REVEALED: Pages From Jose Mourinho’s Match Tactics Book

Those of you who study Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho closely will have noticed that, when he isn't chewing gum, yelling, or shooting smouldering looks at people, he likes to write a lot of stuff in his Real-branded notepad during matches.

Spanish telly station Cuatro recovered one of the notebooks Mourinho ripped up and discarded after his side's 3-1 win over Hercules on Sunday, and have revealed to the world the pearls of wisdom inside.

As the video above shows… it's just boring managerial stuff presented as illegible chicken scratches. Still, it's quite interesting to get inside the brain of a world class football manager.

The note at 2:16 in the video reads:

…Attacks Counter attack P Penetration against dead ball.

Pace of the ball and movement tr9 [David Trezeguet]

Time

While at 2:45, Mourinho writes:

Fast pitch, penetration

dead ball change right wing attacks

Penetration tr9

The equation at the end is likely to refer to 38 La Liga games, 13 Champions League games (including the final) and 6 Copa del Rey games (which would be up to and including the quarter-finals.)

For those who need a reminder as to why British managers struggle to make it on the international stage, here are Paul Ince's match notes for comparison.

This post, written by Richard Gilzene, is republished with permission from The Spoiler. Go there often if you like soccer stuff.