The Mourinho Thread

[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 6,585]

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 4,448]

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.

[zolayes 14,489]

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.

sadly .. we won't get Suarez

[Jase 43,479]

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

Never mind the support at the Turk Telekom Arena, there is already a huge difference in the atmosphere and noise created by us fans that travel to away games and those attending the home ones. Don't even think a 50% of that is replicated at the Bridge.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

I saw torres through on goal 3 times. He scored one, the keeper saved one, and he should have squared shurrle for a tap in.

[Jase 43,479]

Eto'o and Ba shrug off Mourinho comments about Chelsea strikers

[Jase 43,479]

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.

Never mind the conversion rate statistics, the bigger point here would be we need to be a lot more clinical in front of goal. Other teams only need like 1-3 chances to get a goal while we could need up to 10 just to score 1.

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.

Don't necessarily agree that our AMs need to supply more chances to our STs. Considering we are a team with AMs that score goals themselves, the ST upfront also needs to be comfortable in creating for others (hence why a poacher would be a disaster in this team's setup). Another issue is that there is not enough people making runs off the ball and get behind the opposition's defence. The likes of Willian, Oscar, Hazard etc all want to get on the ball and they are not making enough penetrative runs to receive through balls and score. Even when they do on the rare occasions, they over-elaborate things in the final third. If anything, it's only our STs who do that but even then, they are a bit meh. There is no point in supplying more through balls if nobody is making the runs. Only Schurrle (and maybe Salah) out of the attacking players we have can make runs behind the defence and give us something different in the attacking third. Otherwise, all the play is in front of the opposition's defence. Don't think we have cut through teams this season on a consistent basis.

[Benches not the shed 77]

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.

Borderline racist?

People like you are the problem with racism nowadays, referring to everything as racism.

Fuck sake, what a load of bollocks.

[Alan Partridge 1,124]

Racist? Haha

[The Chels 2,502]

Another issue is that there is not enough people making runs off the ball and get behind the opposition's defence. The likes of Willian, Oscar, Hazard etc all want to get on the ball and they are not making enough penetrative runs to receive through balls and score. Even when they do on the rare occasions, they over-elaborate things in the final third. If anything, it's only our STs who do that but even then, they are a bit meh. There is no point in supplying more through balls if nobody is making the runs. Only Schurrle (and maybe Salah) out of the attacking players we can make runs behind the defence and give us something different in the attacking third. Otherwise, all the play is in front of the opposition's defence. Don't think we have cut through teams this season on a consistent basis.

You make a very good point and I agree with you that the trio behind the strikers are generally far too static. The good thing is that Mourinho recognises this though and so you'd expect that there will be improvement sooner or later. In yesterday's post-match conference he said: "We create but when we arrive in the final third of the pitch, the correct pass and right movement is something we don't have".

[The only place to be 11,313]

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.

My friend endorses this statement

[Jase 43,479]

You make a very good point and I agree with you that the trio behind the strikers are generally far too static. The good thing is that Mourinho recognises this though and so you'd expect that there will be improvement sooner or later. In yesterday's post-match conference he said: "We create but when we arrive in the final third of the pitch, the correct pass and right movement is something we don't have".

I seriously hope it's sooner rather than later because the improvement, if there has been any (this problem has been apparent all season long), hasn't been that obvious at the moment.

[robsblubot 3,595]

My friend endorses this statement

lol

the fact African nations dominate in U21/U23 competitions and basically don't exist at senior levels also suggests it is something frequently done.

This has nothing to do with racism, but environment. Speaking with a colleague of mine here, who's originally from India, it all boils down to whether birth records are well kept or not. Because if they are not, then it's really up to the ppl to say when they were born. And we know people never lie for money...