Martina

Mourinho did exactly the same stuff to Joe Cole and that was the best possible thing for Joe's career. He took the criticism on board, worked hard and despite some of the English press thinking he ruined Joe Cole's career and stifled his natural ability, Mourinho actually helped mould him into a key figure for club and country until his injury.
Mourinho is possibly testing Hazard to see if he will react in a similar way. If he isn't going to, then Mourinho might seriously decide to cash in on him this summer when his stock is so high which in turn may change Mourinho's transfer targets with more money in the kitty.
I'd rather keep Hazard and hope this will get even more out of him. To be fair he has been pretty much a guaranteed starter all season, not rotated and Mourinho has regularly praised him in public too.

What the fuck are you on about? Do you know how many times Mourinho has shielded his players from criticism in his time at this club? I think he can occassionally be honest with a player as a teaching exercise when they make such a major mistake. 10 fucking players worked their bollocks off after we scored and one player stood still like a fucking statue so maybe he can take a bit of criticism and LEARN from it.
It amazes me how fairweather fans like you don't hesitate in jumping on the manager's back though.

Ugh cant believe people are still defending Hazard blindly. No one can blame Hazard solely for the loss, we were beaten by the better team. But you as a player cant track a player halfway and then think fuck it I cant be bothered. Cole moved more centrally because he trusted Hazard to stick to the man. It was vital for us to make half time 1-0 up, unfortunately when that didnt happen our team didnt do enough to win the game.

It's not scapegoating. The truth is that Atletico are a better team than us right now, and they're at a different stage in their development. They're peaking, two and a half years into Simeone's tenure whilst we're probably one transfer window away from being a 'Mourinho side'.
That means we can't beat them in a level game, and have to out-manoeuvre them just like we did against Liverpool at the weekend. We won that game because every player did their job. Every player marked their man, tracked the run and was in exactly the right place at almost every time.
What yesterday highlighted is just how much bs Rodgers was spouting when he said it was easy to coach - it isn't. It requires intense focus and no mistakes, and unfortunately Eden dropped a massive clanger. It's unfair to say he cost us the game because there are factors that go back years that contributed to us not winning (signing Torres, not signing midfielders, suspensions etc.) but he was at fault for that goal, and it turned the entire tie on it's head.

Precisely that. TBH, I don't quite understand some people. We have seen Hazard improved on his defensive duties and track back to defend against his FB when he has to. When that happens, people praised his work for it which is fair and yet, when he doesn't track back, the same lots think he shouldn't be criticized and allowed to get away scott-free with his defensive work. That isn't fair and rather selective, isn't it? If that was the case under Mourinho, Mata wouldn't have been sold and probably will be playing in the starting XI every week. Additionally, going by that logic, we should just defend with 6 players and just let the front 4 go AWOL defensively, almost like when we were under RDM. Remember all those goals we conceded from simple cutbacks? I do not want to make comparison but if Hazard was causing damage in the same way say Ronaldo does to the opposition offensively, then you can sort of close one eye on his lack of defensive duties since he compensates it by destroying the opposing team. However, since that is not the case (at least not yet anyway) now, then we can't afford to have any slackers, if you like, in the team and everyone need to contribute their fair share of defensive work (especially when this team is by no means the strongest or best yet).

Although Hazard is by no means 100% wrong in what he said about our style of play, in a week where there has been a strong debate on the positive/negative style of play, his comments were unnecessary. It only gives the media, haters etc amminution to attack Mourinho and team...
Eden Hazard criticises Jose Mourinho's tactics, saying Chelsea 'aren't set up to play football' after defeat to Atletico Madrid

Two world class saves to keep us in the game. The dipping shot from Osman in the first half and then the deflected shot from Osman again in the second half. Deserves a lot of credit for today's result.

If Courtois plays as well as Cech has this season this forum will be full of comments saying what a wonderful goalkeeper he is and why it was such a smart decision to replace Cech. Forget Cech's truly great seasons, all Courtois has to do is show up to get the plaudits.
I'll be honest, I don't really care about Courtois. He hasn't played a single minute for Chelsea. If Chelsea sell him and use the money to further imrpove the squad I'll consider that good business. And after that I'll continue to support the guy with 10 years at the club and who, at the age of 31, has many years ahead of him.

Courtois makes one save. Forum goes crazy.
Cech dependable as ever. No one cares.

The step-down from Terry and Cahill to this guy is absolutely giant. Does any member actually think he's a secure presence in defence? Those who constantly defend him (and apparently feel like they can't change their view of him for whatever reason) will offer up distractions like his ability to pass from the back (which is much overhyped) or his innate physical and technical skills.
They'll throw up things like nationality, like he's too Brazilian or we expect him to be more English. Bull....shit...I'd take Thiago Silva over him and if he could defend like Moore or even Ferdinand (technically sound, defensively strong) then he'd be no problem. But he doesn't. He's 26 and still the same player he was when we first bought him.
As a midfielder I actually don't mind him, but as a defender he's always got a mistake in him that will arise from a lack of concentration or commitment.
Here's the truth about David Luiz. He has the tools to be the best defender in the world. In fact with his physical and technical strengths, he could be one of the all-time greats. He has pace. He has strength. He has fantastic ability on the ball. He's tall. He has EVERYTHING.
Everything except for the most important thing - the mental aspect. Unfortunately that mental aspect is what sets every top class sportsperson apart from the crowd. It's what made Jordan so great. It's what made Ali so great. It's what makes Terry so great. It's what made Schumacher so great.
And it's what makes Luiz a liability.

David Luiz proves no substitute for John Terry as Chelsea foundations crumble

Independent

“It is difficult not to pin a lot of this on Luiz, and the absence of Terry. For all the Brazilian’s obvious qualities, especially in central midfield, the defence just isn’t tied together quite as well. Chelsea’s greater waywardness reflected the occasional haphazardness that slips into his abrasive game. It was summed up in the 29th minute when he effectively challenged his own goalkeeper in air.

… Rather than keeping focus on his man, however, David Luiz committed the cardinal error of looking to the linesman. In that split-second, the game was settled.

It is, of course, one of the most elementary instructions at every level of football. It was similarly the simple difference here.”

Terry was the difference between our last match and this one.

Now I’m not English and I have no “I hate Brazilian players” issue at all—as a matter of fact I’m a huge fan of Oscar’s—but please this has to stop.

I have never seen Luiz as a solid and reliable defender. Last year, when this place was all “Luiz is our next captain” I said I’d prefer Cahill and got slaughtered for that. I know Luiz is popular with the young fans, he’s probably entertaining (?). But he is not a Mourinho’s player and never will be. How often did we end up with a clean sheet with Luiz defending this season?

He shouldn’t have been a CB today, he made mistakes at both goals. Cole and Azpi with Cahill and Ivanovic in the middle would make so much more sense to me.

Terry was the difference between our last match and this one.

Now I’m not English and I have no “I hate Brazilian players” issue at all—as a matter of fact I’m a huge fan of Oscar’s—but please this has to stop.

I have never seen Luiz as a solid and reliable defender. Last year, when this place was all “Luiz is our next captain” I said I’d prefer Cahill and got slaughtered for that. I know Luiz is popular with the young fans, he’s probably entertaining (?). But he is not a Mourinho’s player and never will be. How often did we end up with a clean sheet with Luiz defending this season?

He shouldn’t have been a CB today, he made mistakes at both goals. Cole and Azpi with Cahill and Ivanovic in the middle would make so much more sense to me.

Terry was the difference between our last match and this one.

Now I’m not English and I have no “I hate Brazilian players” issue at all—as a matter of fact I’m a huge fan of Oscar’s—but please this has to stop.

I have never seen Luiz as a solid and reliable defender. Last year, when this place was all “Luiz is our next captain” I said I’d prefer Cahill and got slaughtered for that. I know Luiz is popular with the young fans, he’s probably entertaining (?). But he is not a Mourinho’s player and never will be. How often did we end up with a clean sheet with Luiz defending this season?

He shouldn’t have been a CB today, he made mistakes at both goals. Cole and Azpi with Cahill and Ivanovic in the middle would make so much more sense to me.

Terry was the difference between our last match and this one.

Now I’m not English and I have no “I hate Brazilian players” issue at all—as a matter of fact I’m a huge fan of Oscar’s—but please this has to stop.

I have never seen Luiz as a solid and reliable defender. Last year, when this place was all “Luiz is our next captain” I said I’d prefer Cahill and got slaughtered for that. I know Luiz is popular with the young fans, he’s probably entertaining (?). But he is not a Mourinho’s player and never will be. How often did we end up with a clean sheet with Luiz defending this season?

He shouldn’t have been a CB today, he made mistakes at both goals. Cole and Azpi with Cahill and Ivanovic in the middle would make so much more sense to me.

No, the fact that we had to use Luiz instead of Terry cost us. There is a tiny distinction. Let's see if you can find it.

So Gc and It start abiut 10 matxhes together and concede one goal against pool thru set piece and another to united when everyone was cruising thru. All this while no team put in a "perfext cross" or no striker made a perfect run.
But luiz comes in and the stars align and that one moment of magic happens. Oh definitely!!!! Poor luiz... never at fault for anyyhing ever. He is simply PERFECT!!!

He let Victor Anichebe get away for him for the goal. He also let De Jong get away from him on Saturday.
People might feel he's being targetted unnecessarily, but I don't think we concede that goal if Terry and Cahill are the partnership.
But yeah he got the assist for the goal and he nearly got that free-kick near the goal as well, and I'm sure there was a 50 yard pass somewhere in the mix. I've praised him in certain games this year when he's played in midfield, but I simply don't think he's a good enough centre-back for Chelsea Football Club.
Oh, and scapegoat, scapegoat, scapegoat, scapegoat...now no-one else has to say it.

They’ve ALL been amazing and José’s master plan was spot on.

I’m really happy for Ivanovic today. He’s working hard and isn’t always appreciated.



And let’s not forget Cech - he does deserve some credit as well, had a very good game today.

i guess some people in here don't know Mou at all, of course he's going to complain about West Ham parking the bus, not because of complaining but to divert attention from his players
and it's worked, everybody is talking about Jose and not the players
he's been doing it his whole career, i expected fans from other clubs not to see it but our own fans, geez
like SAF does it after every game he doesn't win, he complains about something
that's why they're the best managers in the world

Not sure why there's such a fuss being made of Ivanovic. He's not ideal, but we still managed to create 39 chances which is more than enough to beat most teams.
Plus people ignore his importance at set-pieces and the way he works with Cahill and Terry to create chances from corners, like the one Terry had in the first-half. Ivanovic occupies Collins and one other player giving Terry the space to have a good chance in front of goal. Maybe we can work in Matic so that we have another threat from set-pieces but at the moment, the guy who scored 8 goals last season is important to us in an attacking sense and you have to weigh that against the marginal gains you might get from playing Azpi there.

I’m aware of that. That’s why I asked whether his father contacted other clubs. Because as far as I know United was the only club they approached.

You didn't read the whole thing though. Mourinho sort of implied Mata left because he couldn't deal with not being first choice and threw a maybe after saying he didn't make him stronger. I think the veiled message below is that Mata didn't like the position of having to fight for his position and therefore left - and where José says maybe it made him stronger, he may believe the opposite actually.
So he first admits he didn't make Mata a stronger player, then he says MAYBE Mata is now a stronger player because of what happened - which makes no sense. How can a spell in the bench make a player better if said player chooses to leave to play wherever he's likely to have more play time? Is only me or there's no way there's any reasoning if Mata chose to leave at the end of the day? I can imagine a player becoming stronger if he faces the challenge and overcomes it, not gives up a few months later.
I think the message between the lines is very clear. Those two sentences seem very purposefully constructed by Jose - as is everything he says. I think he believes Mata left because he wasn't comfortable having to fight for the position (which is different from trying imo). I guess Mourinho feels that when Mata realized it wouldn't be easy, he just gave up - which may or may not happened and not me or you or anyone else but Mata (or people close to him) can deny or confirm.
I will never say Mata didn't try, because it was clear for me he's tried hard when he was in the pitch. I personally think he's left because he didn't want to fight once he realized how big of a fight that would be. Even then I don't blame him because I feel that may have been a lost battle for him anyway, so why bother especially in a WC year?
In another note:
I really feel sorry for him if that's why he went there. I don't know if he's delusional or hopeless, but how can someone hope to be EPL champ going to a team that could take a little while to be rebuilt and that has a manager who thought Mata had more goals than assists in the past two years (Moyes is really clueless) and who I'm not sure knows how to use a player like him. In another article (or maybe was the same) Mata said that once he heard Moyes was interested on him his reaction was 'wow'.
I really feel sorry for Mata because he definitely deserved better. I think he really believes those things, but poor thing, he is in for a big disappointment... Even if United do sign as many guys as they're yelling at the top of their lungs they will, I'm not sure Moyes can do anything with them. How long and how many VERY expensive signings did it take for Mancini do well in the EPL? And even then that was won a hair distance ahead of ManUtd

Let the mind games begin:

(Sky Sports):

Mourinho: "I'm sorry that I didn't make him a stronger player." (So he thinks Mata is still weak).

"Juan is not comfortable on the sides. He tried very hard and he did very well in some matches playing on the sides, but it's not his natural habitat.

"So when a club like Man United comes and for sure they told him he's going to play in his favourite position and he wants to go, he goes."

Of course they didn’t tell him that - where would they put Rooney then? So basically he’s saying Mata will be playing in a position he didn’t like at Chelsea.

So - if I understand it properly then United was Mata’s choice already back in August…or put it this way: Mata wanted United before United wanted Mata. (The Guardian article).

Do we know if his father approached other clubs as well, or was United the highest priority from the beginning?