Cholo: More Jose than Pep, or is he his own man?

The prospect of beating both bastions of Spanish football supremacy in one week, is being relished by Atletico Madrid's Argentine coach Diego 'Cholo' Simeone. Having toppled Barcelona last weekend to conquer the Spanish title, Cholo now prepares his men for the highest prize in club football: the Champions League.
Simeone has made a huge impact since he returned to Atletico as manager, the club where he became an emblematic player helping them conquer the 1995-96 title - the last time they won anything important until the prodigal son came back this season and beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.
With his elegant tailored black suits (for good luck, he says, although the Spanish quickly dubbed him funereal) and his 'young bloke' approach to gesticulating with fists and hips, he has been compared to Mourinho more than once. "On the pitch, there's no doubt Simeone's style is similar to Mourinho's" wrote Chris Myson in Goal.com "His team is organized and works defen sively. They rarely dominate with possession and have that "us against the world" Mourinho mentality."
Earlier this year, Simeone said he liked Real Madrid of Jose Mourinho very much, a team with "a very clear idea of how to play" and he has often suggested that Barcelona (and Spain's) beautiful touchy, feely approach as a "media invention". He is also reported to have spent a week watching Mourinho train, when Simeone was starting his managing stint. Argentine ex-player, sport medic and writer Juan Manuel Herbella noted as much: "A Mourinho style leader, he casts his group under the 'divide and conquer' mould. He is the king and the players compete among themselves to gain his attention. This attitude may well lead to success but not necessarily to conforming a group".
However, a group game is exactly what Simeone sees football as. He likes to be thought of as someone who summons men, not names (hombres, no nombres in Spanish has a nice limericky feel to it) and is known for treating all his players as equals.
This he has done since he first started managing, an overnight development while still a player at Racing (his true love, his club loyalties will always remain with his boyhood strip). "I work with the players I have" he told me once back when he was managing Estudiantes in Argentina.
Since managing in Europe Cholo has avoided controversy, is measured with the press, and has never sent a bad word the way of his players. In this sense he is more like Pep, whom he also admires. "I learnt from both (managers) and took important things away; I saw different things in each" he said.
But he can play a closed game. For all his attacking flair, he feels that "teams who defend well are as important. It's much easier to win if you don't let the goals in".
The pitching of these two paragons against one another gave us that first leg of the CL semifinal against Chelsea, that dreadful all-men-in-the-box lack of magic. But Simeone didn't disappoint; he went on win with an impressive attacking attitude, "outfoxing Mourinho" as the press said. When Mourinho whispered something in his ear, it was a gesture was so characteristic of the young Simeone's tactics and was impossible not to relish the irony.
Whether or not, he is the new Mourinho, Cholo is above all new blood, and perhaps his persistent defence of not one style, but any style, is the freshest thing about him.
"There's one game, they call it football and it's very broad.
You can win in different ways and each choses one as their own". So far, he is copyrighting the Cholismo way!