Mourinho: Our football is fantastic

Posted Sunday, August 19, 2012 by ESPN

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho outlined that his side have two goals this season: To win the title and play a style of football that he considers to be "fantastic".

The La Liga champions play Valencia in the first game of their new season. With no new players signed thus far in the summer transfer window, the Real squad remains unchanged from the one that won the title in record-breaking fashion with 100 points scored during the preceding season.

Mourinho, in his third season at the helm, is widely expected to improve upon last season's showing but he insisted that positing favourable statistics are not a priority for Los Blancos.

Instead, he simply wants to ensure that the La Liga giants continue to dominate the league and defend their title. At the same time, he wants his side to play a unique brand of football that leaves a mark in the game.

What might be influencing the Portuguese coach is the fact that many football afficionados have hailed former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola for changing the face of the game with the Blaugrana's brand of possession-based tiki-taka football during their successful run of three consecutive La Liga title triumphs. Therefore, Mourinho is eager to ensure that Real are similarly remembered in the annals of history for not just the success they achieve on the pitch but also due to the brand of football that they display.

"I have two objectives for this season : to continue winning titles and to continue playing a football with its own identity and which, in our opinion, is fantastic," he told assembled journalists at a press conference on Saturday.

"We are not looking to break records, we want to be the champions. That is the objective.

"Being the champion is being the champion and we are aiming at that regardless of whether more or less points are required.

"The team has reached an important level, [it was] the best team in Europe last season. It has won the most difficult league with unequalled stats and an unsurpassed game quality.

"In Europe we reached semi-finals and that was alongside having to fight to the end for the title.

"We are the same people, we know each other well and we are going to try to maintain the quality of the game, the team spirit and the level of ambition.

"Given all of that, we will be candidates to win all the competitions we play in and play to win every time."

He also hailed former Valencia coach Unai Emery for helping the side qualify for the Champions League and had good words about new coach Mauricio Pellegrino as well. Mourinho recalled the time he spent with the Argentinean at Barcelona in 1998 when the ex-Chelsea boss worked as a translator for Louis van Gaal.

"Emery did a great job and the objective of playing in the Champions League has been successfully fulfilled.

"I know him [new Valencia coach Pellegrino] because we worked together in Barcelona and I have known him personally since 1998.

"I have very positive memories of him as a serious and professional player, who worked as part of a team and who made an effort to ask about and understand things.

"His tendency, as opposed to the average player, was to progress in the understanding of the game and its training.

"After that we met on more occasions and I wish him a good career as a trainer and hopefully he will have a disastrous start tomorrow [Sunday]."

Real host Valencia while their arch-rivals Barcelona visit Real Sociedad as the annual battle between the duo begins anew in the new La Liga season.