The Mourinho Thread

[Parky 739]

I am grateful for what jose has achieved for our club but I think his limitations in terms of tactics, squad rotation and management has come to bear. His one trick pony has been found out by other teams. His stubborns and pragmatism has cost us points up until now but it is still very early in the season.

Jose is now at a crossroads does he stick to what he has been successful with many times before or does he start to progress with new ideas and change. It will be interesting how the next few games plans out. If Jose continues the same recipe he is doomed to fail and will fall on his own sword. But if he is ready to embrace progress with new ideas and change than he still can bring success to our club for many years to come.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

Maybe he should spent some time coming up with a system that doesn't put our entire attacking load on Fabregas and Hazard's shoulders.
So in case both of them go off form we don't have the rest of the team standing there with their thumb up their asses not knowing wtf to do.

Atm we look absolutely clueless when we have the ball. The "pass it to Hazard and Fabregas they'll know what to do" tactic isn't working.
We end up resorting to desperate long range attempts and crosses into no man's land.

Both Hazard and Fabregas deserve to be criticized because they have been very poor but Mourinho deserves to be criticized too for not instilling any kind of attacking patterns into this team
and for purely relying on individual brilliance to get us goals.

We should be trying to break down teams by using rehearsed team patterns. I'm not seeing any of that. Everyone just seems to be moving off the ball as they please. Making runs when they feel like it instead of moving as a team and synchronizing their off the ball movement with eachother.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Maybe Mou isnt long term manager. Perhaps he can blow his baloon bigger and bigger but at some point it explodes.

We dont have a team. We have bunch of individuals who have no motivation and perform like shit. Its up to Mou to bring them together and motivates them.

Majority of this team is class. But they dont show it. We need the best out of players and its up to the coach how to deal with it. Iva alone is not the only problem for our performances. Its the whole team.

While Mou has to stick around, if we dont start playing well (if not league at least CL), we could face some big problems. The players might turn against Mou etc...Hazard, Matic, Tibo etc could leave. And thats something I dont want to see.

I like Mou alot, but if there is a big disagreement or whatever between the players and Mou, actions must be done. We cant afford to lose dressing room because for example unlike Real we wont be able to keep best players and we will go through another transition period.

Hopefuly team will get shit together and we will come back with a bang.

On another note, we might suck in PL this year, but CL could be a whole different thing.

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

It's so lazy to suggest that JM has lost the dressing room. Only once in his career has that happened.

What happened when he left Chelsea? Drogba, JT, Essien, and Lamps were crying/shell-shocked. Players were even texting him while he was at Inter! When he left Inter, JM and Materazzi crying together, Sneijder hails him as best manager ever. Ibrahimovic after only one season with him claiming he'd die for him. Madrid happens, but even Xabi Alonso and Fiorentinon Perez loved him.

He may have beef with the board, but not the players. Dont buy it for one minute.

Whose the Ronaldo/Casillas/Pepe at Chelsea?

No one. Hazard imo comes across as too aloof to be concered with club politics. Costa can barely speak english, and loves JM. Cesc Fabregas literally owes JM for revitalizing his career, making him a vocal point again after he was chased out of Barca. Thibo? JM had no qualms benching our 11-year Servant. Oscar? Look at what happened to KDB and Mata. Enough said. Ivan? Plays like shit, gets promoted to Vice-Captain/Captain.

[11Drogba 2,000]

Wenger was right about Mourinho. He is afraid of failure and he came here to become the king of premiere league after Alex Ferguson. If he knew that the ffp would be relaxed and City would spend much more than us while we build the stadium he might have been less willing to come to Chelsea.

On the other hand Mourinho thrives when he is the underdog. Although we are the champions we became the underdog again. I hope he realizes that and acts accordingly. Let's not get annoyed and frustrated that City are spending so much and they had a good start, let's become the team that frustrates and dominates its opponents.

[ZOS 580]

There are things he is not in charge of at the club, like transfers but he is culpable of the ridiculously late start to the preseason training and the unnecessary beefing with the medical team

[It's too big 625]

I am 60/40 on wanting to keep him as manager at the moment. I understand he is one of the top 2/3 managers in world football, but he just doesn't seem to want to give Roman or the fans the kind of football we want to see. If Guardiola became available at the end of the season, i would take him in a flash, but he may sign another contract with Bayern or might not want to come to Chelsea.

I am starting to doubt whether Mourinho can change the situaton or not, or whether he has lost the dressing room. To be honest, for any manager it's tough after the 3rd season and he's not had much help in the transfer window. Man city have been able to keep things fresh by continually bringing in quality players to add to their strength in depth, whereas we haven't bought enough quality.

Are we overbaked by playing too much, or are jose's tactics now growing old and the players are bored with them? Also, which other managers are out there that are available, or may be available in a season? The situation has to be perfect for all parties if he left and we got someone else in. If Guardiola signs a new contract then that leaves us with only one option and, we would be going over old ground, but it would be Ancelotti, and as much as I adore him as a coach, he may end up coming winning a title and then going downhill just like jose is at the moment. For me, if we don't improve then it's either offer Pep a great contract with assurances he won't be sacked, and bring him in next summer.

[Muzchap 8,966]

After some sleep - I'm still not sure what the problem is

I still think something is happening behind the scenes

I look back to the start of last season and how we played - so I know Mou can coach attacking play

He was so proud of the Schurrle goal - but after the defeat to Spuds - something changed and it's never been the same since

I really hope he decides to remove the shackles

I think the players are genuinely bored and frustrated at the defensive shape and want some freedom to go and attack.

I guess that's where Mou is frustrating - one freak result should not define the future.

[sapper245 40]

Our style of play is so much like it was in his 3rd year of his first time here, play got very stale and predictable. Also some of the players played every match last year. Even after a summer break the might still be mentally tired, after the season finished we flow off to Sidney ffs.

[Leif 6,006]

Mourinho is a God but it's time for a modern religion.

[Jase 43,479]

Precisely this. His squad management is extremely poor. He is the extreme opposite of the tinker man. He uses his starters/untouchables to the point of absolute exhaustion while almost completely neglecting the squad players. some of the players we lost due to frustrations over lack of game time could have easily been avoided but he loves his untouchables too much that he finds intelligent rotation and squad management a taboo.

No one is asking him to become the tinkerman 2.0 but a bit of balance does have its adavantages.

And let's not also forget that Mourinho proceeded to blame those players for not wanting to compete for places.

[coolhead23 1,147]

For everyone saying we need to sack the manager, I don't believe that is the right way forward for our club given our situation with managers in the past.

I m a big Jose critique but as a club we aren't look up well when it comes to handling our managers. With the slight drop in form, we are out to get a new manager. Every manager in the right mind wouldn't chose Chelsea other than money angle (Pep has been the prime example) ... We say lets go after Klopp, do you seriously think he will come over to get sacked in a year? We would rather wait and try his hands at Bayern next season.

Right now, we can just hope Jose sits, thinks, re-thinks his strategy and gets us up and running. We have the players, the potential, even a good manager if he drops his ego and arrogance.

Club & board has to support the manager so that when tomm we go out hunting mangers, we can get a world class one. You look around and every club is supporting their managers baring Chelsea (Jose has been the exception because it was damage control after the Pep fiasco)... imagine likes of Pelligerni, LVG, Wenger at Chelsea and they wouldn't have gone beyond their first/second year.

My 2 cents on the sacking ...

[Iggy Doonican 4,187]

The football is so predictable to the point of you now how the game is going to pan out from minute one. The back four pass the ball to each other for ages, one of them will make a ten yard burst and will either pass it square or give it to Fabregas. Fabregas then either plays a long ball to Costa who's being man marked by two centre backs and if he holds it up he has little or no support. Or Fabregas passes to Ivan who's cross never beats the first man. Ivan is then out of position leaving the opposition acres of space to break out. Hopefully Baba will at least bring some shape and solidity to the team with Dave moving back to right back. If Ivan plays against Everton (surely not !) then the rumblings of discontent will get louder and i can only see it ending one way.

[stroey 2,525]

We are all blaming Mou and that's correct, but we should also not overlook what the board did wrong.

Jose:
It was the first time since I've joined this forum that I could not defend Jose, I always did.
Some decisions are just not acceptable.

1) Remy: 4 EPL games, 0 minutes. Last season he scored so many crucial goals for us, and many as a sub. Hull City and Stoke winners already gave us 4 points. But he played Falcao, Kenedy and RLC instead of him. If you can't win your manager's trust by scoring so many goals in so little minutes, what you then have to do? I would not be surprised if he asked for a late transfer this window.

2) Azpi out instead of Ivanovic: Yeah I understand he thinks Ivanovic could be scoring goals like he did in the past, plus that he defends set pieces better. But taking out our best defender and letting our weakest defender on the pitch was basically suicide. After the game, I think he mentioned Ivanovic as ''the player who stayed on the pitch from minute 1-90, that he actually should've subbed'', so hopefully he did not mean Eden and is actually planning to punish Ivanovic.

In the end I trust Jose will turn this around, we will start winning again but he needs help from the board and his star players.

Board:
Pathetic, the ''one out first then one in'' have costs us so much time. Example: first selling Luis and then struggling to get a deal done for Baba, end result: overpaying for a 21yo talent. The board seems so obsessed with making profit, more busy with buying youngsters to loan them to Vitesse etc than actually strengthening the first team. Yes the new stadium is a good excuse/reason, but you should balance ambition and these restrictions. Arsenal is the best example of how you fail.

Jose said after the title win in April/May publicly:'' I want to buy a striker (Falcao), defender and midfielder to give the players some competition''. And what has the board done? Fuck all, absolutely nothing till the end of August, 31 August now and we have zero improvements. Pedro was a good one but a very lucky situation, United should've handled better. Compare our squad to last season and we've lost 2 leaders and motivators (Cech, DD) too and you need to replace that with quality.

The players:
JT - Natural process, you can't expect a 34yo to get better year after year. Hopefully he can recover some form soon.

Ivanovic - pathetic, you guys already described it the best. He should be a back up CB+RB from now on.

Cesc - always defended him but currently I can't. His salary is so high, he is brought to be a leader, a difference maker, he should take responsibility. But currently he is hiding. Last game was better, took some shots and almost scored, he should improve soon.

Matic - declined in form since the beginning of 2015, he needs a faster player next to him as him and Cesc are both slow. Matic basically has to cover for Cesc and JT, that's too much. Ramires/Zouma/Mikel are temporary solutions but I'd prefer a top class b2b like prime Essien next to him.

Hazard - I don't agree with what you guys said that he can't carry a team, in fact he carried us from Jan till May. Sometimes I think he is tired of being a one man army, but if you want to be the best you should always take this responsibility and currently he isn't. I think the arrival of Pedro helped him a little, same effect as Cesc and Diego last year, we might need another WC player next to him (Pogba) to get the best out of Hazard again. But as the main man of the team, you should be able to motivate your self more than he's currently doing.

Azpi, Zouma, Courtois, Cahill - Great guys who are performing as usual, they don't need extra motivation. Just check Azpi's goal celebration for example, a true blue warrior and my future captain.

Willian and Diego - You can see they are trying hard. Diego had some good games, just check his sprint for his goal last game but he's currently getting little help from Eden and Cesc. Willian did not have the evolution I hoped for, he's not even on his best form like last season. His goal scoring attempts are overdone cause he feels threatened, but he is working hard and fighting for every ball.

Pedro - great addition, very good already. 1 important goal and 2 important assists, he will only get better but you can't expect him to carry the team as a new guy.

Falcao - finally scored and that was a classic Falcao goal. Hopefully this gives him confidence as 80% of the old Falcao is already a top top striker.

[zolayes 14,489]

SUPERB rational analysis ,, THANKS Stroey

[termninja 5,290]

It's rather unfair to blame only Mourinho, let alone call for a sack after three-four games. He's staying and it's simple as that, bst thing for the club aswell. I find it extremely irritating when people start the sentence with demaning for stability and end it with calling for a sack. Don't take this too seriously, we're on a bad form patch but it will pass, like always, and so will the "sack-brigade" on this board. Relax.

Fans just love calling for manager sacks [emoji11]

[Laylabelle 9,754]

Fans just love calling for manager sacks [emoji11]

Then complaining about it after....

[milka 3,407]

Spartak Moscow doctor Viktoriya Gameeva shared a picture of herself on Instagram wearing a Chelsea shirt on Monday, sparking rumours she could be in line to join Jose Mourinho's backroom staff at Stamford Bridge.

Gameeva's Instagram account has quickly become popular with football fans. Pictures of her mixing her professional duties with leisure have seen her gain over 7,000 followers.

Away from her responsibilities with Spartak, Gameeva clearly enjoys spending time at the beach.

Eva who ?!

[NishC300 1,865]

We are all blaming Mou and that's correct, but we should also not overlook what the board did wrong.

Jose:

It was the first time since I've joined this forum that I could not defend Jose, I always did.

Some decisions are just not acceptable.

1) Remy: 4 EPL games, 0 minutes. Last season he scored so many crucial goals for us, and many as a sub. Hull City and Stoke winners already gave us 4 points. But he played Falcao, Kenedy and RLC instead of him. If you can't win your manager's trust by scoring so many goals in so little minutes, what you then have to do? I would not be surprised if he asked for a late transfer this window.

2) Azpi out instead of Ivanovic: Yeah I understand he thinks Ivanovic could be scoring goals like he did in the past, plus that he defends set pieces better. But taking out our best defender and letting our weakest defender on the pitch was basically suicide. After the game, I think he mentioned Ivanovic as ''the player who stayed on the pitch from minute 1-90, that he actually should've subbed'', so hopefully he did not mean Eden and is actually planning to punish Ivanovic.

In the end I trust Jose will turn this around, we will start winning again but he needs help from the board and his star players.

Board:

Pathetic, the ''one out first then one in'' have costs us so much time. Example: first selling Luis and then struggling to get a deal done for Baba, end result: overpaying for a 21yo talent. The board seems so obsessed with making profit, more busy with buying youngsters to loan them to Vitesse etc than actually strengthening the first team. Yes the new stadium is a good excuse/reason, but you should balance ambition and these restrictions. Arsenal is the best example of how you fail.

Jose said after the title win in April/May publicly:'' I want to buy a striker (Falcao), defender and midfielder to give the players some competition''. And what has the board done? Fuck all, absolutely nothing till the end of August, 31 August now and we have zero improvements. Pedro was a good one but a very lucky situation, United should've handled better. Compare our squad to last season and we've lost 2 leaders and motivators (Cech, DD) too and you need to replace that with quality.

The players:

JT - Natural process, you can't expect a 34yo to get better year after year. Hopefully he can recover some form soon.

Ivanovic - pathetic, you guys already described it the best. He should be a back up CB+RB from now on.

Cesc - always defended him but currently I can't. His salary is so high, he is brought to be a leader, a difference maker, he should take responsibility. But currently he is hiding. Last game was better, took some shots and almost scored, he should improve soon.

Matic - declined in form since the beginning of 2015, he needs a faster player next to him as him and Cesc are both slow. Matic basically has to cover for Cesc and JT, that's too much. Ramires/Zouma/Mikel are temporary solutions but I'd prefer a top class b2b like prime Essien next to him.

Hazard - I don't agree with what you guys said that he can't carry a team, in fact he carried us from Jan till May. Sometimes I think he is tired of being a one man army, but if you want to be the best you should always take this responsibility and currently he isn't. I think the arrival of Pedro helped him a little, same effect as Cesc and Diego last year, we might need another WC player next to him (Pogba) to get the best out of Hazard again. But as the main man of the team, you should be able to motivate your self more than he's currently doing.

Azpi, Zouma, Courtois, Cahill - Great guys who are performing as usual, they don't need extra motivation. Just check Azpi's goal celebration for example, a true blue warrior and my future captain.

Willian and Diego - You can see they are trying hard. Diego had some good games, just check his sprint for his goal last game but he's currently getting little help from Eden and Cesc. Willian did not have the evolution I hoped for, he's not even on his best form like last season. His goal scoring attempts are overdone cause he feels threatened, but he is working hard and fighting for every ball.

Pedro - great addition, very good already. 1 important goal and 2 important assists, he will only get better but you can't expect him to carry the team as a new guy.

Falcao - finally scored and that was a classic Falcao goal. Hopefully this gives him confidence as 80% of the old Falcao is already a top top striker.

Don't you think we should look within the club and instead solve the problem I highlighted by playing Loftus Cheek?

Very well written post and thank you for taking the time to highlight some of the issues.

Spartak Moscow doctor Viktoriya Gameeva shared a picture of herself on Instagram wearing a Chelsea shirt on Monday, sparking rumours she could be in line to join Jose Mourinho's backroom staff at Stamford Bridge.

Gameeva's Instagram account has quickly become popular with football fans. Pictures of her mixing her professional duties with leisure have seen her gain over 7,000 followers.

Away from her responsibilities with Spartak, Gameeva clearly enjoys spending time at the beach.

Eva who ?!

FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS!

[NishC300 1,865]

BREAKING NEWS: Abou Diaby just handed a transfer request to Chelsea after hearing about our new doctor!