The Mourinho Thread

[Polo7 3,496]

What we need is someone who can take set pieces. When Lampard isnt on the field we have absolutely no quality at corners. Remember how many we scored last season when we had Mata taking them? Our corners especially have been feeble and we have soo many every game. You would think our players would fucking practice.

[Tomo 21,751]

Untouchable? Didn't he fail miserably at Real Madrid? This season hasn't been as great as you claim it is. A club that spends a huge amount of cash each summer is bound to have improvement eventually. Just like in 12/13 we did better than 11/12 in the league, this season we're doing better than 12/13 in the League. There's BOUND to be improvement. If you want to see real improvement look what Rodgers has done. This is a club that was 7th last year and has ended up top of the table. A team that hasn't seen Champions League football for ages. That's improvement! Moreover, he's done it by spending half the money Chelsea and City have this season in the transfer market. Not just has he improved the team but they are winning AND playing good football.

Then you might disagree with that by saying we have sold many players too but even after you deduct Transfer Revenues from players bought, they are still half of us and almost 4 times less than City. A striker will convert chances but there are so many games such as Swansea where against 10 MEN we struggled to create decent chances. A game where so many people here were so confidently saying we'd thrash Swansea.

Didn't u say at the beginning of the season with great confidence that Madrid would miserably fail and be MUCH worse than Mourinho last season? Ancelotti's already done a much better job. And he's encouraged youth players like Jese, Casemiro etc.

I said i can't see them winning the league for the forseeable future something i stick by.

He didn't fail miserably at Madrid, his third season was a bit underwhelming but the first 2 he did remarkably considering the side he was up against.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

[Liquidator 5,176]

In hindsight what he and Rui Faria did yesterday really wasn't clever at all. I'm expecting Mourinho to get a possible touchline ban as this is the second offence of his this season (although the Villa one was a load of bollocks) especially as he directly questioned the competency of the FA and Mike Riley.

Faria was just pretty childish to be honest. There is a right and wrong way to show passion and that was certainly the wrong way. If Wenger, Rodgers, Moyes did that we'd probably be calling it disgraceful.

[bushman 2,043]

Liquid,

Were you watching the game? You sometimes need to watch them games.

[Tomo 21,751]

It still remains to be seen if our playing style will improve when (if) we bring in Diego Costa. I doubt it, because it's a fundamental issue that goes beyond the striker. The way Jose sets up his team is fundamentally flawed and that fundamental flaw is exposed time and time again against teams that are happy to give us the ball.

You can't play Azpiliecueta at LB week in week out because it's not fair on the player. Ashley has had his "punishment" so it's time for him to come back. That slip and fall Azpi had is NOT happening if he's playing his natural position. Anyone who has ever played before can tell you it's harder to check back from your weaker foot to your higher foot. Something similar also happened in the PSG away league for that 3rd goal. Azpiliecueta has been getting caught out with a lot of high balls, but no one ever says anything. He has to return to his natural, most comfortable position.

Same with Ivanovic. He's a CB, not a RB. He is not very fast so he rarely gets in behind his full-back. He is not technically gifted so he looks clumsy in possession as most CB's are. Once he gets forward, he just lumps hopeless crosses into the box that create zero threat.

He and Azpilicueta are a waste of space offensively and also are starting to look not so solid anymore. Goals against Palace, PSG and today.

And Ramires, dear oh dear. He is not good enough to be a starter in a passing team. It's been said a zillion times. He should be a squad player like Mikel is nowadays

We need to be proactive in the transfer window. We must do everything possible to buy Costa, Kroos and Shaw. We can't afford fuck ups in the market any longer. Man United are going to spend a shit ton of money. City are going to improve and Liverpool are going to go to a different level now that they will have CL football and can attract better players.

Punishment for what? The Arsenal party? he was dropped a month and a half before that incident.

Cole has been poor for years now.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

If people are going to keep bringing up our strikers for the fault of our midfield I'm bringing up the sale of Mata as the worst decision Jose has made this season.

The sale of Mata cost us dearly. Not only with his vision & playmaking but his immaculate set piece delivery.

[dee25 1,044]

The bizarre part about that Mata situation was how some on here kept blaming him for our poor league form in the past two seasons much in the same way people are now blaming our strikers for losses against Sunderland, Villa, Crystal Palace etc. Such simplistic thinking, it's unreal. Mata scored 12 goals and 12 assists in an under-performing team, sad how people just dis-valued that.

[The only place to be 11,313]

If people are going to keep bringing up our strikers for the fault of our midfield I'm bringing up the sale of Mata as the worst decision Jose has made this season.

The sale of Mata cost us dearly. Not only with his vision & playmaking but his immaculate set piece delivery.

Are our strikers good enough to win the league? Simple question because I'm fairly certain they aren't which is why they'll all probably leave in the summer.

[Strike 7,478]

Punishment for what? The Arsenal party? he was dropped a month and a half before that incident.

Cole has been poor for years now.

years? Nope. maybe 1-2 at most

[edetarod 2,155]

it seems the only thing his mind games accomplished was talk us out of the title

maybe he kept saying we're not good enough to win the title one too many times, even our players went on to believe it

if Liverpool could win it, then so could we

[Laylabelle 9,534]

He wasnt wrong about false readings though.Man City had games in hand which would've pushed us down.True they may have gone onto to believe it but end of the day they should be capable to ignore negative things and believe it for themselves

[laura90 556]

Are our strikers good enough to win the league? Simple question because I'm fairly certain they aren't which is why they'll all probably leave in the summer.

Can you please explain to me how our strikers were good enough against big teams and suddenly garbage against 'smaller' teams?

How come Eto, (Torres) and Ba managed to score against Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, PSG, but failed to score against West Hams and Villas of Premier League?

Could it be because in big games we could fully implement our counter attacking style (which is the only style we excel playing), so it was easier for us to create chances and for Eto to score from the same?

On the other hand against smaller teams who defended first and foremost against us, we couldn't fully implement our counter attacking play and we were somehow average in our attack in posession with bunch of hopeful shots and few clear cut chances which made it harder for our strikers?

I'm not saying that our strikers are great, far from it, I'm just saying that with better attacking plan and play they could chip that 5 or 6 goals extra we needed to become champions.

[Fernando 6,585]

Are our strikers good enough to win the league? Simple question because I'm fairly certain they aren't which is why they'll all probably leave in the summer.

This is getting boring really.

Even with the half ass strikers we had the last season we scored a lot.

Somewhere the idea and philosophy of two seasons clash.

One season of attacking team but faults in defense to another season of well defense minded team to faults in attack.

[didierforever 7,349]

If people are going to keep bringing up our strikers for the fault of our midfield I'm bringing up the sale of Mata as the worst decision Jose has made this season.

The sale of Mata cost us dearly. Not only with his vision & playmaking but his immaculate set piece delivery.

So people are wrong in saying that the chance that fell to ba would have been scored by aguero, negredo, rvp, rooney, sturridge, suarez, falcao, cavani, costa, mandzukic, etc etc etc....

At 1-1 we had pretty of half chances. None of them converted. Look at what converting those half chances has done to pool. It changes the whole complexion of the game. As for mata, he had his chances this season and simply could not fit in.