The Mourinho Thread

[didierforever 7,349]

That's the thing, they are just decent back-ups - Mikel is limited while Ramires blows hot and cold. They are not the players who will help take us to the next level.

And if you take Fabregas out, for instance, then where is the creativity in midfield going to come from? We all know our squad isn't exacly blessed with creative players.

No but some times, the moaning tells us something and in this case, people had good reasons to moan about it.

in 10-11 we had a mid of mikel-lamps-rambo. with 3 upfront of DD, anelka, and malouda/kalou. we were one match against united away from winning the PL. what they miss out in creativity, they make up in legs, stamina, stability. also, we have the likes of hazard and willian in the squad who can provide the spark of magic. one can hope that jose is right about oscar and him improving hazard-like proportions.

i am not denying what you are saying. our squad has its chinks in the armour. we have our limitations. but we also have players who can cover those limitations (and are proven in that area). i have no idea why we dint even try for bastian or are not even linked with vidal (all i can come up with is that jose actually expects big improvement from oscar and for him to be the difference of a marquee signing). but i dont think the situation is as bad as some people are making it out to be. if the window ends right now, and we have to go into the new season with the current squad, i think we would be right up there for PL and CL.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

in 10-11 we had a mid of mikel-lamps-rambo. with 3 upfront of DD, anelka, and malouda/kalou. we were one match against united away from winning the PL. what they miss out in creativity, they make up in legs, stamina, stability. also, we have the likes of hazard and willian in the squad who can provide the spark of magic. one can hope that jose is right about oscar and him improving hazard-like proportions.

i am not denying what you are saying. our squad has its chinks in the armour. we have our limitations. but we also have players who can cover those limitations (and are proven in that area). i have no idea why we dint even try for bastian or are not even linked with vidal (all i can come up with is that jose actually expects big improvement from oscar and for him to be the difference of a marquee signing). but i dont think the situation is as bad as some people are making it out to be. if the window ends right now, and we have to go into the new season with the current squad, i think we would be right up there for PL and CL.

10-11 was a bad season overall, that MU team was not that good anyway with Rooney sulking for the 1st part of it, they really had no world class player on form that season but relied on others like Nani and Chicharito. We with all our best players still there such as Malouda, Lampard, Cole, Terry...etc should be leading it but we bottled it from Oct-Jan and it was too late to savage at the end.

[Tomo 21,751]

10-11 was a bad season overall, that MU team was not that good anyway with Rooney sulking for the 1st part of it, they really had no world class player on form that season but relied on others like Nani and Chicharito. We with all our best players still there such as Malouda, Lampard, Cole, Terry...etc should be leading it but we bottled it from Oct-Jan and it was too late to savage at the end.

The problem was our squad as a whole stagnated big time, even in the double season there were some serious warning signs but the ending we had with one game a week covered that up, in 10-11 it was obvious from the start something was not right, even in the two early 6-0s we weren't as good as the scores suggested, West Brom outplayed us for most of the first half and against Wigan we were dreadful but just happened to score from every chance we created.

When it all came to a head vs Sunderland I wasn't shocked one bit, in fact it was only Cech that prevented the same thing happening against Wolves few weeks before that.

[Jase 43,479]

Jose Mourinho enters critical season at Chelsea

[Jase 43,479]

The problem was our squad as a whole stagnated big time, even in the double season there were some serious warning signs but the ending we had with one game a week covered that up, in 10-11 it was obvious from the start something was not right, even in the two early 6-0s we weren't as good as the scores suggested, West Brom outplayed us for most of the first half and against Wigan we were dreadful but just happened to score from every chance we created.

When it all came to a head vs Sunderland I wasn't shocked one bit, in fact it was only Cech that prevented the same thing happening against Wolves few weeks before that.

Losing to Hodgson's Liverpool was one of the worst experiences ever.

[Tomo 21,751]

Losing to Hodgson's Liverpool was one of the worst experiences ever.

The home game was ten times worse, Carlo got completely destroyed tactically by a man who just got back in the game after a decade.

[OhForAGreavsie 6,077]

The problem was our squad as a whole stagnated big time, even in the double season there were some serious warning signs but the ending we had with one game a week covered that up, in 10-11 it was obvious from the start something was not right, even in the two early 6-0s we weren't as good as the scores suggested, West Brom outplayed us for most of the first half and against Wigan we were dreadful but just happened to score from every chance we created.

When it all came to a head vs Sunderland I wasn't shocked one bit, in fact it was only Cech that prevented the same thing happening against Wolves few weeks before that.

Completely agree. I've often said that we were lucky to win The Double. We were ordinary in the first half of that term but we got out of trouble because, by an amazing coincidence, Drogba, Lampard, Malouda and even Kalou, all happened to hit the form of their lives at exactly the same time. It was never going to happen again. It couldn't.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

The home game was ten times worse, Carlo got completely destroyed tactically by a man who just got back in the game after a decade.

Tbh he basically played 532 or something like that and basically refused to get out of their own half. Torres had a really good chance in the 1st min I remember and we dominated possession but couldn't find a way through then they got that late goal. Nothing could be done differently, maybe if we had someone like Hazard at the time it would have been different but we were lacking a true creative mid during this period.

[Tomo 21,751]

Tbh he basically played 532 or something like that and basically refused to get out of their own half. Torres had a really good chance in the 1st min I remember and we dominated possession but couldn't find a way through then they got that late goal. Nothing could be done differently, maybe if we had someone like Hazard at the time it would have been different but we were lacking a true creative mid during this period.

He played 5-3-2 because we showed our hand at Sunderland with the diamond with Kalou 'playing' Torres, and when executed right 5-3-2 nullifies any formation that doesn't have any width. Im surprised more managers didnt try that vs us that season, we would have been in real shit if they did.

Also Torres shot in minute one wasn't really a chance half chance at best, the one that Carragher blocked half an hour in on the other hand............

[Tomo 21,751]

Completely agree. I've often said that we were lucky to win The Double. We were ordinary in the first half of that term but we got out of trouble because, by an amazing coincidence, Drogba, Lampard, Malouda and even Kalou, all happened to hit the form of their lives at exactly the same time. It was never going to happen again. It couldn't.

I thought we had a brilliant end and beginning but dodgy middle, what was quite annoying is whenever we had a chance to create some real distance with United we dropped points which was infuriating.

My massive gripe with Carlos spell is when we were winning by 3+ we played with urgency and intensity like we were losing with ten to go yet when we were actually losing or drawing we coasted like we were 5 up. Not saying the former was a bad thing but I would have swapped 7 goals for 4 if it meant we found the much needed goal when things were going bad or at least showed some intent and urgency to try and get it.

Do you remember the game vs Fulham away in 10/11? The amount of potential counters ruined by Lamps, Essien and whoever else was in midfield that night passing between themselves drove me up the wall.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

If i had @Tomo's memory...wow.

[Henrique 9,133]

Jose Mourinho enters critical season at Chelsea

Interesting.

The market is really quiet (Falcão is the only big name). Arsenal was the best team in 2nd part of the season, might win this PL season with Cech. Losing PL and another UCL failure (specially after pathetics defeats for two seasons in a row), its not absurd to imagine a new manager for 16/17 season.

[Mechromancer 262]

My fear is: If Mourinho doesn't feel some type of ambition, he maybe gonna want leave this club. I mean, you need big names in order to compete in Europe, who is what Jose wants most. And obviously looks like the club isn't doing a great economic effort in comparison with other years. Granovskaia maybe has a rational vision, economically speaking, but if you sell some restrained plan of business, not only Mou, other players with big market like Hazard or Courtois must feel very uncomfortable. They need a competitive team in Europe.

[Heisenberg 1,824]

Why should Mourinho doesnt feel ambition ? He was ambitious for a decade and a half.I'm not really into the idea of we need big guns every summer, if I'm not mistaken, United didnt recruit that much when they won the 06/07 title and followed that by a double, no ? I believe we will buy good players in this transfer windows obviously not the same caliber of Fab & Diego, but we dont need major overhaul.

[didierforever 7,349]

10-11 was a bad season overall, that MU team was not that good anyway with Rooney sulking for the 1st part of it, they really had no world class player on form that season but relied on others like Nani and Chicharito. We with all our best players still there such as Malouda, Lampard, Cole, Terry...etc should be leading it but we bottled it from Oct-Jan and it was too late to savage at the end.

it was, no doubt about it. i was just giving a for instance to jason. but you have to take into consideration that malouda, lamps, AC, JT were all on the wrong side of 30. hazard, wilian, costa, cesc, matic are all on the right side. infact except for JT and iva, there is no other 30+ player. and those 2 are warriors.

the point simply was that with a supposedly "uncreative" mid, lamps injured, essien suspended/injured, we almost pulled it off. remember when we had to play 4 full backs as defenders and zhirkov in the middle of the pitch and got blasted 3-0 by sunderland.

right now, with matic and cesc as the first teamers, rambo and mikel can provide more than adequate cover for us. i honestly have not seen enough of aranguiz so cant make a judgement. but witsel for 35mil for sitting most of the season on the bench would be poor when what we need first and foremost is a pedro/gotze type AM signing. i am not even sure that we do need a CM signing unless we are trying to buy a bastian/vidal which would improve our first team. but i think both those ships have sailed.

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

My fear is: If Mourinho doesn't feel some type of ambition, he maybe gonna want leave this club. I mean, you need big names in order to compete in Europe, who is what Jose wants most. And obviously looks like the club isn't doing a great economic effort in comparison with other years. Granovskaia maybe has a rational vision, economically speaking, but if you sell some restrained plan of business, not only Mou, other players with big market like Hazard or Courtois must feel very uncomfortable. They need a competitive team in Europe.

"Mourinho maybe gonna want to leave this club." "Hazard and Courtois must feel uncomfortable."

Making up things in your own mind is delusion mate, not fear.

[Madmax 9,219]

"Mourinho maybe gonna want to leave this club." "Hazard and Courtois must feel uncomfortable."

Making up things in your own mind is delusion mate, not fear.

Paranoia.

[iseah100 5,612]

My fear is: If Mourinho doesn't feel some type of ambition, he maybe gonna want leave this club. I mean, you need big names in order to compete in Europe, who is what Jose wants most. And obviously looks like the club isn't doing a great economic effort in comparison with other years. Granovskaia maybe has a rational vision, economically speaking, but if you sell some restrained plan of business, not only Mou, other players with big market like Hazard or Courtois must feel very uncomfortable. They need a competitive team in Europe.

What?

[Clockwork 1,794]

Jose Mourinho enters critical season at Chelsea

it is a good article.

Which is why i think we should wait until next season to give him a contract extension if he still deserves it.

He has shown how bad things could get in his third season, and never a good idea to give him a contract extension when his stock is at his peak. Second season always been Mou best with all his sides Chelsea, Inter, and Real Madrid.

[Jase 43,479]

it is a good article.

Which is why i think we should wait until next season to give him a contract extension if he still deserves it.

He has shown how bad things could get in his third season, and never a good idea to give him a contract extension when his stock is at his peak. Second season always been Mou best with all his sides Chelsea, Inter, and Real Madrid.

And as Henrique mentioned above, there seems to be a similarity with the transfer business too. We have made 2 signings so far - both decent, not great - and the ones we look to be doing fall into the same category as well. Saw 1-2 articles recently about Mourinho being concerned by our lack of progress in the transfer window. The situation does look a tad dodgy at the moment.