MrExcalibur100

Mourinho never takes the blame when the team loses, NEVER. He hasn't done it since he returned and he is trying to protect himself from criticism. Something about the man has changed because he wasn't like this before in his first spell here. His spell at Madrid affected him. This is not about Hazard. This is about Mourinho always making excuses for defeats. His body language in the press conference was very telling. Fortunately for me though, I'm not one of those people that worship at the alter of Mourinho. He has his faults as a manager, but even more worryingly than that, he has a massive ego and that rubs off the wrong way on me and on the image on the club. Any criticism of his failings is either met by deflecting blame or even verbal attacks of other managers. He needs to change his attitude and stop treating this club like a personal play-thing.

And thanks for giving the media more ammunition to write further bullshit about the club, thus creating more bad vibes around the dressing room. I think in the recent weeks, Jose has shown himself to be a very bad loser. Blaming referees and now even blaming his own players. It's always someone else's fault. One minute you're happy with Hazard's defensive work, the next minute, after a defeat, you're not. One minute "we don't have a striker" the next, the "strikers are doing a good job?" I can go on and on but it's getting out of hand. Mourinho needs to understand that Chelsea is a bigger club than the one he left in 2007. His recent antics just won't cut it with the board. It's bad enough we have to watch the turgid football he serves us every week. He seriously needs to focus more on the training and less with trying to sound clever in press conferences. He needs to take responsibility for defeats and realize he is an ambassador for the football club. I'm not one of those CFC fans that believe this sun shines out of Mourinho's ass. His job is to manage the team and not treat it as a vehicle to massage his ego. Ancelotti would never utter some of the stuff Mourinho has said this season. There's a way to be a great manager and classy at the same time, but I've been turned off by Mourinho's antics all season and especially in the last month or so.

It's sad Mourinho won't hesitate to throw his players under the bus to cover his ass. Sometimes he needs to take responsibility for some of his failures and stop giving the media the ammunition to bury him. I see he had already prepared a speech to defend his record, speaking in the first person, like he normally does. He started it with the Newcastle defeat ("I made eleven mistakes") and recently with the Paris defeat ("we lack a striker"). It's your job to coach the team and get the best results. Some of the things Jose says and does just rubs me the wrong way sometimes. Control your ego and stop with publicly criticizing players after defeats.

Considering his antics, I hope not. I seriously do.

I agree but you can't really deny that he's become a world class player this season. He has already tied Drogba's highest goals ever for this club and Costa still has 4 more matches to improve on it. To deny his position as a world class striker is silly. We can go on and on about "worth" but I'm sure you'll agree that it's tedious and a pointless exercise. We can list many players. Bale was worth nowhere near the amount paid for him, but I'm sure no Madridista's are complaining now.

So because he isn't on the same level as those players (since when is Messi a striker?), that means he isn't world class? Personally, I believe Lewadowski is not as good as say, an Aguero, that doesn't mean they aren't both world class. 35 million? I hope you are correct, but you have to be realistic. There is no way in hell costa is leaving for anything less than 50 million euros and we are in a desperate situation now, so we have to pay the sum they want.

Never said that so you are attacking Straw man. I will hope to see your criticisms for Cole, Eto'o and Azpilicueta for goals 1,2 and 3 respectively, or is it only reserved for Hazard?

For one of the best strikers in the world? Just look at the evaluations in the market recently. This is the reality of modern day football. You want the best you have to pay big money. 35 million is really cheap for a world-class striker in 2014.

ROB ‏@1RobBeasley 2h Diego Costa will sign for #cfc in the summer I was always confident about landing Costa considering Jorge Mendes (Mourinho's agent and one of his best friends who he calls "brother") is Costa's agent under the company, Gestifute. And no, Bearsley is no bull-shiter, he is a very reliable source and is close to the club.

3rd goal: https://vine.co/v/MrmQjDZd2gI Were was Azpilicueta the fullback supposed to be in possession? He was tucked in at the centre. It was a collective error, not an individual one. The first one is a similar story. Hazard probably thought that ball was on it's way out, I thought that as well watching it, but the Atleti player managed to reach it and cut it across goal. https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/81FEE78FEF1073373231735611392_1ae76f088c7.4.8.4545721265261156170.mp4?versionId=Wqzmfuz73jTcb0iXiyXcEJRWb6HCA85Q Were was Ashley Cole? Again, miserably out of position. These were collective errors. Our fullbacks went AWOL and left Hazard exposed. Can we finally drop this now?

He has been shocking in almost every game I've seen of him in the Champions league.. A lamp post in every sense of the word. The only good thing I can say about him is that he's good in the air, but his all round game is awful. Even Torres' is much better. Yeah, he scores goals, but even a donkey can score for that Bayern team in the Bundesliga considering they smash everyone 5,6-0.

I find his trolling absolutely hilarious.

I'm fed up with this seriously. You are barking up the wrong tree and making dreadful points. (1) First of all, Hazard can't be as good? What a stupid comment. Are you God? Ronaldo at 23 (same age as Hazard is now) put up similar numbers and performances in the 2006/2007 season to what Hazard has done this season. And Ronaldo was actually playing next to a real striker in Rooney and a team playing some marvelous, attacking football, with less impetus to track back. There is nothing stopping Hazard from elevating his game even further. The fact that a so-called supporter will type nonsense like this....... It gives CFC fans a bad name. The fact that a so-called CFC supporter attacks a young player, and a good guy (from what we see in interviews) like Hazard is a great shame. He has already accomplished an awful lot in his short career. (2) Hazard has done more than his fair share of tracking back this season, even more than he should be doing considering he carries the attacking work almost on his own. Maybe Mourinho should give his best players more attacking freedom instead of turning them into robots. At least that spares us from watching the turgid, awful football we've been playing all season. (3) Bale? Bale tracks back? I've watched him a lot this season, and he doesn't really track back that much. Ancelotti has offered him the creative freedom that such attacking players crave. Ribery? He plays for a team that averages 72% possession their league. He doesn't really need to track back. Suarez? The point is moot as you're comparing a CF to a winger. It's a silly comparison. Almost everything you typed was non-factual, and to add insult to injury, you attack our best player by saying he will never be as good as Messi or Ronaldo. Perhaps he will be better off in a team that actually knows how to play good, attacking possession based football!

(1) Liverpool actually played good football last season, so you could see progress there. Our football has only gotten worse and worse as the season has progressed, unfortunately. We look clueless in possession and we play incredibly disjointed football relying chiefly on the brilliance of Hazard. How many times have you seen people moan about the football we play? (2) We need stability, but the question has to be asked. Can Jose make this team play the brand of football the owner wants to see? Remember, Mourinho was not first choice for this job. He wasn't even second choice. Guardiola and Klopp were ahead of him.

(1) Bring in a CF, preferably Diego Costa, a creative CM, Fabregas, Gundogan or Kroos, a LB, Moreno or Rodriguez, and perhaps another AM/winger, more precisely, a goal scoring one like a Greizmann or Lavezzi. This is crucial if we want to have realistic expectation of winning the league or the champions league. If we are clever in the transfer market, we would have an unstoppable squad. This squad is not far from completion. (2) Focus more on possession based attacking build-up plays. Mourinho needs to set up his teams to play with more freedom and not turn them to robots.The low-block, counter-attacking football is just not cutting it ATM. Give us the ball and we look clueless, disjointed and ponderous with it. Why? That's why Roman signed the Hazard's, Oscar's and Mata's of this world. Whether fans want to believe it or not, this IS a job requirement and if things do not change, well, we know the history of managers in the "Abramovich era" , Mourinho or no Mourinho. It's simple really: Fighting for all titles and playing good football. That's the standard at every big club. We must not lower our standards. Not even for club legends.

Or the guy who did a "reverse" Nazi salute? Go figure.

I think I finally understand Mourinho's thinking behind starting Azpiliceuta at RW. Oscar was apparently injured, so he decided that instead of starting Schurrle, he was going to use him as an impact sub because of his pace and also because he played the full 90 mins vs Liverpool. Add to the fact that Salah was cup-tied and that we were always going to play a 4-2-3-1 and not a 4-3-3 because of a shortage of bodies in the pivot position, we only had 3 realistic options to play behind the striker. Hazard, Willian and Schurrle. So it was more of a shortage of options than anything. But when was Oscar allegedly injured? The day before the match, because it was never spoken about in any presser.

You need to calm down seriously.

The football we play just has to be better really. How do you explain the fact that we played better football last season with less resources? The line-up yesterday was quite frankly ridiculous. Jose seems more concerned with not losing than winning and it shows. Our general build-up play when we play against lesser teams we are expected to play has been appalling for most of the season, tbh. There is simply zero fluency and we have been relying far too much on the individual brilliance of Hazard. How do you explain the fact that teams like Everton and Liverpool play much better football than us. Look at the flair/ball-playing players we have : Hazard, Willian, Oscar, Schurrle, Salah, Matic. Most teams in the league will die for those players. This is why Roman has signed these type of players for Chelsea. To play good football, not to play with Azpilicueta at right wing. That's a joke and a slap in the face to Schurrle and Oscar and to our so-called "evolution". Taking sentiment out of it, the fact is that through out his career, Jose has never built a team that plays expansive possession based attacking football. It's almost always counter-attacking football. Now this is all fine and dandy when you are winning stuff, but when the trophies stop coming, people will get bored very quickly. Jose said we should judge him by what he will do in his second coming and that is what I'm going to do. The excuse of having the "physical" and less "technical" players like Drogba, Essien, Ballack, Malouda and so on no longer holds water. The job of a Chelsea manager, and any manager at a big club is to win trophies and play attractive football. We have taking massive strides in the former which is brilliant, but we have failed woefully in the latter. And that could soon become a problem for Roman and that is what I fear.

That wasn't so in some of the earlier fixtures but he's been far too cautious in some big games this season. Azpilicueta at right wing with Oscar and Schurrle on the bench is inexplicable in a champions league semi-final. Jose is still to prove that he can set up a team who plays expansive possession football. I'm still to be convinced that that will change even if we bring in a Diego Costa and a Gundogan. He couldn't do it at Real with a superior squad of attacking talent. His league-winning, record-breaking squad was largely a counter-attacking side. Diego Torres' book claimed that Jose hardly ever practiced possession based static attacks in training and as a result, Madrid struggled against teams that were happy to sit back. He only ever prepared counter-attacking tactical plays. Of course, most big teams find it tougher against teams that defend deep, but it's interesting to think about, considering our struggles are exactly that this season.

The tactics were far from fine. I've already pointed out the errors I thought were made in that game (IMO) on the "Mourinho thread". But then again, that's the difference between managing a Bayern or Madrid for example as opposed to a Chelsea. At a Chelsea, any slight tactical error, tweak of the formation/line-up or mistimed substitution can look really bad.

Aye. Just ignore the bullshit. It will die down and it's inevitable. Some of the headlines I'm seeing are hilarious and predictable. The guy compared us to Real Madrid for god's sake, lol

The sad thing is most of the criticism doesn't even make any sense. The last thing that crossed my mind after that game was not "oh, Eden's made a mistake". It was "we aren't good enough to beat them without our best team" "Jose's tactics were far too cautious and were even downright ridiculous for a CL semi-final".