Jose Mourinho has morphed from the Special One into the “Foreign One”, with the Portuguese calling for Fenerbahce to start playing “anti-football”.
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Ex-Chelsea & Real Madrid boss now in TurkeyHas taken in six games at the helmLearning quickly about demands of new divisionWHAT HAPPENED?
Former Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter and Manchester United boss Mourinho is back in club management after heading to Turkey. He admits to experiencing a period of “cultural” adaptation at the start of his reign in Istanbul.
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Mourinho has taken in six games at the helm, but four of those have been Champions League qualifiers and only two in the Turkish Super Lig. He is learning quickly that dark arts are embraced in that division, with Fener throwing away two points in a dramatic 2-2 draw with Goztepe last time out.
WHAT MOURINHO SAID
Mourinho admits that he still has much to learn about football in Turkey, telling reporters: “The passion, the love, the enthusiasm matches with my passion with football, totally. Then there are other things that are out of my control, [they] are cultural. It looks like it's for me to adapt and not vice versa. I am the one that arrived, I am the foreign one. I'm not going to change the state of things. I need to adapt… I am not a magician, I am experienced.”
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He went on to say of Fener needing to adopt a similar approach to their rivals when it comes to wasting time and frustrating opponents: “Too naive or too poetic, in a league that is not poetic. I always say when we are winning at half-time, ambition and kill the game… The anti-football in some other countries they call it being clever, I think they [Fener players] have to be clever too. My players have to do what other teams do to us. They need to take time. They need to go on the floor. They need to stop the game. They need to simulate injuries. They need to do what every team does.”