The Mourinho Thread

[Unionjack 7,531]

He clearly knows we have a big weakness and that is the midfield spot, why would he otherwise play Mikel or Ramires next to Matic in every big or away game, or even in preseason vs PSG? We need someone who is better than those 2 and can play big and small games, otherwise we won't improve and will struggle in big games again.

While I do think we could take it further and upgrade a few of our 1st team I totally agree with you about this.

With Mou buing undoubtedly one of the best footballing minds of his generation he has got to know this is a big problem for us. I love Mou and he is about the only manger I would want with us but theres got to be a problem behind the scenes and its got me worried.

[lionsden 4,689]

@ Tomo and Adnane.

This is the stats of the "big games" or games against the "traditional big teams" last season

Result Posession Shot attempts

Man city 1- 1 Chelsea 55% - 45% 13 - 3

Chelsea 1 - 1 man city 46% - 54% 2 - 9

PSG 1 - 1 Chelsea 55% - 45% 12 - 2

Chelsea 2 - 2 PSG 51% - 49% 10 - 9

Man utd 1 -1 Chelsea 53% - 47% 10- 4

Chelsea 1-0 Man utd 28% - 72% 2 - 10

Chelsea 2 - 0 Arsenal 51% - 49% 4 - 6

Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea 57%- 43% 13 - 5

Liverpool 1-2 Chelsea 55% - 45% 7 - 12

L'pool 1-1 Chelsea (COC)59% - 41% 15 - 1

Chelsea 1 - 0 L'pool (COC)57%- 43% 13- 14

Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool 49% - 51% 6 - 15

Out of all the twelve encounters, only four of them represented a good/decent performance (atleast stats wise) i.e the two games against Liverpool, at home against Arsenal and at home against PSG which is totally skewed because of Zlatan's early sending off and for anyone who saw that game, PSG still dominated and looked more threatening and the rest we were just totally dominated.

Now you can say stats are misleading but there's a reason why our opponents almost always dominate the shot attempts and posession stats against us and that's because of our lack of ideas, creativity and desire to attack in the big games generally thanks to the manager's instructions. Apart from the passive approach, the overall quality of football we produce in vast majority of the ties against the big teams is poor and below the standard that this team is capable of giving the talents in the squad.

For me the bigger issue isn't neccessarily the passive approach aka parking the bus but the poor football quality we often produce i,e inability to string more than 3 or more passes together sometimes without losing posession, too many misplaced passes, general lack of creativity and attempts at goal, Using a defender in midfield which results in lack of midfield control and so on. The parking the bus will be more tolerable if we actually play good counter attacking football in majority of these games.

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

You guys forget we're playing Arsenal in a few days. Jose will keep saying BS like that all the week to take the burden off his players' shoulders and revert the pressure upon him. Now they are all talking about the things he's said because that is exactly what he wanted to happen. He even made you debate on that lol

If you think he is dumb enough to talk w/o thinking twice about what he is going to say in an interview/press conference than you are fooling yourselves.

[Unionjack 7,531]

The parking the bus will be more tolerable if we actually play good counter attacking football in majority of these games.

The thing in my mind is Mou had drilled into the lads his defend at all cost mentality and I'm worried that its gone a bit too far. When we have the forwards we have then theres a problem somewhere when we only take 1/2/5 shots on goal during a game.

[Tomo 21,681]

@ Tomo and Adnane.

This is the stats of the "big games" or game's against the "traditional big teams" last season

Result Posession Shot attempts

Man city 1- 1 Chelsea 55% - 45% 13 - 3

Chelsea 1 - 1 man city 46% - 54% 2 - 9

PSG 1 - 1 Chelsea 55% - 45% 12 - 2

Chelsea 2 - 2 PSG 51% - 49% 10 - 9

Man utd 1 -1 Chelsea 53% - 47% 10- 4

Chelsea 1-0 Man utd 28% - 72% 2 - 10

Chelsea 2 - 0 Arsenal 51% - 49% 4 - 6

Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea 57%- 43% 13 - 5

Liverpool 1-2 Chelsea 55% - 45% 7 - 12

L'pool 1-1 Chelsea (COC)59% - 41% 15 - 1

Chelsea 1 - 0 L'pool (COC)57%- 43% 13- 14

Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool 49% - 51% 6 - 15

Out of all the twelve encounters, only four of them represented a good/decent performance (atleast stats wise) i.e the two games against Liverpool, at home against Arsenal and at home against PSG which is totally skewed because of Zlatan's early sending off and for anyone who saw that game, PSG still dominated and looked more threatening and the rest we were just totally dominated.

Now you can say stats are misleading but there's a reason why our opponents almost always dominate the shot attempts and posession stats against us and that's because of our lack of ideas, creativity and desire to attack in the big games generally thanks to the manager's instructions. Apart from the passive approach, the overall quality of football we produce in vast majority of the ties against the big teams is poor and below the standard that this team is capable of giving the talents in the squad.

For me the bigger issue isn't neccessarily the passive approach aka parking the bus but the poor football quality we often produce i,e inability to string more than 3 or more passes together sometimes without losing posession, too many misplaced passes, general lack of creativity and attempts at goal, Using a defender in midfield which results in lack of midfield control and so on. The parking the bus will be more tolerable if we actually play good counter attacking football in majority of these games.

I think its a lot deeper than manager instructions, they have not helped in some cases (PSG especially which was completely on Jose) but the main crux of the problem was the CM issue, which is why I would love to sign Witsel and Aranguiz.

In 13/14 we controlled all the big game's nearly, City should have been a bigger score, we absolutely smashed Liverpool at The Bridge, Arsenal and United too, the away games vs those two were cautious affairs by both sides and I think the CM played a big part in helping us dominate games, Luiz-Matic was ultra effective as was Lamps with either of them, we let 2 of them go for Cesc which created a problem in big games because any combination we played had flaws. Matic-Cesc was brilliant for flat track bullying but the latter's defensive weakness was apparent vs any half decent team, Matic-Mikel is too defensive and Cesc as #10 didn't help either and Ramires with anyone and his lack of footy brain handicaps us, as good as the Luiz deal was we really missed him in the big game's.

Ps, did we really only have 2 shots vs United? BBC are saying 7.

[pHaRaOn 2,131]

Net spending since Jose return to Chelsea (in Pounds)

Chelsea

2013/14 (Won nothing): -32.67

2014/15 (Premier League + League Cup): +5.95

2015/16: +9.48

Overall: -17.24

Manchester United

2013/14 (Won nothing): -53.31

2014/15 (Won nothing): -101.99

2015/16: -59.73

Overall: -215.03

Manchester City

2013/14 (Premier League + League Cup): -73.01

2014/15 (Won nothing): -44.82

2015/16: -23.65

Overall: -141.48

Arsenal

2013/14 (FA Cup): -28.07

2014/15 (FA Cup): -62.54

2015/16 (Barclays Asia Trophy + Emirates Cup): -8.05

Overall: -98.66

Liverpool

2013/14 (Won nothing): -16.02

2014/15 (Won nothing): -36.69

2015/16: -27.16

Overall: -79.87

[LDN Blue 7,903]

I actually think he is (again) indirectly showing his frustrations towards the board for not giving him what he wants.

How many times has Mou mentioned something like ''without new signings/investments or I can't have'' in the recent 2 weeks? I already lost the count, the pre-summer stop Mourinho is clearly different from the current preseason Mourinho.

And so the cracks with the board and his relationship continue to develop. It started with their decision to allow Cech to join Arsenal, despite his own reservations and now it's going to continue with the lack of spending this summer. 10 years is starting to look like quite the stretch lol.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Non-league Bashley manager and former Chelsea defender, David Stride, has been sacked after just 40 days at the club due to "a run of poor pre-season results and lack of player signings".

It is believed that the owner of Bashley Football Club is a regular member of the TalkChelsea forum.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33674078

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Lol, Mourinho next.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

The thing in my mind is Mou had drilled into the lads his defend at all cost mentality and I'm worried that its gone a bit too far. When we have the forwards we have then theres a problem somewhere when we only take 1/2/5 shots on goal during a game.

This is the only part I don't like.

I accept any style of football as long as we have more than 6 shots on goal. Proper chances at that.

Those matches where we had only 2-3 shots for 90mins are unacceptable imo. We should improve from that this season, with proper counter-attacking football our chances created should increase.

The main problem is immediately fabregas leaves the pivot, we don't have anyone who can pass or keep possession flowing from midfield, and if fabregas stays in the pivot he can't defend at all because of his speed.

Maybe if we aren't buying anyone we should change formation to 4-3-3 in big games like against tottenham in the carling cup final. And push oscar deeper...

[Unionjack 7,531]

Maybe if we aren't buying anyone we should change formation to 4-3-3 in big games like against tottenham in the carling cup final. And push oscar deeper...

A must! Either bring Oscar up next to Cescy or bring in a proper b2b. The 2 we have been linked with are great and not alot of money and piss on Mikel/Rami I'm sorry to say.

But we need to get balls to the lads up front.

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

Non-league Bashley manager and former Chelsea defender, David Stride, has been sacked after just 40 days at the club due to "a run of poor pre-season results and lack of player signings".

It is believed that the owner of Bashley Football Club is a regular member of the TalkChelsea forum.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/33674078

Bloody hell i remember David Stride a left back i think. He only played a couple of times for us he made Graham Wilkins look like Ashley Cole

[Barbara 15,149]

I think its a lot deeper than manager instructions, they have not helped in some cases (PSG especially which was completely on Jose) but the main crux of the problem was the CM issue, which is why I would love to sign Witsel and Aranguiz.

In 13/14 we controlled all the big game's nearly, City should have been a bigger score, we absolutely smashed Liverpool at The Bridge, Arsenal and United too, the away games vs those two were cautious affairs by both sides and I think the CM played a big part in helping us dominate games, Luiz-Matic was ultra effective as was Lamps with either of them, we let 2 of them go for Cesc which created a problem in big games because any combination we played had flaws. Matic-Cesc was brilliant for flat track bullying but the latter's defensive weakness was apparent vs any half decent team, Matic-Mikel is too defensive and Cesc as #10 didn't help either and Ramires with anyone and his lack of footy brain handicaps us, as good as the Luiz deal was we really missed him in the big game's.

Ps, did we really only have 2 shots vs United? BBC are saying 7.

for the midfield position he was perfect for us and worked really well in those big matches. We should really look for a replacement.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

This is the only part I don't like.

I accept any style of football as long as we have more than 6 shots on goal. Proper chances at that.

Those matches where we had only 2-3 shots for 90mins are unacceptable imo. We should improve from that this season, with proper counter-attacking football our chances created should increase.

The main problem is immediately fabregas leaves the pivot, we don't have anyone who can pass or keep possession flowing from midfield, and if fabregas stays in the pivot he can't defend at all because of his speed.

Maybe if we aren't buying anyone we should change formation to 4-3-3 in big games like against tottenham in the carling cup final. And push oscar deeper...

Remember, there were quite a few games last season which we literally had ZERO shots on target, not just once but on more than once occasion. I don't think I've ever witnessed that from any team since I've been following football and certainly not from us.

[hamad138 190]

We need a Midfieleder and Right Winger.

We should have bought Douglas Costa and Vidal, now we are struck with cuardorado and Mikel...

Anyone have a midfielder in mind beside Axel useless Witsel?

[The Chels 2,502]

Anyone have a midfielder in mind beside Axel useless Witsel?

Thiago Motta would be a nice short-term option but he looks set to join Atletico.

[Jase 43,479]

Jose Mourinho jabs Arsene Wenger over Arsenal's transfer spending: "Get a calculator"

Jose Mourinho denies mocking Manuel Pellegrini with "Mr Pellegrino" name slip

It has begun...

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

A must! Either bring Oscar up next to Cescy or bring in a proper b2b. The 2 we have been linked with are great and not alot of money and piss on Mikel/Rami I'm sorry to say.

But we need to get balls to the lads up front.

I'd like to see Matic-Oscar-Willian as a trio in midfield together - it's possible now that Moses can step in at RW.