You have to be very, very good to be a good bus driver: Mourinho

Mourinho was in typical quirky mood when was speaking at BT Sports’ new channel launch

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho coined the phrase ‘Park the bus’ back in 2004 with reference to the defensive tactics adopted by Martin Jol’s Spurs when they held Mourinho’s Chelsea side to a 0-0 draw. The term has widely in use and has even used to criticise Mourinho for his negative tactics against better footballing teams.

This year again, his Chelsea were accused of playing defensively and trying to grind out results towards the end of the this season’s premier league title race. Speaking at an event in London, he defended his tactics of ‘Parking the bus’ in a comical way.

“First of all I have a lot of respect for the bus drivers and you have to be very, very good to be a good bus driver,” a smiling Mourinho said to the assembled audience.

"To park the bus, you need help to park the bus. Without that help, you will crash the bus. So a bit of credit go to the bus drivers, or the managers who know how to park the bus.”

He justified ‘parking the bus’ tactics by saying that football is a game of moments and when your team is not playing well, you need to rely on such tactics to come out on the winning side.

"Football is about moments. It is very difficult to have one game from the first to the last minute to have only one game. Sometimes you dominate, sometimes you are dominated. Sometimes the opponents are on top of the game and you have to play different games within a game. This is not easy to do it.“

"The same way, the bus driver needs a lot of experience and a lot of training to park the bus. In football, it takes time and work to understand this. Sometimes I feel that my guys work really hard and while all footballers would like to go to the pitch and have fun, sometimes it is not always like that.”

"Chelsea this season was ready for everything. They were ready to park the bus and also to play great football. If you go to Chelsea 6, Everton 3 [last August], we parked the bus very, very badly that day as we conceded three ridiculous goals.”

‘My Real couldn’t defend a corner’

Mourinho was also of the opinion that neither his Real Madrid team that won the Spainish League title 2012 nor his 2010 treble winning Inter Milan side would have done well in the Premier League because those side were build to compete in their respective domestic Leagues.

"My Real Madrid team, they couldn't defend a corner,” Mourinho commented. "They could score five, six, seven goals in a game, they could destroy every team, but they couldn't defend a corner. If you come to the Premier League and you can't defend a corner, you lose even in the cup against a League Two team.”

He went on to say,"It depends on the characteristics of the league. My Inter Milan team were fantastic domestically and in European competition, but they would be in big trouble in the Premier League because of the way they play.”

"When I move to a different country, I have to make a reset to my ideas, a reset to my team profile and start again. You have to understand the characteristics of the league you are in,” he said.