José Mourinho on Benfica’s mindset shift: We don’t enjoy ourselves | OneFootball

José Mourinho revealed that he is trying to enjoy victories more, something he was unable to do for some time. The Benfica coach gave an interview to UEFA’s official channels, on the occasion of his return to Chelsea’s stadium, and took the opportunity to reflect on his career.

After explaining that he does not consider his time at Fenerbahçe as a ‘setback’ in his career, he spoke about the success he has already achieved as a coach: “History is untouchable, but it’s not part of my daily life, it’s not part of my day-to-day, it’s not part of my present, it’s not part of my future, completely. What I am today is what I am today, not what I did in the past. I am judged by what I do today, my motivation is what I do and what I want to do, not what I did. I don’t have much time to reflect, nor do I want to reflect.”

“Maybe one day I’ll have time to do it, but right now I don’t, nor is it part of my mentality. I always say, ‘they can take everything from me, but no one can take away the history I made.’ But that’s it. When you’re active, when you’re working, when you have ambitions, what you did doesn’t count. I don’t believe that the great players who are still playing, or even until the end of their careers, think much about what they were, about what they did. After they stop playing, then yes,” said José Mourinho.

José Mourinho then spoke about some changes in his mentality: “Sometimes we don’t enjoy what we achieve as much as we should, but then we continue to suffer so much with setbacks, with the things that don’t happen... The other day, even in conversation with my staff, I said we have to start... not in a crazy way, obviously, but we have to enjoy the good things a bit more, because when the bad things happen, there’s no way to escape.”

“They grab us, failure grabs us and doesn’t let us go. We’re forced to sleep badly after the game we lost, we’re forced to wake up feeling bad the next day, we’re forced to want to be isolated and not contact people. That, we can’t escape. If we can’t escape that, when things go well, we have to enjoy it a little more, that’s for sure. The life of a player and a coach is the best life in the world until the game. Then, the game is, let’s say, the climax. And after the game comes the joy of victory, the frustration of defeat,” concluded the coach of Benfica.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.