Champions League
'Mourinho's tactics negative'
2010-05-20 16:34
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London - Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben has taken a swipe at Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho's negative tactics ahead of Saturday's Champions League final.
Robben, who will face Inter in the final in Madrid this weekend, played under Mourinho for three years at Chelsea and grew tired of his safety-first philosophy.
The Holland international believes Mourinho was too concerned with winning at all costs and didn't let his players express themselves.
"He puts out a winning team, it doesn't matter if it's done with nice football or not," Robben told BBC Sport.
"The philosophy at Bayern is the coach (Louis van Gaal) wants to win games by playing nice football."
The 26-year-old added: "As a player you want to play and enjoy the game, that's also an important part."
Robben gradually fell out of favour with Mourinho at Chelsea because the Portuguese coach was unimpressed with his player's poor injury record and switched to a formation that made less use of wingers.
"I was working with him three years at Chelsea. It was a successful time, he's a big personality and as a coach of a top team you need to be," Robben said.
"He knew how to work with big players and put them together and let them work together.
"He certainly knew what he was talking about and had the respect of every single player.
"But we started to play more in this diamond without wingers, which is not good for me. The system changed a bit so I made my decision and left."