The Mourinho Thread

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

And funnily enough, part of the reason why the away form is bad is because of Mourinho's negative approach at United and Spurs to begin with. The Everton one was just pure unlucky. On another day, we could have won that one 3/4/5-0 easily.

We gave United much more respect and rightly so given the fact they are league champions and Michael Carrick excels when given space. He wanted to condense that space and not risk exposing it. Think we conceded a fair amount of goals against United that past few seasons and Jose wanted to make sure that didn't happen. We got a point at Old Trafford, only time will tell if that point will be crucial for us.

Spurs are Spurs. Jose despises them just as we fans do and he always approaches the game 'not to lose', which has been proven to work masterfully for him. He is back in a country and league that he has been absent for several years from. He's getting the feel back and I'm sure he will learn from experience as history always shows that Jose always gets the last laugh.

Plus I think the United match came a little too early for us. If it came now I'm sure Jose would have still been compact but would have had better attacking tactics to snatch a win. He didn't know his team now the new United at the time.

[Jase 43,479]

We gave United much more respect and rightly so given the fact they are league champions and Michael Carrick excels when given space. He wanted to condense that space and not risk exposing it. Think we conceded a fair amount of goals against United that past few seasons and Jose wanted to make sure that didn't happen. We got a point at Old Trafford, only time will tell if that point will be crucial for us.

Spurs are Spurs. Jose despises them just as we fans do and he always approaches the game 'not to lose', which has been proven to work masterfully for him. He is back in a country and league that he has been absent for several years from. He's getting the feel back and I'm sure he will learn from experience as history always shows that Jose always gets the last laugh.

Plus I think the United match came a little too early for us. If it came now I'm sure Jose would have still been compact but would have had better attacking tactics to snatch a win. He didn't know his team now the new United at the time.

Fair enough on the United game but, maybe this is on hindsight, one would now question if it was better to take the game to United given how wobbly they looked after that game. What about the Spurs one then?

He started the game with playing Ramires on the RW when we had Schurrle who can play there and arguably execute our counter attacking better but yet the former is used there to just contain Spurs. And you already saw what happened when we took the game to Spurs in the 2nd half. Had we began with that approach, we could have won it. Moreover, Mourinho only changed Ramires's position to the pivot because we were 1-0 down at HT. Had it stayed at 0-0 then, would he have done the same? Doubt it. And as much as we played well then in the 2nd half and managed to get at least a point, funnily enough Mourinho hardly got any stick for starting Ramires on the RW when our previous managers usually got it for doing so and what's worse here is that Mourinho had better options now than say AVB, RDM and Benitez but yet stuck Ramires out wide.

And Cicero, I don't really buy into the reason that because it was Spurs and this 'avoid losing' negative approach adopted by Mourinho has served him well to justify his selection and approach then. It has also came back to bite him.

BluesMaster, on 04 Nov 2013 - 1:15 PM, said: And funnily enough, part of the reason why the away form is bad is because of Mourinho's negative approach at United and Spurs to begin with. The Everton one was just pure unlucky. On another day, we could have won that one 3/4/5-0 easily.

And look at what happened when we went for a very attacking approach at Newcastle .A more defensive side may well have nicked that game 1-0.

That was hardly even a 'very attacking approach' against Newcastle. It was just that players didn't turn up and bottled out of challenges, losing those 50-50s etc and putting ourselves under pressure when we could have avoided it.

[Phil Driver 503]

True but I was referring to MaZaCar being in the team but yes we bottled it at Newcastle in an Arsenal way ,not used to seeing that and dont like it .

[Tomo 21,751]

http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/11545-time-for-avb-to-really-earn-his-money-with-a-huge-statement-against-wolves/

Is Jose going to make a similar statement i was hoping AVB was going to make (after the dire game against Levekusen) this time 2 years back?

[The_Flash 1,144]

It really isn't Jose's fault that after a wonderful month of results they suddenly decided to play *** shut and embarrass everyone . I just worry with just Etoo and Ba left who have one goal between then. Hopefully midfield and defence can get the goals :/

[Blue Traveler 256]

Jose's today press conference:

‘Maybe the worst thing that happened was the easy start. You go there and see lots of space and they don’t press you. They were a bit scared. We hit the post twice. The game was easy to win, we had lots of space to play in the first half, but we were just playing as if the goal would arrive.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2488079/Jose-Mourinho-Chelsea-cursed-November.html#ixzz2jof0aNT9

Always spot on!

[Henrique 9,133]

I am of course being realistic as to who will be available in January and Alonso believe me is twenty times quicker than Mikel . Watch this space we need reinforcements as Jose has clearly made his mind up as I have that Mikel is not good enough. What can I do if some can not see what Jose and I can see? I would have Alonso in front of Mikel any day he is useless.

Its a surprise that you are talking about Alonso and not Carrick...

[Henrique 9,133]

It really isn't Jose's fault that after a wonderful month of results they suddenly decided to play *** shut and embarrass everyone . I just worry with just Etoo and Ba left who have one goal between then. Hopefully midfield and defence can get the goals :/

Results usually came after poor games or slow starts. One situation is pretty common this season:

The team have a slow start, then concede a goal in 2nd half. Then Mourinho come up with 3 subs in last 20 minutes, or the team score a goal, and fail to kill off the game, concede the equalizer, then Jose come up with 3 subs. In most games the team needs at least two changes to look good. It means he is selecting the wrong line up most part of the time.

I don't get the "team lacked spirit" thing. This is his jobs after all. If players were lenient in game against Newcastle, of course thats his fault. He must find a way to motivate his players, and get the best out of them. In fact the team lacked an answer to Newcastle tough defensive system. Desire to win has nothing to do with that. Even the game against City was far from a great game, but in general people forget the weakness when the results are positive. Game against Spurs, first half was an one sided match, they had the chance to kill the game. Poor game against MU.

Mourinho team is far from convincing yet. At the moment its really hard to see this team winning the tittle or going too far in UCL. Days ago he said the team was inconsistent in past two seasons. Thats was right, but he is the special one, isn't he? So we can't expect more than AVB and RDM mediocrity?

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Results usually came after poor games or slow starts. One situation is pretty common this season:

The team have a slow start, then concede a goal in 2nd half. Then Mourinho come up with 3 subs in last 20 minutes, or the team score a goal, and fail to kill off the game, concede the equalizer, then Jose come up with 3 subs. In most games the team needs at least two changes to look good. It means he is selecting the wrong line up most part of the time.

Fegurson won 13 EPL titles by making attacking subs in difficult games and converting 1 point to 3. I'll take that from mourinho over benitez putting azpi for ivanovic any day of the week.

I don't get the "team lacked spirit" thing. This is his jobs after all. If players were lenient in game against Newcastle, of course thats his fault. He must find a way to motivate his players, and get the best out of them. In fact the team lacked an answer to Newcastle tough defensive system. Desire to win has nothing to do with that. Even the game against City was far from a great game, but in general people forget the weakness when the results are positive. Game against Spurs, first half was an one sided match, they had the chance to kill the game. Poor game against MU.

Mourinho team is far from convincing yet. At the moment its really hard to see this team winning the tittle or going too far in UCL. Days ago he said the team was inconsistent in past two seasons. Thats was right, but he is the special one, isn't he? So we can't expect more than AVB and RDM mediocrity?

Mourinho did a good job motivating his players for a whole month in october, and they got complacent and thought it was just newcastle and put no energy in that match.(lack of spirit)

Even the stats support the fact that none of our players were willing to fight for 50-50 balls. The fact that oscar had more tackles(5) than (iva, cole, ramires, lampard, mata, hazard) combined(4) says all you need to know about the attitude the players came into that match with. Meaning they just let newcastle run free along the park without tackling them or stopping them.(I'm sure you saw how cole let sisoko run free to almost score and was just strolling back, coach cant stop that terrible attitude during the game)

We hit the bar twice, terry effort was cleared off the line, willian, hazard missed clear cut chances, eto missed 2 open chances. So this match could have gone another way if we were clinical.

But it was so evident that the players were too relaxed in their play, especially in the first half playing exactly like how we did a lot last seasons ("lets just keep passing and the goals will come") naive attitude.

[Special Juan 28,141]

This group is so, so different to what he previously had in his first time here. There is a freshness in the air, I for one won't be annoyed if we don't win the title and I don't expect us too really, this is a new foundation and yes it's a very good one but we have a lot of new players and a new manager. Football fans are impatient, they want things yesterday, and before anyone starts harping on about "Why don't you want us to win the title" I'm not saying that, of course I want us to win the title, more than anything but we have to be grounded.

Let's look at where we are right now- Second in the league, on a great run bar the Newcastle game, in the Capital One Cup after smashing Arsenal away, FA Cup to come and after a shit start to the CL we have turned it around in the CL by smashing Schalke away and Bucharest away. The PL is the league where anyone can beat anyone, already proven. There is a lot to look forward to with CFC right now, people just need to embrace it, be patient and let Jose do his stuff because he will get it right and the machine that once was will rear it's head again, but what I am seeing now is very pleasing.

Just. Be. Patient.

[Blue Armour 4,443]

I don't think its a coincidence that we have all 3 strikers producing the goods this season...There was something fundamentally wrong with our approach play over the past two years, with the midfielders being allowed to steal the show. I'd say Mourinho has fixed that particular problem..

[darrus 422]

I'd say not fixed, but is working on fixing definitely.

[Ainsley Harriott 2,732]

No worries

[Fernando 6,585]

I think he has realized how much we miss the width.

Not to mention that Lampard is better coming as a super sub then starting all games.

Mikel is good enough for now but I think Mourinho might want someone else this January or wait it out till the summer.

[Sheva. 5,373]

It's good to see us trying different things. Before we used to cross the ball endlessly for Torres to meet 1 out of 20.

Now we rarely cross the ball and instead go for cut-backs or low crosses. Only problem is that, Ivanovic is the only fullback who goes forward and only one who gets into those good positions, and he has 0% success rate.

Only a matter of time though before he finally finds someone, i hope

[Blue Armour 4,443]

The next time Jose goes all out on attack to chase a lead, I hope he opts for a front 3 along the likes of Schurrle-Torres-Eto'o, in a 4-3-3 instead of removing a defender. It's something like having Malouda-Drogba-Anelka, with Eto'o performing the roaming striker role like Anelka did.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Its always good to keep discipline and order, but this tactic is always super risky. Right now Mou is "playing" with Mata, Luiz and Hazard who were best players last season. Best. You dont just blame these players for having such poor games, but it also depends on coach. Mourinho will either suceed with these work hard and you will play or he will fail massively and we will lose Mata, Luiz and Hazard in summer because they will be unhappy.

I feel Hazard is type of player that will fully star only if he is given all freedom and be key/main player of team. Lots of balls to him etc. Players like him do stuff in attack, but only learn defensive duties when older. Much like Ribery. If Mourinho will retrict Hazard role, he will be unhappy.

There are also rumours about Luiz attitude and players are mad with him. Is that true?

As much Mourinho wants to create team of eleven hard workers, he will also reduce potential of our young talents.

But I have one thing to say if Mourinho will be putting Hazard or Luiz on bench all the time from now on, Im sure they will move to club where they will play all time. Mourinho will either make team realy strong or make half of our team unhappy. You just cant expect from someone like Hazard at his age when he wants to prove in pl by scoring goals, do fancy tricks and then tell him to track back like mad or mark players and stick back etc. He wont be happy bout this I feel. If he tracks back, he isnt in attacking position, he loses energy and most importantly over time he will get benched if he wont impress and lose all confidence.

And funny that Mourinho doesnt give any chance to Bertrand at all, except that cup game...he was brilliant and yet, Mourinho decided to play Iva.

[Rmpr 8,977]

Mourinho has a very good idea of what he wants for us (at least I like it), but we will need better fullbacks for it to work...

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Mourinho has a very good idea of what he wants for us (at least I like it), but we will need better fullbacks for it to work...

Unfortunely, there arent many top full backs available and Mourinho will stick to Iva and Cole for some time...too bad Shaw is soo young and Azpilicueta looks like very good fullback but will never be on level of Alves or Cole (i hope Im wrong).

Also Im curious why Mourinho never tried Luiz in midfield. If Luiz wont improve, Mou will never play him in CB position. Looks like Luiz loses his *extra talent* under Mou at CB. He is passive and lacks energy, doesnt realy run etc. He is orderer not to run forward and do tricks, making him average CB for us. I wonder why Is he so better for brazil...

[The_Flash 1,144]

Jose looked stressed before the game then was very jovial afterwards. I really want us to do well and I think he is the man to lead us there. He makes us feel complete.

P.s. it's not cause I fancy him, I think he is one of the best mangers in the world... Ok maybe a little