Henrique

For me its pretty obvious: there is no going back for Mourinho after his excuses this season. Basically he said the entire season that we would not win the PL because we lacked a "real striker". He will have money and time to get who he needs. He had time to get to know the squad, and to understand what need to be done. It seems he likes to measure the success comparing with the previous season: -UCL semi-finals. -2nd/3rd in PL. So my expectations are: -UCL semi-final at lest. -1st/2nd on PL. If Mourinho fail again next season in the way he did this season, I doubt he will be here for 2014/15 season. Roman didn't hire a manager to turn Chelsea into the most hated club in the world, enemies of football, known for parking the bus and getting no results for that.

I think you just said at one point with no doubt, that Mourinho will turn the team into world beaters again next season.

Is this a transitions season as Mourinho is saying? We just dont know. We will get this answer next season. We just dont know if we are going to play a better football next season, better results, if we will improve from our 3rd place in PL and semi-finas in UCL, if our problems will get fixed.

Day after day, Mourinho becomes a god-like character for his fans, and a pathetic and hated character for 95% of people outside Chelsea fan base. He said today he is a victim of his own success, actually I think he is a victim of his own big ego. "I'm going to tell you something -- a bit of the history of my career," Its pretty hard to imagine a manager that loves to gives himself so much credit, as Mourinho does. His interview today reminds of one of his last interviews in Spain, when he tried to covince everyone his 3 years with Real were a huge success, because he won a small trophy against "the best team in the world", "came second, after the best team in the world", won one La Liga against "the best team in the world". Ok, its really hard to beat Barcelona, "the best team in the world", but Juade Ramos and Pellegrini managed to came second, only after "the best team in the world". Nothing special about that. Real hired Mourinho not to make them the second best team in Spain, but to make them the best in the world, but it seems he still thinks what he did in Spain was something really special, even if the whole country disagree. In the beginning of the season his comments were like" "you have nothing to celebrate if you come second", now he is trying to convince us all he had a very good season because the team made a "major step". Well, last season we fired our manager after 4 months, and then hired a quick fix. Only a jackass of a manager would "manage" to make it worse than we were last season. Another thing he is not saying: we are still "fighting" for the PL (and thats only virtually) because this season is lacking a solid team like past seasons. If we win our 2 remaining games, we will be only 9 points above last season. No doubt thats an improvement, but far from a "big step". Last season we faced Shaktar and Juventus in the group stage, this season it was Basel and Schalke, how can anyone expect anything different from reaching the knockout-stage? But Mourinho is never wrong, he never fails, there is always something or someone else to blame.

I'm really happy that he is "not ready to sacrifice himself for Chelsea", because when Mourinho is saying that he is basically saying the belgian is not ready yet to sacrifice his attacking instincts to play as a second full back, just like Willian did in the in the first leg against Atlético. Thats a very good thing.

I'm not hating, Matic is a very good DM, in fact I'm praising Luiz performance yesterday, I thought he was really good, probably his best performance as a DM. I don't know how people are saying Azi was the man of the match, when 90% of the world reckon the spanish had a nightmare night. Matic+Luiz would be a great pivot for some tough matches, imo.

I think the simple answer is: Mourinho should change his approach. His a man, not a animal or a machine. People change over the years, and I hope he will change in some ways after this season.

I'm not a big fan of Ramires. I remember when it was still possible to "dislike" posts, one of my most "disliked" was one where I said Ramires was a poor player, and Ancelotti deserved the axe and didn't know how to buy. His first season was really bad. He got better and silenced his critics in past two season, when he was really important and one of our most consistent players. But he just had his worst season as a Chelsea player under Mourinho, and the weird thing is the portuguese seems to be a huge fan of his football. You just need to compare his goals and assists stats with the previous seasons. 11/12: 12 goals, 7 assists. 12/13: 9 goals/8 assists. 13/14: 4 goals/2 assists. This season he barely help the team in the attack, he runs, runs, runs, make some short passes and when he usually try something different it end up with bad results. But what annoys me is that some "fans" are really short minded. Take Malouda's example. He had some superb seasons as a Chelsea player (he was really great in 09/10) but when he left some people here were saying a shit player just had left, because they had his last as player 11/12 in his mind, when was average at best. This season Ramires has been a pain to watch, but he is nothing like he used to be in past seasons. He was never a great footballer, but definitely better than this.

Luiz performance yesterday was better than any performance Matic had with a blue shirt.

Then I think something is really wrong. We spent 100x more than Atletico, and how come they manage to build a better squad than ours? Atletico in my opinion has a good squad, but thats it. They have a limited squad, almost the same squad from 11/12 season when they were in the Europa League final. If Atletico win La Liga and UCL this season, I don't see they winning both competitions again or even fighting for them again in the next 10 years. What those guys are doing is really amazing, but saying they have a better squad that ours just show how a lot of our players are underperforming in the currently season.

I don't think so. They have the same squad from 3 years ago when they were a Europa League side, and were no even getting in top 4 in La Liga. Mourinho is using those ultra-conservative tactics not because he has a limited squad and thats the only way those players will work as a team and reach a UCL semi-final. Mourinho is using ultra-conservative tactics because thats how he is. Its not necessarily something bad, because he is a winner after all, and he won a lot of things using those tactics. Sometimes the tactics doesn't work.

Liverpool game was a completely different animal. Tired players needed rest, some players out due to injuries, 0 responsibility with the result because the PL already was 98% over for us, so those tactics in that game made sense. It does not mean its a tactic he should be adopting over and over again.

Time to use kids.

Football is just an amazing game, isn't it? Yesterday tik-taka died, people were saying how clueless Guardiola is, with his football philosophy bullshit, Mourinho was the king because he is the man to bring results. Today Mourinho's ultra-conservatism proved to be as ineffective as Guardiola's tik-taka. "Bloody football".

Mourinho did a poor job this season, but its just crazy to compare Mourinho and Benitez. ps: but if Benitez was the one parking the bus against Atletico in the first leg, and starting the second leg at home with 6 defender, including one RB playing in the mid, the press and Mourinho's fans would be saying how clueless the fat one is).

Not sure if its a good day to updated this topic.

Real is doing better than Real last season, Carlo reached the final in the first opportunity he had, while Mourinho failed 3 times in row. His tactics against Atlético now look as clumsy as you like, in both legs. Hope Mourinho learned a football lesson today. He still is a great manager, but he needs to change in order to survive in this ultra-competitive environment. Today its safe to say Mourinho is not as good as he used to be (a manager that could turn any team in the world into world beaters). I hope next we will see a different Mourinho.

I refuse to blame a attacking player for not defending well deep down in our own area, in a non-set piece moment. I just refuse.

Thats was Torres final act at the Bridge.

I think Jose is the one who thinks if you are 2nd, you are a loser. Also, how many coaches had expensive squads in past 4 years? Real Madrid + Chelsea?

YOU were licking AVB balls years ago. That alone makes you laughable character, my friend.

You don't. You used the same arguments about "targets", you just missed that we got no "Domestic Cup" at all. Targets YOU set, and you are saying our problems this season relied on the lack of a clinical striker that could score 20 goals in season, but you just forget that between 04 and 06 the team won 2 PL with no "clinical striker than can score 20 goals in a season".

I joined this forum in 2010, Ancelotti was the manager. Scolari was sacked 1 year earlier. Why you keep talking bullshit, my friend?

Do you believe the team is more limited than Atlético, in terms of individual quality?

Im looking forward you post. A post where you can explain why this season is a success, with better arguments than "before the season the targets were top 3 in PL, and QF in UCL". Lets discuss about it.