Jose Mourinho breaks down Germany’s World Cup chances without a major ‘star’

Germany looked like the most dominant team with a 4-0 World Cup opening win against Portugal in the group of death. They got past Cristiano Ronaldo in the group of death, thanks in part to Portugal playing short-handed because of Pepe’s red card.

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Germany are amongst the handful of favorites to contend for the World Cup trophy despite having a “major star” like Ronaldo or Lionel Messi on their roster. The German’s do it by having quality talent all over the field at every position.

That lack of a “superstar player” is a knock against the German team, and Jose Mourinho tries to break it down and whether it is a hinderance. Mourinho, who is Portuguese, also ripped Pepe for the red card.

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“No, I always think that the strong collective is fundamental but at the same time, I think it’s easy to understand that a real special player can make a difference in many occasions. The problem is that sometimes you are too much dependent on this player and when this player is not performing you are in trouble. With Suarez he didn’t play the first match for Uruguay, [there] was a big difference between Uruguay with Suarez and without Suarez,” said Mourinho, serving as Yahoo’s Global Football Ambassador.

“Cristiano didn’t have the best game for Portugal, was in trouble by a defensive point of view. Argentina in the first half, Messi was not so much present and Argentina was a little bit sad, so every one of these teams with special players obviously, everybody looks at them and wait for them and the reality is they can make the difference.

“I think Germany has a lot of good players in the midfield, lots of good players. And they have a great control of the game. For sure, they will face some teams very very close where probably the target man will be more needed, but when they play against these teams that give some space and let them move the ball well, the quality is great and the beauty of the game is good.”

Jose Mourinho is an exclusive analyst for Yahoo’s worldwide football coverage and www.yahoo.co.uk/worldcup is the only place to read all his expert opinions during the FIFA World Cup 2014.