Last night I sat down and watched the Europa League game between Porto and Villarreal. And I didn't regret it. What a phenomenal game it was. After a dismal first half where they were losing 1-0, Porto came back in the second half and scored 5 goals, winning 5-1. Falcao scored 4 of them, but more importantly, this matched showed the quality of Andre Villas-Boas, the young Porto manager.
Interestingly enough, he has never played a game of competitive football in his life and from a very young age made his way up the ranks of football management. He from one former great, Bobby Robson and one current great, Jose Mourinho. Many have compared him to Jose Mourinho and it is something that is very easy to do, seeing as they're both Portuguese and both made their name with Porto.
However the fact of the matter is that they are totally different managers. Villas Boas plays a very attacking kind of football, and his team play very high, like in the first half last night. Mourinho on the other hand is very defensive and if he wants he can prevent the other team from scoring a goal.
Villas Boas has won 45 games in 52 matches since joining Porto, and that is really quite a ridiculous statistic. Only six games lost since joining Porto. That's better than Mourinho at the time. Rumour has it that Liverpool are looking at him for taking over next season, even though I do think that they should stick with Kenny Dalglish, just to keep the fans on their side.
So, Villas Boas is probably a future great of the world of football management, but I still think that if he and Mourinho were to manage against each other, the latter would emerge victorious, as, ultimately, defensive football always triumphs.
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