Mourinho's lessons from El Clásico

Jose Mourinho suffered the worst-ever defeat as a club coach in Monday nights El Clásico as his Real Madrid were trashed 5-0 by FC Barcelona in a clinical display of tiki-taka football. And maybe the 'Special One' has lost some of his aura of immortality and has become a little more human with this defeat against his former employers.

But Mourinho was himself after the game as he shrugged off the defeat, saying Barcalona were the 'finished article' whereas his team were still under construction, but that still leaves him with the problem of how to play against his former club further down in the season.

The Portuguese knows that he came to Real Madrid as the messiah's who would give the club trophies and especially continental success in the UEFA Champions League. And surely Mourinho loved that feeling and appreciation. Now he has to learn that life and football isn't just a one-way street...

Real Madrid have spend over 300 Millions Euros over the last couple of summers to bring in top talent like Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Mesut Özil; but Barcelona have one of the best youth development systems in the world and as Mourinho said they have build their team over the years. But with the weight of expectations and investments Mourinho will not have years to build a new Real Madrid, but only month's maybe even weeks as public pressure will be there for the team to deliver.

Mourinho's style of defensive football is also not going to work in Madrid as Real fans expect not only good results, but also quality attacking football. Mourinho has the ingredients for that, but against Barca he took a defensive stance like with Inter Milan a few month's back, only this time it backfired. Also his players lost their head a few times, so he will have to ensure that under pressure they keep their heads.

A lot of work remains for Mourinho to make Real Madrid a trophy winning unit like FC Porto, FC Chelsea and Inter Milan. But the Portuguese has the quality and knowledge as coach to deliver it. But if he will be able to do it at Real Madrid, one of the most difficult clubs to manage in world football, we will have to wait and see...


UEFA bans Mourinho

But the bad news don't end here for Mourinho and Real Madrid. UEFA has banned Mourinho from the touchline for two UEFA competition matches - the second of which is suspended for three years and a personal fince of 40,000 Euros, while the club has been fined 120,000 Euros. The players got away with no suspensions, but with financial fines. Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos have to pay 20,000 Euros, Iker Casillas has to pay 10,000 Euros and Jerzy Dudek has to pay 5,000 Euros.

The one-match bans automatically handed to Alonso and Ramos for the dismissals will stand, meaning they and Mourinho will consequently only miss the dead rubber against Auxerre.