borriske

Confirmed. Matic wants Hiddink sacked #PlayerPower #rats

I know. I was just thinking: "look at them, playing turgid football, led by an egomaniacal has-been manager who has earned his post on past successes and who is now playing players out of position or playing fellow has-been players, who has either sold the brilliant attacking players at his disposal or turned them into mindless defensive drones and who thinks that sterile possession equals domination and thus labels every defeat as undeserved" Then reality hit me

Watched Man U this weekend, thought "Well at least we aren't playing the worst football in the league" Then tonight happened...

How was that not a foul on courtois?

Hazard to head home an Iva cross, mark my words

Bertrand: De Bruyne dazzled us at Chelsea training “It’s so easy for everyone to say how much he has improved since leaving Chelsea but the truth is he always had it. He just, for whatever reason, was not given the opportunity to show it at Chelsea.” http://www.squawka.com/news/bertrand-de-bruyne-dazzled-us-at-chelsea-training/532202#dww1osi2ivZY3gRq.99

That damned Tottenham seems to have been so pivotal in a bad way. But how? Did something happen there? I vaguely seem to remember Mourinho being absolutely furious after that game declaring he would restrict a lot of the attacking plays and focus more on defense. I can be completely wrong about this and I can't find this interview on the net, but it seems to be in accordance with our, erm.., 'style' of play after that. Edit: I seem to have mixed up the tottenham game last year with the COC defeat to sunderland the year before . (http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/dec/18/jose-mourinho-chelsea-tactics-sunderland). Still, one might expect Mourinho to have made the same decision after that game and after the horrible start this season. "It's something I don't want to do, to play more counterattacking, but I'm giving it serious thought. If I want to win 1-0 I think I can as I think it is one of the easiest things in football. It is not so difficult, as you don't give players the chance to express themselves."

So... November is supposed to be our worst month right? *shudders*

Our defense...

fck

Do you really want to know?

I think you were missing the point of his post since it wasn't directed at you.

What were these rumours?

I know. But normally it the manager should be at the front defending the club (not necessarily the players) in the media. As the manager it is primarily HIS job explaining why it went wrong . The fact that he can't/doesn't want to right now is a testament to 1) how much he already fcked up in the media 2) how little control he has over himself during these interviews and/or 3) his cowardice for for not wanting to explain his own antics.

There was Dortmund last year. And in Belgium this year we have Standard Liege, who normally should be title contenders (or close to it) but who are this year bottom of the table with no improvement in sight either (and that is after changing the manager).

Says it all really when the players have to step in for Jose for the press formalities

Now forgive me if I'm stepping out of bounds, but since when is it okay for an administrator to ridicule a member for a completely sensible post?

Yes look at liverpool and tottenham. Look at how succesful we ve been searching for a second winger.

Now Eden shouldn't be free from criticism or from being benched but this makes no sense. 1) If he can't fit in a player like eden against Villa at home because he's concerned about conceding goals, well... 2) If it's about sending a message to Hazard (which is what i feel it is all about), the timing seems wrong, two weeks after his last chelsea game, on the back of his best performance of the season (albeit for the NT). 3) Having Hazard defend more, is not going to help us that much. We need him to carry us forward. Having him track back more is only going to hold him back from it more. 4) And now these comments... Sheesh. He's never criticized anyone by name like this before (besides Carneiro lol). I mean questioning his attitude, threatening to drop him completely... It may have worked after the Atleti game, but it' different now. All of the team is underperforming (not you Willian :heart: ), so why is he singled out like that. Besides Jose is not in as strong as a position as back then, far from it, no matter what the board and the players are saying.

He was also asked about KDB. Said that he was doing great and that "he plays in a team that is doing well and is playing (attacking) football, which is always easier for a forward".

Now maybe i'm too cynical, but isn't it possible that all these players suddenly coming out in support of Mourinho is a big PR-stunt coming from our club? Especially as it happens to coincide with the statement of the board backing him?

So.. he has five tall players to defend set pieces. He switches Iva with Baba and suddenly he has three? Is Baba this small that he counts as -1?

... and brendan here?

Had all of this typed out last night at 1.00 am, but for some reason it got lost during the posting... sigh He may have cost very little, but at the same time the chance that he would contribute anything to us was close to zero as well. Plus I felt it was disrespectful to remy as well who had performed excellent the season before. Indeed, we're not completely sure that Mourinho was behind the transfer, but he always seemed supportive of the move, even before he was signed (http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/jose-mourinho-vows-help-radamel-5863839). And he has a habit of signing similar players (eto'o/drogba). I do get the feeling though that indeed JM may not have been fully backed during the transfer window, so that can be a strong argument in his favour. And you can only trust those players if they in turn trust you, but how are you going to win them over with those line ups? I agree, 90% of the squad including Matic has done nothing to earn that trust this season and deserves to be benched, but it is too late now to for bullying tactics, it is only going to antagonize them further. He is still stuck with those players so he HAS to rally them behind him. And the only way you're going to do that i think is to be tough but more importantly fair. I expect a FB who cost between 14 and 22 mil £ to be good enough to at least be tested after 2 months. I mean after all this time he is not going to improve any further just training with the squad. The only way you're gonna know if he is good enough, is to play him. And should he not be up to par yet, the only chance he has to improve is, again, to give him more playing time. Agreed though on Djilobodji, maybe it wasn't justified to mention him. That whole transfer just feels a mess and i feel sorry for the lad. He only wanted to play CL football... There's nothing wrong with it in itself and it can indeed be helpful under the right circumstances. But I think that taken to extremes for a long period of time as Jose likes to do, it's effects will wear off and may even cause a backlash, especially if you have no other approach even when things turn to sh*t. Someone posted a link earlier in this thread that explains it in more detail. (http://www.espnfc.com/club/chelsea/363/blog/post/2643933/jose-mourinhos-methods-now-in-doubt-at-chelsea) I'm no expert on these things, just want to give my two cents. Enjoyed your detailed response though.