Mourinho Changed The Way I Thought About Football – Terry

John Terry has come out to say that Jose Mourinho’s first great Chelsea team would beat the current Manchester City side running away with the Premier League title under Pep Guardiola.

“I would say 2004-05 or 2005-06, those first two sides when Mourinho arrived at the club [would beat City],” Terry said during a recent appearance on TV.

“We were never afraid to say: ‘They’ll have more possession than us,’ but we were set, comfortable. The full-backs [William Gallas and Paulo Ferreira] would always go up the pitch, and [Claude] Makelele would always sit, which was great for us centre-backs.

“But we had great legs, great power, and we had the big man up front. Didier [Drogba] made such a difference. We had that ball into Didier, and he could hold it up, with the runners off him [Damien Duff and Arjen Robben], and [Frank] Lampard would be box-to-box game after game.”

He paid tribute to Mourinho and said he is the best coach he has worked under in his career.

“He was the first one to come and revolutionise it at Chelsea,” Terry said. “He would be the first in, 8 a.m., he’d be the one setting the cones out, and you’d come in as players and he’d be out there, if it was pouring with rain, getting his session organised.

“His standards were so high, and he demanded from everyone. The players, staff, people inside the medical team, everyone at the football club. He was on everything. His intensity and attention to detail was incredible.

“He 100 percent changed the way I thought about football. In his first session, the lads came in and we thought: ‘Wow, that’s a proper session.'”