He seems to have got more and more defensive as time has worn on, it's almost like he's got a bit of a complex around playing more expansive football now and just demands defensive discipline from every play first and foremost.
His early Chelsea side were pretty well balanced, usually a big man up top, proper attacking players wide, often only one holding midfielder with the likes of Lampard/Deco/Ballack or whoever not doing a great deal defensively but then had a really good back four to provide a solid platform for those other players to go and express themselves. When he went to Inter he seemed to shift more towards the two holding players, at least in the big games from what I saw, but that again that was more to facilitate the attacking players ahead of them rather than just completely close a game down, Milito/Pandev/Sneijder/Eto'o or whoever were allowed to pretty much ignore any defensive work so they could take advantage on the break.
When he came back to Chelsea it was all very, very defensive after opening the season with a few goals galore games early on, their games from January onwards in their last title winning season were horrific, just ruining games as a spectacle knowing that Fabregas would carve something out for Costa at some point and that lad just wasn't missing anything that year. I think putting your team in such a rigid game plan is always going to put a strain on certain types on players, Fabregas for example has never been one to completely ignore his defensive duties but he's always been something of a free spirit, Hazard certainly isn't someone who's going to 'do a job' for the team at any point and those fractures soon started to appear.
I suppose when he had this all conquering reputation people were keen to work with him because it pretty much guaranteed getting your hands on a few trophies but then after experiencing that way of playing it probably wasn't massively enjoyable so the novetly probably wears off with some people and they get to a stage of just wanting to enjoy themselves again, just look at the difference in Hazard now he's got some freedom again! Mourniho seems to have become more and more bitter since his time at Real too, he was always a bit of a mentalist but it was mixed in with more light hearted stuff too, now he just looks like he hates everything all the time, completely joyless. That can't make for an enjoyable working environment. I imagine someone like Pep is probably a bit overbearing at times, his tactics again seem very rigid in terms of positioning and such but at least his stuff is geared towards creating chances not obstructing them and there seems to be plenty of evidence of players developing individually under his stewardship too.
If I were a player I think I'd much rather be playing for a manager like Klopp, Pochettino or Conte than Mourinho, it just looks like it'd be a far more enjoyable experience, their teams play with so much more freedom, I can't make my mind up on working for Pep, I imagine it'd be a great experience for developing your game but one that would come with a lot of tedious times learning the intricacies of his system and such.
