The Mourinho Thread

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Gil's point is that when seemingly every striker we have bought becomes less productive once they join us,bar few exceptions like drogba, then questions has to be raised about the impact the way we set up and attacking strategy has on the strikers because the sample size is far too large for it to be pure coincidence or solely the fault of the strikers. The truth is we are absolutely clueless and pathetic as far as creating clear cut chances (for our strikers) and in general period is concerned and have been for years.

People wank off to strikers like suarez,aguero,cavani et al but ignore the amount of chances they generally miss or fluff on a regular basis which is indeed a testament to the creativity of their respective teams.

Even some of the most efficient and clinical scorers the world has ever seen like messi and cron have a converson ratio of 30 odd percent which means they don't score the other 60% just to put things into perspective here. Our strikers don't have this luxury as they will have to wait a long while before another quality chance is created if they fail to capitalise on any rare chance they manage to get.

Very good point about the strikers not having as much chances as others. But first of all, our strikers finishing/dribbling/movement is still worse than all of them.

You also forgot that the aguero's, suarez, messi and even drogba create chances on their own with sheer skill on a daily basis. I have lost count the number of times those strikers turned a nothing situation into goal scoring chances.

Our strikers can NEVER do this. The last time I saw it was torres against mancity and it hit the bar. If I start mentioning the amount of goals drogba, suarez or aguero create for themselves we won't finish talking today. We need our strikers to come up with wonder strikes and bail us out for once in their lives.

[ZOS 580]

Why would it, our strikers couldnt score before the interview. It can only get better.

its about the mood in the dressing room, man, the mood! how a bunch of insulted players affects it.. he called all of them incompetent and Eto'o a liar

[kellzfresh 7,229]

its about the mood in the dressing room, man, the mood! how a bunch of insulted players affects he called all of them incompetent

[HD3D 1,038]

its about the mood in the dressing room, man, the mood! how a bunch of insulted players affects it.. he called all of them incompetent and Eto'o a liar

Under-developed countries often have trouble keeping track of birth certificates because too many people give birth outside of an hospital and don't even bother to register the baby. Because of this, it's common for people from these countries to have just an estimate of their real age. It doesn't mean Eto'o is lying. He might actually think he is 32 and isn't.

[Benches not the shed 77]

Under-developed countries often have trouble keeping track of birth certificates because too many people give birth outside of an hospital and don't even bother to register the baby. Because of this, it's common for people from these countries to have just an estimate of their real age. It doesn't mean Eto'o is lying. He might actually think he is 32 and isn't.

academy football is littered with African "kids" playing in age groups that they are obviously not part of... I heard a story a couple of years ago about an African kid at Fulham who had never been able to produce proof of birth details.. So before they offered hima. Scholarship at 16 they done a bone density test... He was 24

[Sidzeret 2,257]

Under-developed countries often have trouble keeping track of birth certificates because too many people give birth outside of an hospital and don't even bother to register the baby. Because of this, it's common for people from these countries to have just an estimate of their real age. It doesn't mean Eto'o is lying. He might actually think he is 32 and isn't.

Same goes for Essien as well. He could be 35 and,boy, does he play like he is 35 nowadays.

[AndersonBLUE 819]

Don't think it will affect them too much. Being top of the league will make them hungrier I'm sure.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

It was never just about the strikers but also about our style of game. Our attacking midfielders despite all their talent dont know how to create chances for strikers. Yes there are chances that strikers fail to score, but in general, just for example you dont see such pass like Sterling made to Sturridge last time. We dont have striker suited system and that is a fact. Maybe with more experience, new fullback and possible new CM and obviously striker, we might score more goals through striker, but still, even if we get Cavani or Suarez or whoever, he will never score 30 PL goals, maybe not even 20 per season...

[HD3D 1,038]

academy football is littered with African "kids" playing in age groups that they are obviously not part of... I heard a story a couple of years ago about an African kid at Fulham who had never been able to produce proof of birth details.. So before they offered hima. Scholarship at 16 they done a bone density test... He was 24

Yes. Then there's also that. Being 14 and playing with 8 year old kids is an easy way to stand out, catch the eye of top European clubs and be given a free entry to Europe and later a fat paycheck by the club.

[HD3D 1,038]

Eto'o's ex claims he was born in 1974 and is 39 years old http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2568284/Samuel-Etoo-annoyed-Jose-Mourinhos-jibe-age.html

[Gilvorak 3,734]

Eto'o's ex claims he was born in 1974 and is 39 years old http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2568284/Samuel-Etoo-annoyed-Jose-Mourinhos-jibe-age.html

See what I meant? How can anyone think those comments were sensible?

And can people stop claiming all Africans are lying about their age? It's borderline racist.

[HD3D 1,038]

See what I meant? How can anyone think those comments were sensible?

And can people stop claiming all Africans are lying about their age? It's borderline racist.

I haven't seen anyone in this thread saying all Africans are lying about their age. But it is true top clubs have reasons to be cautious when they are bringing in players from those countries that have a lot of trouble keeping track of birth registrations. It's not racism, it's a fact. And it's not just Africa. Falcao for example, has been accused of being 2 years older than what he claims to be.

[Jase 43,479]

Mourinho certainly has got a point there..

[Hamon 103]

Eto'o's ex claims he was born in 1974 and is 39 years old http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2568284/Samuel-Etoo-annoyed-Jose-Mourinhos-jibe-age.html

Well played Mourinho: insult, yes insult, the person of Eto'o (because it's like saying he always lied until now in his career), moving a shitstorm (seeing for example this Eto'o's ex comment), making Eto'o angry (ex Camerun CT said that Eto'o is livid at Mourinho, and I'm under the impression he didn't even bother when he got in at 70') and put up a SHIT GAME against an awful team with a close-minded manager (Mancini) who doesn't even know how the CL cup looks like.

The partial positive thing today has been the good performance from Torres, but no, it's not Mourinho's credit.

Great.

[robdog 2,084]

Well played Mourinho: insult, yes insult, the person of Eto'o (because it's like saying he always lied until now in his career), moving a shitstorm (seeing for example this Eto'o's ex comment), making Eto'o angry (ex Camerun CT said that Eto'o is livid at Mourinho, and I'm under the impression he didn't even bother when he got in at 70') and put up a SHIT GAME against an awful team with a close-minded manager (Mancini) who doesn't even know how the CL cup looks like.

well at least Torres stood up against Jose's assertion about no center forwards. In fact the argument could be made that the CFC Best #9 was playing for the other team

[The Chels 2,502]

Mourinho: "Other teams have 3 chances, score 3. We have 5, score 1, that's not a critique of the strikers but it's the profile of the team we have".

I don't really agree. Teams very rarely have such high conversion rates and in fact, if you were to look at the conversion rate of the best strikers in the world (plus Messi and Ronaldo) I don't think any of them have a conversion rate of above 30%. The reason they score so many is because they have so many chances; for example Ronaldo had a rate of 20% against Schalke tonight but still ended up scoring twice.

Many Chelsea fans believe that we will buy a clinical striker who will score one given one opportunity which really isn't going to be the case. We have to create more and I believe the blame is too quickly attributed to the strikers, who we know are pretty wasteful, but the whole getting-angry-at-the-strikers when they don't score at every opportunity is unfair. The midfield really needs to be supplying more but we have no AM that can pick out a defence-splitting pass which is quite remarkable really. I believe Mata and De Bruyne (first game against Hull to Oscar being a good example) were the best out of the 6 in doing so but they're both now gone for being poorer in other aspects.

[Fernando 6,743]

Mourinho certainly has got a point there..

Of course, Stamford Bridge is a funeral compare to the Türk Telekom Arena

[zolayes 14,489]

I guess we have no chance now .. all the Kebab merchants will make it HELL for us at the Bridge

[The_Flash 1,144]

I was happy for Fernando to score he hasn't really played in ages and to get a goal. A nice wee confidence boost for him.

[Blue Armour 4,759]

Mourinho: "Other teams have 3 chances, score 3. We have 5, score 1, that's not a critique of the strikers but it's the profile of the team we have".

I don't really agree. Teams very rarely have such high conversion rates and in fact, if you were to look at the conversion rate of the best strikers in the world (plus Messi and Ronaldo) I don't think any of them have a conversion rate of above 30%. The reason they score so many is because they have so many chances; for example Ronaldo had a rate of 20% against Schalke tonight but still ended up scoring twice.

Many Chelsea fans believe that we will buy a clinical striker who will score one given one opportunity which really isn't going to be the case. We have to create more and I believe the blame is too quickly attributed to the strikers, who we know are pretty wasteful, but the whole getting-angry-at-the-strikers when they don't score at every opportunity is unfair. The midfield really needs to be supplying more but we have no AM that can pick out a defence-splitting pass which is quite remarkable really. I believe Mata and De Bruyne (first game against Hull to Oscar being a good example) were the best out of the 6 in doing so but they're both now gone for being poorer in other aspects.

Totally agee with that...despite all their qualities, individual brilliance and hardwork the attacking midfielders fail to provide key passes to release forwards....

In fact how many times have we seen our forwards being put through on goal? The last time I remember seeing that was when Torres scored a brace in the CL group stage, and during a counter attack.

The problem is because we don't have a forward that is compatible with our possession based play which what we employ against majority of the teams we play against in the league.

We need a true CENTRE-FORWARD and not just a striker.