belgian would leave Chelsea, but he stayed and has shown more maturity. But perhaps none of Mourinho's players took as much direction as Samuel Eto'o. Once a world class striker, Eto'o, while with Inter, did a more than passable impression of a right back in a couple key wins against Barcelona in the Champions League.

Cuadrado, who plays as a right winger, started his career as a right-sided defender. At first glance, that seems to make him a perfect fit for Mourinho. The problem is that Cuadrado, despite his early career, isn't known as being a particularly skilled or disciplined defender. Rather, he's more like Hazard, an attacking player with incredible dribbling skills, athleticism, and creativity.

This is where that archetype starts to fall apart. It's not as though Schurrle was a particularly naive player. And even if he was, Mourinho has abided his share of no-defense attackers. He had Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid for God's sake. And during his first stint with Chelsea, Arjen Robben was a key player.

It's Mourinho's soundbites about his first Chelsea team—the one that included Robben—rather than the ones about defense and tactical savvy, that shed real light on the Cuadrado deal. Here he is, talking to Neville, comparing his first Chelsea team with this year's team:

"I think the team of 2005 had one plus in relation to this team, which was killer instinct. Every time we could kill matches, we killed matches. I don't remember matches where we had the opponent and didn't kill. It was a team that never gave a chance to the opponent to survive.

"This team is not there. We are more artistic, I believe. We have better control of the game by having the ball, and by knowing how to move between players—the circulation of the ball.

[…]

"You don't see Duff dribbling without a shot. You don't see Robben attack the space without getting a penalty or shooting. We have some guys still in the line between the artistic side and the objective side. We need to kill more matches."

Schurrle's problem wasn't that he lacked discipline, but maybe that he was an artist, not a killer, or not enough of a killer for Mourinho. He's got an eye for goal and great positional sense, but he's not going to break down defenses on his own. It's his attacking style, more than questions about defensive commitment, that led to his departure.

Now Cuadrado will compete for a place in the starting 11 with Willian, who isn't a killer either. But Willian is a work horse and as tactically disciplined as they come. In Cuadrado, Mourinho now has a radically different option, a more direct, dynamic player than Schurrle. This gives Mourinho more flexibility. If the team is up, he can play with Willian and protect the lead. If the team is pushing for a goal, he has Cuadrado. Mourinho wasn't looking for an archetype. He doesn't have one. What he was looking for was a wild card.