How Rodgers learned from Mourinho.. by being the exact opposite (ESPN article)

by Dave Usher for ESPN

It's difficult to believe that Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers served part of his coaching apprenticeship under the tutelage of Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho. The self-proclaimed "Special One" gave Rodgers a big leg up in his coaching career when he invited him onto his Chelsea coaching staff in 2004, and Rodgers recently admitted, "I probably wouldn't be where I am now but for him." And yet the men whose charges currently occupy the top two places in the Premier League table couldn't be any more different if they tried.

In the NFL people often talk about "coaching trees". A prominent, successful head coach will have worked with many assistant coaches, some of whom will later go on to become good head coaches in their own right. The "Bill Parcells tree," for example, produced Super Bowl winners Bill Belichick, Sean Payton and Tom Coughlin among others.

Mourinho's coaching tree includes Rodgers, Andre Villas-Boas and former Steve Clarke, who have all gone on to manage Premier League teams. With both Clarke and Villas-Boas, you can see at least some degree of similarity with Mourinho's playing style (if not personality traits), as all would be regarded as coaches who put the emphasis on defence over attack. Rodgers, however, seems to have little in common with Mourinho from a style standpoint. In fact his entire footballing philosophy appears to be completely at odds with that of his former mentor.

Caution is not a word with which the Reds' boss is particularly familiar. It's extremely rare that you will see Rodgers make any kind of "safety first" move. He's a front foot manager; he picks attacking line-ups, he plays attacking football and he always sends his teams out to try and win football matches. It's doubtful he'd even know where to start if he had to "play for a draw."

Read the full article here.