A brilliant XI of players left out of Jose Mourinho’s best XI he’s coached

Jose Mourinho showed the embarrassment of riches he has had to choose from during a career managing Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham and Roma when he was asked to pick his all-time best XI of players he has coached by Marca.

Mourinho opted for a diamond formation consisting of: Petr Cech; Javier Zanetti, John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, William Gallas; Claude Makelele, Frank Lampard, Mesut Ozil, Eden Hazard; Didier Drogba and Cristiano Ronaldo.

We’ve taken a look at the best players not to make the cut and come up with an alternative XI, arranged in a 4-3-3 formation.

Iker Casillas seems the obvious choice as this team’s No.1, but given how much the former Real Madrid captain clashed with Mourinho, were going to rule him out.

Julio Cesar is a strong contender from Inter, but we’re going to opt for De Gea, who was arguably Manchester United’s only world-class player during Mourinho’s spell at Old Trafford.

David de Gea’s record 14 saves against Arsenal equalling the record for most stops in a Premier League match in 2017!

Single-Handedly kept us in the game in a 3-1 Win

pic.twitter.com/3gg2eLad0q

— United Zone (@ManUnitedZone_) March 21, 2020

Right-back was a fairly unglamorous position for Mourinho during his first spell at Chelsea, with the likes of Paulo Ferreira and Juliano Belletti filling the role.

Alvaro Arbeloa? Nah. Branislav Ivanovic? Can feel unlucky not to be in here.

But we have to go for Maicon. Mainly for the fact that Mourinho moved training on Mondays to the afternoon as the Brazilian was often still drunk in the mornings, according to former Inter midfielder Ianis Zicu.

Another player who publicly fell out with Mourinho at Real Madrid, Ramos is just too good to leave out.

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