Former Chelsea forward André Schürrle has revealed the extent of José Mourinho’s man-management style during his time at Stamford Bridge.
Schürrle spent two years at Chelsea following a £19.8m move from Bayer Leverkusen in 2013, making 65 appearances for the club before returning to Germany with Wolfsburg in 2015.
His time with the club coincided with Mourinho’s second spell in charge, the Portuguese boss returning for a two-year stint after three years with Real Madrid.
And Schürrle has detailed how he treated him and how he didn’t realise what he was trying to achieve.
“He’s a brutal guy,” SPOX report him saying in an interview with Joko Winterscheidt.
“I always thought: What does he do? How does he treat me? What does he do with people?
“In retrospect, I notice what he wanted and with what means he worked. And at the time I couldn’t really cope with the things he wanted from me, with this harshness and this psychological pressure.”
“Back then, it was sometimes extremely difficult. I often drove home when I had a conversation with him and just thought I can’t anymore.
Mourinho is well known for being anything but a cuddly manager, instead preferring the hardline route to try and get the best out of his players.
This has worked to various degress of success, with Chelsea (the first time at least) and Inter Milan both benefitting from style.
It has also backfired on him in spectacular fashion too, with his second spell in London and time with Manchester United and Real Madrid both ending poorly because of his man-management style.
Schürrle is one of many players who have struggled to cope with it and admits his ego took a battering as a result.
“It was often the case that I played from the start, and he replaced me at halftime,” he added.
“And in the next game, I wasn’t in the squad and was in the stands. I couldn’t understand that at the time, and I also lost self-esteem. because the ego is hurt.
“Then you worry about what he might think. I sometimes had the feeling during training that he was only looking at me. But it probably wasn’t even the case.”
