Mourinho Discusses The Art Of Motivation

Jose Mourinho has explained how he believes his players need to be self motivated as the manager strives to build his team at Manchester United.

Although the boss is renowned for being an excellent man manager, capable of extracting the absolute maximum out of his squad, he insists the drive to succeed must come from the individual. 

As he seeks footballers with an introspective attitude, Mourinho is clear that his motivational methods can only work if a player is willing to reach his full potential.

"I think it’s more about people’s nature," Jose told UEFA at a recent coaching conference. "It’s who you are and I always felt that it was my biggest motivation. I think when you need external sources of motivation, you are not so strong as you can be. External sources of motivation are exactly that – external sources. 

"The motivation can belong to yourself. It’s a little bit like myself as a leader. When I have to motivate players, the one thing is I am an extra source of motivation to a player that is already motivated. But when I have to motivate people that are not motivated, then I am not the extra source of motivation. I am the source of motivation and that is not enough. 

"It’s about yourself. You cannot wait for other people to motivate you. You cannot wait for other people to criticise you. You have to be critical of yourself. You cannot be waiting for other people to praise you as maybe they will never do it. So you have to judge yourself. You have to analyse yourself and be introspective. You have to know when you are doing well or doing wrong and where you have to improve. 

"I think it’s much more about the individual and then the people that surround us are external, extra sources of motivation."