Terry reveals ‘the rule’ that Mourinho told Chelsea players that even the refs didn’t know
John Terry has provided an insight into Jose Mourinho’s style of management by revealing a “rule” that he told his Chelsea players about that even the referees didn’t know.
Mourinho made a huge impression on English football when he swapped Porto for the Premier League in 2004, taking over as the new Chelsea manager.
Speaking in his first interview, Mourinho said: “Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.”
The Portuguese boss went on to manage Inter Milan and Real Madrid before returning to Stamford Bridge, where he won three Premier League titles over his two spells at the club.
Former England and Chelsea centre-back Terry was part of all three sides that won the three titles under Mourinho and he has given an insight into some of Mourinho’s techniques.
Terry claimed that Mourinho explained a number of ways to his Chelsea side to get slight advantages over the opposition, with the former defender describing one time the referee even had to check the rule book over one of Mourinho’s bits of advice.
“Just to win. Didn’t care about anything else, he did anything to get an edge,” Terry explained on beIN Sports‘ World Cup coverage.
“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 last 10 or 15 minutes, he would sit me and Gary Cahill down and go: ‘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.
“We’d never heard of that rule ever. So ball comes over in the last 10 minutes, head it away, Gaz goes down and I think ‘I better go down’. So I dropped to the floor and the ref said ‘you two off the pitch’. I said ‘no that’s not the rule, ask the linesman’. He said: ‘yeah, yeah you’re right, stay on.'”
Terry added: “Mourinho was so far ahead with those little bits and you’re talking small margins and the best managers find those little margins. Incredible.”
Despite famously ‘parking the bus’ on a number of occasions to get results, Terry also recalls times when Mourinho would urge his side to go for the jugular.
Terry c0ntinued: “If we were two or three goals up at half time against certain teams – Spurs being one of them – he’d say ‘go and kill them, go and make them suffer today.”
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