The Mourinho Thread

[pHaRaOn 2,131]

Who are these players?

Theirs bench yesterday: Caballero, Zabaleta, Clichy, Nasri, Demichelis, Bony, Iheanacho. Can't see "enormous amount of world-class talent" here. Zabaleta, Nasri and Bony are good, but hardly a "world-class".

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

Eto'o was a masterstroke, we couldn't find a marquee striker that summer in fact Jose knew that Costa was coming next summer by all accounts so brought him in, wasn't prime Eto'o but gave a lot to the team and saved us a season of Torres playing most weeks.

Drogba was for the dressing room influence, a lot of the squad didn't have the winning mentality as of that time, and as you could see in the title celebrations Didiers influence was paramount in the dressing room.

Falcao however, looks a completely pointless signing.

It's not the signing itself that is the problem but the scheduling of our signings IMO.

We headed into the season with just bego and falcao signed whilst it was clear as daylight to everyone that that can not be enough, ok, we needed a backup goalie and if jose really trust ramires and mikel as backup midfielders fair enough but even he acknowledged that we need defenders. not only in numbers but with terry and ivanovic rapidly declining (the latter has been since 2 years) we should have fucking signed some defenders first before indulging in a luxury signing like falcao. it is a gamble. if it pays off, great if not, we still have 2 other strikers and if they are injured,mou had no problem playing without a striker in 2013 so what.

But apart from the defnite lack of quality and depth in our dreadful squad, it is also the system and the tactics that have been found out.

We have no width whatsoever. when we attacked from the wings last season, the players (mostly ivanovic and hazard, sometimes oscar and rarely willian) entered the box through the channels. Now ivanovic is detoriating, that only leaves hazard which makes us extremely predictable. also as willian does never risk entering the box, hazard usually has to move to his side to help him out which wastes an attacking option on his flank.

Secondly, as our main threat goes through the middle, we need actual playmakers there. when either fabregas or oscar (whose movement is extremely important to get space in the middle) is out, we are very limited there, as willian and ramires don't have the footballing iq to make space for through balls (mostly cesc's) to costa.

Against City, we made it so easy for them. we negated our threat through the middle by playing Ramires ourselves. AS for the threat of ivanovic, he is really easy to defend. they just sent kolarov to face him so he had no space to run into, tried to cross, which he is shit at and every cross of his got blocked or into the stands.

As we are obviously too dumb to sign a winger or a midfielder to remedy one of those issues, we should at least change the system to play more to our strength.

IMO we should either go Pep mode and omit one of our anyway useless defenders (read Ivanovic) and play some kind of 3-6-1

------------Tibo---------

--Cahill--Zoum--Azpi--

----------Matic---------

Willian--Fabregas-Oscar

Moses---Costa----Hazard

with Oscar and Willian's defensive workrates, this should be enough to see of most smaller sides. The midfield would be packed and offer us the opportunity for high pressing and fast ball retention.

or try the good old 4-3-3 again. esp in big matches where Fabregas is useless I could imagine it working.

+

-Azpi-JT--Cahill--Baba

---------Matic----------

---Willian---Oscar---

Moses--Costa--Hazard

In terms of personel it would only be Moses instead of Ivanovic which I don't imagine as too problematic. Moses tracks back by nature, is strong and has great aerial ability despite his height due to his amazing leap. Bascially he has all of Iva's strengths while not as many weaknesses. He is not that great offensively but at least is not allergic to scoring or assisting goals unlike Willian.

we should really give it a try. i could see either system working with a bit of conditioning + it would make us less predictable instantly.

[Iggy Doonican 4,187]

Eto'o was a masterstroke, we couldn't find a marquee striker that summer in fact Jose knew that Costa was coming next summer by all accounts so brought him in, wasn't prime Eto'o but gave a lot to the team and saved us a season of Torres playing most weeks.

Drogba was for the dressing room influence, a lot of the squad didn't have the winning mentality as of that time, and as you could see in the title celebrations Didiers influence was paramount in the dressing room.

Falcao however, looks a completely pointless signing.

Would have put Lukaku in front of Eto in a heartbeat myself. Think Drogba's influence might have had some bearing but to be honest he was pretty iffy. His best attributes pace power and strength were pretty much gone even taking into account his age. Always be a Chelsea legend though.

[Tomo 21,754]

Would have put Lukaku in front of Eto in a heartbeat myself. Think Drogba's influence might have had some bearing but to be honest he was pretty iffy. His best attributes pace power and strength were pretty much gone even taking into account his age. Always be a Chelsea legend though.

I disagree, with the youth of the AMs at the time expierence was crucial up top, Hazard touched up on how much playing with Eto'o helped his development. Also watching both play together for Everton I thought Eto'o was still a notch above him.

Styles I think said it right after the 6-3 "two strikers with a point to prove but only one had the quality to make it (the point)".

[Parky 739]

The biggest piece missing atm is finding the right CM to play alongside Matic now that Baba has signed. Two Matic's would be perfect one left footed and one right footed.

Realistically Witsel could come at the right price and is young enough to improve his game under Jose's.

[11Drogba 2,000]

Five reasons to explain Chelsea’s slow start to the Premier League

I saw someone asked in this thread (if I remember correctly) if a personal issue is affecting Mourinho's mood and the Guardian link above mentioned that his father is having a serious illness at the moment (although obviously that can't be used as an excuse for the nonsense he's doing right now).

I did not know this, made me feel bad tbh.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Hahaha Mou's done it again! Everyone is more focused on John Terry's future than Chelsea's overall performance. Magic.

[CMS 382]

Come on man, you know what I mean. Bayern bought away Dortmund's best players. Lewandowski, Gotze...

That would be the same as Chelsea winning the league last year and Man Utd snatching Hazard and Costa.

The situations can't be compared.

Sorry my friend, yes it can and could. We won the CL with Luis and Mata and they were both sold, now what?

[CMS 382]

We are buying. We've just brought in Baba and are linked with getting in Stones as well. It's different to what Klopp experienced at Dortmund because we aren't selling our best players every season.

People are complaining about the fact that we aren't addressing weaknesses in our squad that has been apparent from last season even - the RW and CM areas in particularly. They aren't complaining about us not spending any money because we are. It's just sad to see that we aren't strengthening in the areas where we need to.

Seriously? You know very well what they mean by buying. Do you honestly think the people here were talking about Falcao/Baba/Begovic as major buys? I don't have to spell it out that you know exactly what they mean by buying.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

Sorry my friend, yes it can and could. We won the CL with Luis and Mata and they were both sold, now what?

Are you being difficult on purpose?

Mata was sold because he was rotting away on the bench under Mourinho. He was not sold because of his outstanding performances.

Luis was bought away for a ridiculous sum. he was often a liability that season and they practically carried him to France themselves. ;-)

[CMS 382]

If it were possible that all changed and we changed our mind for this summer market I think we need to do the following movements in the market.

Sales.

1. Ramires (Juventus).

2. Cuadrado (OUT!).

3. Mikel (I know, it is impossible ...)

Signings.

1. A right-back (a great right-back) (Coleman -I know, it's impossible, but I hate Martinez- or Fabinho) or a left-back as backup (maybe Alex Telles from Galatasaray) to play as a left-back Baba With Azpilicueta as right-back.

2. A defensive midfielder to play close to Matic in complicated matches (a new bus) or to be backup of Matic throughout the season. But a backup which comes to play, not to warm the bench. Maybe Willian Carvalho or Axel Witsel are the best options.

3. Another centre-back. John Stones... Zouma - Stones for the next decade since now.

4. MANDATORY. A creative CM or a magic N.10. This should be mandatory. In fact, if it were up to me, I would sign two creative players for the midfield. But it's impossible. So I would sign Isco because now Real Madrid will sign Kovacic and they have Kroos, Modric, James, Isco and Kovacic fighting for three positions in midfield and maybe he wants a change to play Euro 2016 in the starting eleven with Spain. Isco and Hazard together would be a holy madness.

But I think that Roman should be smart and sign Koke paying his clause (44 million pounds) and give him a good salary. Koke is exactly what we need now that Fabregas is missing. It is a relatively expensive signing, but it would be a strategic signing. But his signing is very complicated.

I do not know, but if Roman could read this .. he has to understand that we have a squad to fight to win every trophy but if we do 2/4 signings before the end of the market. We have a good team but it needs to be renewed to avoid monotony.

Or we react quickly in these last 15 market days ... or we are going to depend on the bus in the important moments.

Regards.

The way you are throwing suggestions out here, one would think you are playing fantasy premier league. Do you seriously have an idea what goes on behind the scenes to buy any player for that matter? This is not like buying cattle at the auction you know.

[CMS 382]

Are you being difficult on purpose?

Mata was sold because he was rotting away on the bench under Mourinho. He was not sold because of his outstanding performances.

Luis was bought away for a ridiculous sum. he was often a liability that season and they practically carried him to France themselves. ;-)

Really? What exactly is Gotze doing in the Bundesliga since that purchase? Last I heard he is on the fringe of being sold. He is not exactly tearing up the league is he? Neither is Robert. I'm not trying to be difficult either. Its just a discussion about differing points of views. So far I do not see any viable alternatives. Until then, I'll keep my faith with known quantities. I know for a fact that JM has never had a losing season or will he ever have anything remotely close to Klopp. Not in this lifetime. I'll bet my money on it too. It does not matter why any player was sold either. the point is they were sold.

He's never not made the CL in any league, he's coached at. I don't remember all his records off head, but I think the the worst he's done is probably 3rd in a league. I'm inclined to think maybe 2nd, but don't quote me on that. So until I see something that will definitely improve Chelsea from a coaching perspective, I cannot side with you. Again, One loss, one draw and we are ready to throw the baby out with the bath water.

[Roquila 1,335]

The way you are throwing suggestions out here, one would think you are playing fantasy premier league. Do you seriously have an idea what goes on behind the scenes to buy any player for that matter? This is not like buying cattle at the auction you know.

Calm your tits bro

[CMS 382]

Calm your tits bro

WTH are you on about? Was I talking to you? I'm having a discussion with other forumers and you are here telling what me what? The ignore button is there use it. Its (CMS- ignore) How about you log off and go to sleep.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

Really? What exactly is Gotze doing in the Bundesliga since that purchase? Last I heard he is on the fringe of being sold. He is not exactly tearing up the league is he? Neither is Robert. I'm not trying to be difficult either. Its just a discussion about differing points of views. So far I do not see any viable alternatives. Until then, I'll keep my faith with known quantities. I know for a fact that JM has never had a losing season or will he ever have anything remotely close to Klopp. Not in this lifetime. I'll bet my money on it too. It does not matter why any player was sold either. the point is they were sold.

Dude, him not being a starter at bayern doesn't change the fact that he was one of the absolute stars at Dortmund... Please.

[Iggy Doonican 4,187]

Don't follow the European leagues myself but i have to say you boys on this forum know your stuff fair play to you.

[kmk108 1,186]

Dude, him not being a starter at bayern doesn't change the fact that he was one of the absolute stars at Dortmund... Please.

Exactly. I'm a Dortmund supporter and we were all absolutely gutted when we lost Götze. He was a star, and a star from the youth at that.

CMS, you want to compare the selling of Mata and Götze, Mata hasn't been setting United on fire either.

[supporter 3,088]

The way you are throwing suggestions out here, one would think you are playing fantasy premier league. Do you seriously have an idea what goes on behind the scenes to buy any player for that matter? This is not like buying cattle at the auction you know.

You've seen the amount of money that Manchester United and Manchester City have spent in the last two years? ... For example ... or Arsenal, even Liverpool after sell Suarez. They are very close to us. It's not football fiction.

Other teams like Real Madrid or Barcelona (not this summer because Barcelona can not sign because of to FIFA sanction) spent each year more than 100 million euros in their in signings.

Or PSG who spends every summer millions upon millions to make his squad.

Or Bayern Munich which usually sign each year the best Bundesliga players.

Even Atletico de Madrid has spent more than 100 million euros this summer in signings.

Instead, we have signed Begovic (by almost the same amount of money that we have sold Peter Cech), we have signed Baba (instead of Filipe, with a positive / negative balance of - 10 million euros compared Baba) and we have acquired Falcao on loan. About 25 million pounds on new players. A ridiculous amount of money if is compared with the amount of money that our rivals have spent to upgrade their squad.

I'm sorry, maybe I'm not realistic, but I see how our rival reinforce their squad with new players to improve their performance while we do not make any major signing and that annoys me.

Maybe I'm an Illuminati and everything that is happening in this summer market is a sign of someone greater than ourselves to follow the light to the infinite freedom because we all live in the Matrix movie ...

But I do not think so, and I think that for a team like Chelsea spend more or less 80/100 million pounds on new players every summer should be a normal seeing

how football works.

Why we should be different in our policy of signings than Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG, Liverpool or Atletico de Madrid?

Regards.

[Roquila 1,335]

WTH are you on about? Was I talking to you? I'm having a discussion with other forumers and you are here telling what me what? The ignore button is there use it. Its (CMS- ignore) How about you log off and go to sleep.

You're out of your depth, since this Jose drama began you tried to shove your opinion on members throats. Calm down boy.

[Muzchap 8,966]

Jesus calm down everybody - we all get that nobody is pleased about our start to the season

Luckily for us a season is played over 38 games - not 2.

Chill out a little and stop fighting each other