TacticsAndre Villas-Boas tires quickly of the comparisons with Jose Mourinho — he insists he is his own man. This is best reflected in the way he sets out his teams.
Taking his cue from Sir Bobby Robson and Pep Guardiola, Villas-Boas likes attack-minded sides. In the Europa League final he played an aggressive 4-3-3, with Falcao, Hulk and Silvestre Varela as his front three and Joao Moutinho as the playmaker behind.
This team pressed hard and broke at speed and it is this positive, expansive style that appeals to Roman Abramovich, who is smitten by Guardiola’s Barcelona.
Man management
You might think, being just 33, he would seek some distance from his players but Villas-Boas, much like Mourinho, forges strong intimate bonds with his charges.
Preparation
He would provide Mourinho with dossiers and help put together DVDs for the players. He remains au fait with all the latest technological developments in data analysis and used it at Porto but also sets more store in his intuitive responses to situations these days. He has become a perfectionist who trusts his instincts.Recruitment
This is the area in which Villas-Boas is relatively untested. At Porto he inherited a very strong team from the previous coach, Jesualdo Ferreira, and while he certainly improved the players he found, he did not have to assemble a team.
There is work to be done to reform Chelsea’s ageing squad so he will be tested in this area. Like Mourinho did with Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira, Villas-Boas could well return to Porto to bring the likes of Falcao and Moutinho to Stamford Bridge.
Much will depend on the relationship he builds with whoever comes in as chief scout or director of football (Chelsea are still open-minded in this regard).
Before he decided to leave to take the job at Chelsea he recommended a list of players to Porto, four of whom the Portuguese club have already signed. Most impressive is the capture of Juan Manuel Iturbe, the 18-year-old Argentine who has been compared to Lionel Messi.
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