Barbara

and given how we played the second, it's clear we don't have a physical issue because the players have been overplayed. No one will convince me those players aren't too nonchalant and giving half-hearted presentations. If they're tired, no matter what hell on earth had been the talk Mourinho gave them (which they deserved) would have made them come and play football in the second. Also people keep blaming Mourinho for everything or giving to him most of the blame. That's a lie imo. With performances like Cuadrado had, Ramires (midweek - he was good today), it's no wonder we see Oscar and Willian starting. Cuadrado managed to be worse than Oscar AND Willian combined. Ramires is a toss, totally hit or miss, you never know which version of him will show up. The only players consistently fighting and/or playing well are Courtois, Hazard and Costa imo. Even when Costa is poor you see he's giving his everything, trying with everything he has, whether is leaving the box, getting physical (and mental) with opponents. That's the attitude most of the team don't have. When you're in bad form technically, at least run, fight, present yourself to the game. Most of our players seem to think we already won the league and they can have a walk in the park. Hazard had a below par performance in the first half to his own standards, but it's hard to play well when everyone around you except the keeper and the striker showed up to play. Then when the rest of the team decided to play in the second, he ran the show as he normally does. Mourinho should have started with Zouma and Luís imo, but I still don't know how much a difference it would have made in our overall game (Zouma would definitely made us look more solid in defense, even Terry is shaky these days) when our midfield went MIA. At least the talk in the break worked and the players saved some face from a realy shameful presentation in the first half. Mourinho's life isn't as easy as some people believe it to be and he's far from being the main reason this team has been playing shit imo. He's partially guilty, but it doesn't matter the approach, the players, the system he chooses, if the players are going to behave the way they did against PSG, against Burnely, against Saints today in the first half, I'm positive we wouldn't win matches even if Mourinho chose 13 players to start the game. so answer me, who he should play instead? Cuadrado? Ramires? Oh, let me guess, one of the kids from the academy?

Cuadrado is more useless than Oscar and Willian combined and that's saying something

seriously? he played nothing in all matches I've seen him...

OSCAR FFS!!!!

Most of our players have showed up for the second half. I hope Mourinho gave them the talk they deserved. I feel Cesc hasn't showed up yet though

I know you are, but it's hard to be so harsh on Mourinho when the players just don't show up. Yes, Mourinho has been making mistakes, but I can't accept the level of performance of 80% of our players in the last month or so. Cuadrado has done absolutely NOTHING to even say he'd be an upgrade to Willian or Oscar. I think people are being too harsh on Mourinho when the players have been so nonchalant about it.

another example... what was the excuse for him not shooting right then? It was a perfect ball to him and he did to it what he's done to 80% of the balls on his feet today. Nothing, easily dispossessed, soft, useless.

sorry, that's an excuse. Every time Cesc had the ball he has been appalling and Schneiderlin has been running the show over him there.

really? who are those best players you're talking about? I'd love to know. Except Luís and Zouma, I don't see anyone in the bench having a case of being called best player than the ones in the pitch - which is telling a lot as the bunch in the pitch are really bad. Just saw Hazard's stats in the screen and yeah - even he had an average performance (not use a nice word), so I stand corrected by my initial assumption he was okay.

Mourinho used to have better player management - he wouldn't accept this level of performance so many times in a row from a team. If he has a fault these days is probably being soft or losing the ability to make players play. The tactical approach doesn't bother me too much because whatever approach he decided for, with the players being so bad, it wouldn't work either. It seems like Terry, Cahill and Ivanovic can't defend anymore, they don't know how to do the basic. I saw a stat on Twitter that Terry + Cahill didn't ATTEMPT one single tackle in 30 minutes of game. What is this shit? If Mourinho doesn't find a way to make those players produce, then well, we should be praying for Arsenal start being Arsenal because we'll slip a lot in those 11 matches...

can Cesc at least get a yellow there? It'd be the best thing he's done in the last few matches - assuring he misses the next two. I've been defending him from the assumption he'd be bad, but well, he's been (it'll take longer for me to say is because is the first semester). Oscar has been beyond useless, Willian hasn't showed anything and our defense probably has the worst positioning in the league right now. Clueless. It's hard to watch those players these days. We can blame Mourinho for Luís and Zouma - some advocate even Cuadrado, something I don't, but what's the list of players paying absolutely shitty or below average? Courtois, Costa and Hazard have played well. All the rest, I mean ALL THE REST are either average or shitty. And then people come and blame Mourinho, but what excuse Matic, Cahill, Oscar, Cesc, Iva, Willian and even Terry have for playing so badly? I disagree with some of his choices, but even if he dropped Cahill, Oscar or Willian and Azpili, Matic, Cesc, Terry, Oscar or Willian would still be playing and probably shitty. I called it against PSG and I'm calling it again, while Mourinho is being stubborn with a couple of players, there's no excuse for our players to be playing SO BLOODY BAD.

we've been royally outplayed the last 15 minutes... playing Cahill was definitely a big mistake. Our defense is way too slow and they've been doing whatever they want in our right flank It's a shame

Courtois has been spending too much time with Hazard

1x0, three to go

woohoo DIEGOL!!!!!! perfect cross by Iva btw

Willian's lack of vision KILLLLSSSS ME if he had better eyes, he'd be a hell of a player second counter in a row he makes the stupid decision (no decision actually)

I know I'm delusional when my prediction scoreline for this match (in a podcast I take part for Chelsea Brasil) was 4x0. Hey, I'm trying the optimism thing Mourinho asked the journalist the other day. I'm very optimistic myself but I guess I'd take it farther, lol #wishfulthinking

I agree... Cuadrado really seems out of the zone playing for us. I hope next season he proves me wrong, but I'll never get this transaction - especially at the expense of Schurrle (though we don't know which was the cause and the consequence of those deals)

Come on, mate, time to shine again!!!!!!!!

a perfect example about my instance right now on Mourinho's thread. There's fair criticism... and then there's this. Mourinho hanged? Players disgusted?

I have around 30 people on my ignore list... some pages in some threads is one line after another saying You're ignoring XXXX posts, click here to view it anyway (or something along the lines). I think the criticism here gets out of hand way too often. The amount of disrespect towards Mourinho sometimes is annoying.

yeah, I was so shocked by not seeing Zouma there despite the mistakes Cahill and Terry did in all goals we conceded to PSG that I forgot about Luís. Playing home, we should always play Zouma and Luís imo... but well, Mourinho can be quite stubborn at times. I hope it works. I hoped Cahill would work against PSG and I wasn't happy with how it turned out in the end. Let's see if today it gets better

why all of sudden Zouma isn't playing anymore? It makes absolutely NO SENSE unless there's some inside info we don't - like injury. Haven't all the mistakes done by this defense called for a change? Sometimes I just don't get Mourinho...

Is it really a bad idea to create The Mourinho Moaning Thread? I'd love not to read some posts. I think if people are unhappy with him and his methods, if they're setting deadlines for him to change, if they think he's outdated, if they have a list of managers that could replace him, wouldn't it be nice if they had a thread for them to bring all their feelings out without others calling them off. It's a win-win situations. We - the people who have minor problems with him won't have to read through pages and pages of what we consider bullshit, and they - the people that can barely stand Mourinho ahead of Chelsea would have even more freedom to tell whatever they please without having someone to criticize their points of view. I'm not kidding, I'm as serious as a heart attack. For some people Mourinho really represents Chelsea, he's one of us. Other managers that were at Chelsea in recent years don't come even close to what Mourinho represents for the club and many (probably most) of its supporters. He's a class of his own, which is why I think we could make an exception and allow him to have two threads. It's tiresome for both sides. Then when someone feels compelled to have a discussion, they go to the Moaning thread (ofc the name is a joke, it should be something else) and have a discussion, and people who want to criticize him without going as far as some like to go in every single posts of them (and they're numerous), come here and another discussion happens.

The advantage is there, it's real and as Mourinho said, anyone else would be happy to be at Chelsea's place right now. I also prefer this than having City or Arsenal sniffing our neck. I just worry a little bit about how this team handles advantages. If they don't know how to properly approach games with a short advantage, I wonder how they'd do with so much room for mistakes. I'm a bit afraid they'll take the foot out of the pedal, get too comfortable and waste the lead. This lead should help us in case things go wrong against United, Arsenal and Liverpool, not Hull, Leicester and Sunderland. I think a bad result tomorrow (draw or loss) is even acceptable - as Southampton is a good side, but then we should be winning those matches if we want to win the league. I hope the lads show up and play (something they didn't bother to do against PSG imo).