The Mourinho Thread

[Adnane 1,101]

3 points of United when he took the team. 

15 points off the champions in the end of the season.

That's just horrible. 

[LDN Blue 7,903]

1 minute ago, Adnane said:

3 points of United when he took the team. 

15 points off the champions in the end of the season.

That's just horrible. 

Agreed, but that season was heading in one direction Rafa or no Rafa. As I said before, I think he stabilised a rocking ship - We'll both agree to the fact we're happy he's gone and never coming back

[Adnane 1,101]

I don't know about that, I think a lot of managers would have done a better job. 

I can't forgive joking about our fans then losing to QPR at home, no, I just can't... 

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Just now, Adnane said:

I don't know about that, I think a lot of managers would have done a better job. 

I can't forgive joking about our fans then losing to QPR at home, no, I just can't... 

Tbh I'm not asking you to, neither do I.

It was more on the merits of what he actually did with this team.. Just remember, we didn't have Costa, Fabregas, Matic or even Drogba at this time either. Sturridge had left for Liverpool and we were down to Torres & Ba only. Hell our double pivot in the EL final was Lampard-Luiz, that's a big insight into the shape of our team at that time.

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

Madrid Calling.

[Adnane 1,101]

Mourinho took the same team within 4 points of the champions ( and a couple of dropped points at home on the road ), and to the semis of the CL. 

Not comparing Mourinho to Benitez, the comparison doesn't even stand for me, but saying that he had a bad team, maybe, I'd even say for sure since it showed its limitations afterwards, but he had the team to at least challenge for the title till the last 3-4 games. 

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Just now, Adnane said:

Mourinho took the same team within 4 points of the champions ( and a couple of dropped points at home on the road ), and to the semis of the CL. 

Not comparing Mourinho to Benitez, the comparison doesn't even stand for me, but saying that he had a bad team, maybe, I'd even say for sure since it showed its limitations afterwards, but he had the team to at least challenge for the title till the last 3-4 games. 

I do agree with that.

He should have done better and of course Mourinho is 1,000% the manager Rafa is so it's no surprise what Mourinho did with that team in 2013-14. He could do nothing about the CL though, once Juventus had beaten us in Di Matteo's last game there was no way for us to come back. Rafa actually won the last group game 6-1 remember?

[Adnane 1,101]

Of course, never spoke about the Champions League

By the way our CL was exceptional wasn't it ? I think we were standing almong the best third ranked teams throughout the history of the CL Groupe phase or something ? 

 

[Tomo 21,733]

1 hour ago, Adnane said:

When will the "Rafa did well for us" myth stop ?

Chelsea was 3 points off the top when he came, in the run for winning the Club world cup and in the two english Cups as well. 

He finished 15 POINTS off the champions, that is a disgrace, even we, in this disastrous situation have only 19 points off Arsenal at the moment, I don't think people here realize how bad he coped with the Premier League... 

Won the Europa League, struggling against the likes of Rubin Kazan and needing an injury time winner against the likes of Sparta Prague... We really don't care, we had better objectives, which were mainly qualify for next season champion's league, but also challenge for the title, we lost FA Cup semis, Carling cup semis and CWC final while getting -12 points under him on the league...

Blaming Rafa for falling off United is like blaming Jose for coming in and finishing below Liverpool, United dropped something like ten points during Rafa's whole reign at Chelsea (three of which against us after they won the league), the team we had that season weren't good enough to win the league.

He came in and made us a more solid unit, we were a lot more competitive in the big games (won two draw one vs United, beat Arsenal, drew vs Spurs and Liverpool, did lose to.City tho), he got us consistent results in big games which we lacked since the double season, something as well we know Jose built on.

He also had not a great firstXl to work with never mind depth and got us 3rd place with the bonus of a trophy, he also did it with a record breaking run of fixtures.

Did I like him? Not really, Did I want him full time over Jose's return? God no, would I ever want him back? Defiantly not, but he did a good job under difficult circumstances and deserves credit for that.

[Pizy 18,370]

Fuck. 

Was still holding out a glimmer of hope that Mou wouldn return to Madrid. Only one possible destination now. Goddamnit. Next season will be a pain watching José at United.

[Ossie the King 634]

1 minute ago, Pizy said:

Fuck. 

Was still holding out a glimmer of hope that Mou wouldn return to Madrid. Only one possible destination now. Goddamnit. Next season will be a pain watching José at United.

Imagine the scenes if we go to Old Trafford to face Mourinho and we've got Brendan Rodgers as manager.

[Last Sicarius 610]

Jose in United? so they want to join to relegation fight? :v

[Pizy 18,370]

46 minutes ago, Ossie the King said:

Imagine the scenes if we go to Old Trafford to face Mourinho and we've got Brendan Rodgers as manager.

Or Pellegrino.

The worst thing initially will be seeing him sign players he couldn't here. Pretty much no transfer target will be out of reach. Seeing him sign players we've been desperate for here for years will be a gut punch. Think Stones and Pogba will be his two big summer buys.

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

2 hours ago, Adnane said:

3 points of United when he took the team. 

15 points off the champions in the end of the season.

That's just horrible. 

Are you for real mate ? You're losing all credibility in my eyes with such posts.

He took team that was on downward spiral, why otherwise there would be change of manager in the first place ? Chelsea feared for top4 finish even though the situation at that time was good in the table but it could quickly continue in the same pattern and go horribly wrong.

Rafa task was to get to top 4. He's done that while having super-thin squad while playing 69 games in a season (!!!). I don't know which idea that was but we had the worst squad overall with probably zero to non "options" why also having the most games to play. It was ridiculous bad planning.

 

Our squad in 12/13 ;

Cech, Turnbull, Hilario

David Luiz, Azpilicueta, Cole, JT, Cahill, Ivanovic, Bertrand, Ferreira

Mikel, Ramires, Lampard, Romeu, Benayoun (lol)

Hazard, Mata, Oscar, Moses, Marin

Torres, Ba + Sturridge (who was sold)

 

and with that squad you have to play 69 games in a season, reach top 4 and try to win a cup. WTF was that from Chelsea I will never know.

He had to basically play Hazard, Mata, Oscar in every game plus Moses as a sub. There was Marin who was crap and always injured. For midfield it was Ramires, Mikel, Lampard. Romeu was injured. Oh and I forgot Benayoun. Great options don't you think ?

 

The fact is Rafa did a really good job considering amount of matches to play (69 games, again I say this, while having to travel to Japan and Russia in mid weeks) and super thin squad. He even played 17 year old Nathan Ake and moved David Luiz to midfield to have a bit more options there. Just think about it for a second.

We dropped far too many points from winning positions, especially at the end of the games. I think we dropped 15 points from winning position at that season and majority of them in the last stage of the game. Reading A and Liverpool A are the first spring to mind. Plus that QPR loss. Yes, that's frustrating and I was very angry at that time but when you think about it players may fail hold on to lead when they are tired. And there was every reason to be tired with such shit overall squad and amount of matches.

[Muzchap 8,966]

He will end up at Real - Zidane hasn't got the experience, I see Zidane as a temporary appointment and fully expect Jose to be there

[Henrique 9,133]

3 hours ago, Adnane said:

When will the "Rafa did well for us" myth stop ?

Chelsea was 3 points off the top when he came, in the run for winning the Club world cup and in the two english Cups as well. 

He finished 15 POINTS off the champions, that is a disgrace, even we, in this disastrous situation have only 19 points off Arsenal at the moment, I don't think people here realize how bad he coped with the Premier League... 

Won the Europa League, struggling against the likes of Rubin Kazan and needing an injury time winner against the likes of Sparta Prague... We really don't care, we had better objectives, which were mainly qualify for next season champion's league, but also challenge for the title, we lost FA Cup semis, Carling cup semis and CWC final while getting -12 points under him on the league...

He did well considering the circunstancies of that season. When Rafa arrived, it was pretty clear the team would not finish above United, and it was clear the team would struggle to even finish in the top 4. RDM lacked any decent tactical skill, and it was easily the most disorganized Chelsea I've ever seen since I started watching games.

FA Cup and Curling Cup are never objectives. Europa League was pretty fun to watch, and nothing wrong in defeating Sparta Prague in injury time or struggling against Kazan, specially because those teams care more about that competition, and Chelsea is one of the few big european teams that won the EL after getting out of UCL.

United was pretty solid, and the team was a mess. Challenging for the tittle was never a possibility after RDM was sacked.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

4 hours ago, Adnane said:

Mourinho took the same team within 4 points of the champions ( and a couple of dropped points at home on the road ), and to the semis of the CL. 

Not comparing Mourinho to Benitez, the comparison doesn't even stand for me, but saying that he had a bad team, maybe, I'd even say for sure since it showed its limitations afterwards, but he had the team to at least challenge for the title till the last 3-4 games. 

It's not a linear equation. I'm sorry but these kind of comparisons are way too simplistic. It's like saying Stoke beat City and Sunderland beat Stoke so Sunderland are better than City. There are soooo many other factors. If anything, Jose would not have been able to take that team close to the championship if it weren't for the work that Rafa did, because under RDM we simply didn't resemble anything like a team. 

For me, the importance of the work that Benitez did was not the winning the EL (though that was great to win) it was that he enlisted some sort of system in the team and helped key players such as Azpi, Hazard, Luiz...etc. develop as players and in that system which set us up for the successes of the next couple of seasons under Jose. 

[Hybrid Angel 2,130]

Rafa's problems at Madrid had more to do with dire Football, with or without results.

Plus, he was always a mistake for Madrid. His team's record against top opposition in this season is horrible.