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EFL Cup Final: How Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho makes silverware seem normal

On Sunday at Wembley, Southampton could win their first major trophy for 41 years. Claude Puel could secure his first silverware for 17. For club and manager alike, it would be an exceptional occasion.

But if Manchester United win, it would feel entirely normal, even though they have only secured one major honour since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.

That is part of Jose Mourinho’s skill. He normalises the process of winning silverware when, for most others, it feels special, different, rare. At his best, Mourinho makes it routine, stripped of drama or unpredictability.

It was not until 2012-13, his final season at Real Madrid, that he completed a full campaign in management without winning a trophy.

That owes something to a record of 10 victories in 12 major finals, but also to an analytical streak. He identified the most winnable trophy of all in his adopted home. He duly won it three times.

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His preference is to have an honour even before the business end of the campaign. English football’s calendar suits him.

The idea of having a trophy in the cabinet in February or early March means a campaign cannot be dismissed as a failure while he can be free to concentrate on grander objectives, safe in the knowledge some of the pressure is off.

He has made a pragmatic pursuit of the EFL Cup, in its various guises, since his 2004 arrival at Chelsea. He is its most relentless, most ruthless winner.

He is set to tie Ferguson and Brian Clough’s competition record of four victories. Yet if they will be equals in one respect, they are not in another. Ferguson and Clough were both knocked out more than 20 times. Mourinho has only gone out three times, twice on penalties and never in 90 minutes.

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He has taken the attitude from a league campaign into supposedly the lesser cup competition. He treats defeat as an affront, not an occupational hazard or an opportunity to free up time.

His only defeat inside 90 minutes in 27 EFL Cup games was last month’s second-leg setback at Hull – even that was not enough to cancel out a win at Old Trafford.

Mourinho nevertheless disputed the award of a penalty for Hull’s opener and insisted: “It was 1-1, we are still unbeaten.” Alternative facts, perhaps, and the undefeated run he mentioned was United’s in all competitions, rather than a personal statistic in the EFL Cup, but it reflected his mindset.

Mourinho manages by the numbers at times. They appeal to his analytical streak. He stacks the odds in his favour, targeting a competition others have not always taken seriously and thus enhancing his chances of success. He does not always name his strongest sides, but they are invariably strong enough and stronger than their opponents. A feature of his Cup selections is the way he always has an insurance policy.

He keeps match-winners in reserve: they were Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba at Blackburn in the FA Cup on Sunday. But go back 13 years to his EFL Cup debut and Frank Lampard came off the bench. His second game, at Newcastle in 2004, was decided by a stellar trio of replacements, in Lampard, Arjen Robben and Eidur Gudjohnsen. He leaves less to chance. He experiments less with the kids.

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And while his employers change, his principles can stay the same. Mourinho has won domestic cups in every country he has managed. He has done so by using combinations of his premier players and battle-hardened squad members.

Mourinho’s first Coppa Italia game, against Genoa, was notable for goals by Adriano, Esteban Cambiasso and Ibrahimovic. He was not sending in the stiffs. Inter began – not ended – their successful Coppa Italia campaign in 2009-10 with a side that included the scorer Wesley Sneijder, plus Dejan Stankovic, Cristian Chivu and Thiago Motta. Mourinho only ever lost one game in the competition, the 2009 semi-final first leg to Sampdoria.

His Copa del Rey debut was a 0-0 draw against Murcia. Yet a glimpse at Real Madrid’s teamsheet – Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas, Pepe – shows how seriously he took it. He did select a lesser side at Levante in the last 16, but only after winning the first leg 8-0. His only Copa del Rey exits came to Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, not to the minnows.

Cup competitions, with one-off games and knockout ties, can bring a greater volatility. The sense is that Mourinho approaches them like mini league seasons, with some consistency of selection and plenty of purpose. Yet the fundamental difference is that silverware can be procured by beating only one or two elite opponents.

Get them early in the competition, as United did by drawing Manchester City in the fourth round of this season’s EFL Cup, and differences in approach are most apparent. Pep Guardiola picked the rookies Pablo Maffeo and Aleix Garcia. Mourinho started with Ibrahimovic, Pogba and David de Gea.

It was pragmatic calculation. It illustrated a difference between old enemies. Guardiola has won an abundance of silverware, but with Barcelona and Bayern Munich teams who were vastly superior to virtually everyone. Mourinho’s sides are less likely to play their peers off their park. Yet they have tended to take at least one trophy on an annual basis. It is a product of methodology and Mourinho is the EFL Cup’s ultimate method manager.