The Mourinho Thread

[Kieran. 6,317]

Wake up Jose? He changed the game completely to win it for us. You have to adapt to the team in front of you and Jose does that well. Yeah its not all roses in some games but give the man some credit where it's due mate

It's stupid as fuck to praise Jose for changing the tactics and good subs when he cocked it up from the start.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

It's stupid as fuck to praise Jose for changing the tactics and good subs when he cocked it up from the start.

There are so many problems I have with the way people generally perceive managers. Aside from what you mentioned:

1) The managers who are perceived to be the best also have the most options to change things. Very few games are chess matches, they are more like chess matches where one side can exchange pawns for knights. How many teams in the world have stacked benches like Chelsea do? Maybe 5? 10?

2) The idea that winning=managing well. What would have happened had Chelsea brought on Willian and Schurrle instead of Lampard and Ba? Well, Chelsea probably would still have won. We are simply a much better team than Southampton who, like WBA last season, is a mid-table team who got off to a really good start. We are a much better and deeper team and we were playing at home. Any lineup we put out in almost any system (apart from the ridiculous) should have won us the game.

Mourinho is a good manager. This is not a specific criticism of him, just of how people vastly overrate managers in general especially those who are on teams that have money.

[Phil Driver 503]

Mourinho is a superb manager , he creates a winning mentality ,the squad problems at the club are not his he inherited them and they will be sorted out after next summer as well ,do not listen to any fanboys who have David Luiz listed as their favourite player,it tells you all you need to know about them and not Mourinho. This is all about Chelsea winning not Brazil .

[The only place to be 11,313]

Against West Ham he set up the team perfectly to completely negate their strengths and exploit their weaknesses.

Against Southampton he probably made some errors in the selection but made the necessary changes and we won. Not all managers will say they got it wrong and react to what actually happens on the pitch, but he does. It's a welcome change from certain recent managers and to do it when he's still trying to work out his best XI is perhaps even more impressive.

[Barbara 15,149]

Bullshit generalisation.

It's a generalization about the forums (that do have tons of overreaction about how poor or average he's been) - but it isn't about the ground support.

I was bitching on Mourinho in the first half and I could hear the fans singing his name while we were playing shit.

I don't know if it was because I was moody today, but I think he was very poor in the team selection with Mazacar and Essien and I think Lampard was a risk I wasn't willing to take. Still he was brilliant with the 4-4-2 in the second half.

While I do question a lot of his recent choices and how we've been piling some wins (or draws) whilst playing bad for a period of the match or the entire match, I guess I was really unfair to him in my rantings earlier today being influenced by my anti-Mourinho commentator (he's convinced Mourinho is in the descendant curve of his career and isn't capable of emulating his best works here, at Inter and his 2nd season with RM), my bad mood and how frustrating and apathetic the team was in the first half.

He's entitled to make mistakes - although I think his team selections and some of his subs should have less mistakes - but he's still a genius and a great tactician. His vision of football is second to none, his ability to rile up players and work in the psychological aspect is incredible so I think those things make up for the mistakes in selection and subs.

imo his struggle to find his best team has a lot to do with those players being very inconsistent and inconstant. One match they play amazing, the next some of them or nearly the whole team plays shocking football. How much can we blame it on him if the same players that kill a match don't turn up in the next?

As rotation is going to be a must this month maybe he will have a better idea of why that's happening and when he shouldn't trust the players that will always swear they aren't tired and can play and therefore make changes and when he should stick with a winning selection.

It felt terrible though dissing him today - because I was moody - and I don't get how it's so easily for people disregard him so easily. It felt bad while I was typing those tweets and its feels much worse now. The only reason why I'm not ashamed of myself is because *** is bitch and can fuck with one's mood.

[bushman 2,043]

Jose should be praised for his ability to change the match, big time. Who is better than him ? Nobody!

Yesterday, he started with Essien, rested Frank. Then he subbed Essien, made a change in position & the team showed us an awesome display of football.

It´s very easy to say Jose corrected his mistakes, isn´t it ? He must try to play others. It did not work well, Jose adapted easily, the team hammered South. The result 3 points, 2nd place in the PL. What more could anyone of us want ?

[Special Juan 28,871]

He realised the mistake he made by starting Essien, and then subbed him......whilst it wasn't difficult to see it you still have to have balls to change things.

[bushman 2,043]

He realised the mistake he made by starting Essien, and then subbed him......whilst it wasn't difficult to see it you still have to have balls to change things.

Right on Juan, you are my man.

[AndersonBLUE 819]

It's stupid as fuck to praise Jose for changing the tactics and good subs when he cocked it up from the start.

Yeah he made a couple selection errors but so what? We won 3-1, in good style imo. You have to adapt to your opponent and Jose could see what needed to happen to win the game. And people give our opponent no credit whatsoever, Pochettino and Southampton had one of the best defensive records going into the game and are playing superbly at the moment. I really can't see why anyone would want this game to turn out any differently. Maybe the Essien backpass is still on everyone's mind I don't know.

[NishC300 1,865]

As much as we've criticised Mourinho, bringing on Ba and that change in strategy at half time was amazing! Lacked that at times last season. But some people might have a point in saying why he didn't do that from the outset, but he reacted to the in-game situation better than his counterpart. So often Sir Alex did many subs like this to change the game (the game at Old Trafford with QPR). Reacting to the in-game situation is an important part of guiding a team to success.

[Fernando 6,743]

Yeah he made a couple selection errors but so what? We won 3-1, in good style imo. You have to adapt to your opponent and Jose could see what needed to happen to win the game. And people give our opponent no credit whatsoever, Pochettino and Southampton had one of the best defensive records going into the game and are playing superbly at the moment. I really can't see why anyone would want this game to turn out any differently. Maybe the Essien backpass is still on everyone's mind I don't know.

Don't think Mourinho deserves much criticism or much praise.

As we are still a very inconsistent team. We can play good against Southampton and totally fuck it up the next game.

It was just like that with Beniteze as well. Where we would play amazing one game and very horrible the next.

The real praise and real criticism will come once we have a set idea of what we actually want to play. At the moment it's all a clusterfuck with many different ideas, tactics and lineup.

I thought that by the end of December we would have a grasp of things but by the looks of it this might take the whole season before we really see what Mourinho is proposing, ie his philosophy.

[bushman 2,043]

As much as we've criticised Mourinho, bringing on Ba and that change in strategy at half time was amazing! Lacked that at times last season. But some people might have a point in saying why he didn't do that from the outset, but he reacted to the in-game situation better than his counterpart. So often Sir Alex did many subs like this to change the game (the game at Old Trafford with QPR). Reacting to the in-game situation is an important part of guiding a team to success.

On one hand people complain why he isn´t playing others. So he did yesterday. Essien was useless, 3 amigos should not play together..Frank, Ba came on, bingo, one well oiled machine was seen.

[bushman 2,043]

Don't think Mourinho deserves much criticism or much praise.

As we are still a very inconsistent team. We can play good against Southampton and totally fuck it up the next game.

It was just like that with Beniteze as well. Where we would play amazing one game and very horrible the next.

The real praise and real criticism will come once we have a set idea of what we actually want to play. At the moment it's all a clusterfuck with many different ideas, tactics and lineup.

I thought that by the end of December we would have a grasp of things but by the looks of it this might take the whole season before we really see what Mourinho is proposing, ie his philosophy.

Well, as usual it takes much longer for you...?

[Korea 734]

It's ok..

I am sure he will bring in a stud cm soon.

All Mourinho teams had stud cms....

Maybe another stud CB as well.

[Stingray 9,441]

It's ok..

I am sure he will bring in a stud cm soon.

All Mourinho teams had stud cms....

Maybe another stud CB as well.

Ow yes, a stud! From the belgian golden stud award btw (a footballers contest) - the pics.

I think I want a good footballer though!

[Phil Driver 503]

Something lost in translation there , I dont dare ask him if he likes "Hot Dogs" .

[didierforever 7,349]

It's stupid as fuck to praise Jose for changing the tactics and good subs when he cocked it up from the start.

so let me get this straight.

- jose should be critisized, abused, castrated for his team selection and the team's woeful performance.

- jose should not be praised when he accepts his mistakes, changes the whole tactics around by subbing off his mistake and also by getting a bunch of players to play wonderful football after half time.

where is the sense in that?

[Kieran. 6,317]

so let me get this straight.

- jose should be critisized, abused, castrated for his team selection and the team's woeful performance.

- jose should not be praised when he accepts his mistakes, changes the whole tactics around by subbing off his mistake and also by getting a bunch of players to play wonderful football after half time.

where is the sense in that?

The point is that we shouldn't have to wait til halftime to start playing well. We've started slowly and needed a tactical change in almost every fucking game this season, it's ridiculous.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

The point is that we shouldn't have to wait til halftime to start playing well. We've started slowly and needed a tactical change in almost every fucking game this season, it's ridiculous.

Let's face it though, it's tough to come up with a set plan that is going to compliment every player in the squad. Makes it even more harder when we have so many players. It's not just drawing up on the board and creating strategies which will be used for long time. It's an experiment, mistakes are bound to happen and will until the end of the season. There are no quick fixes.

[ZanSnake 1,211]

Mourinho is pictured as a supernatural manager.

I see him more as human, that an ghostly entity