The Mourinho Thread

[The only place to be 11,313]

Well bushman or 'dumbman' as I will refer to you as we still have a chance. I would rather us challenge for the league then throw it away. Like I said the PL has shown anything is possible. What if we do win that game then go on to win the league. Or perhaps lose the game then see Liverpool and City drop points. We would regret playing a weakened team. I think it is possible that City drop points. Less possible than Liverpool however I still think they go to to go to Palace at 8pm on Monday night iirc. By that time they may be 2nd or 3rd if things go our way. Pressure hopefully will get to them.

I think you are the one who needs more maths lessons. If we have a chance of winning it that is mathmetically possible. Regardless of whether we have to rely on other teams it is mathemtically possible. Idiot.

Palace has proved to be difficult for many teams. City were outsocring most teams before. Now would you have predicted them to batter Sunderland? I would of but no. A team who was last in the league nearly got 3 points there. Until the last day anything is possible. I will always keep believing.

The question is what do we have a greater chance of winning? The CL is in our hands, the league isn't.

Does playing our starters for the Atletico game in the Liverpool game diminish our chances of getting a result on Wednesday? If the answer is maybe then why take the risk?

As for throwing away the league we already did that against Villa, Palace and Sunderland.

[Special Juan 27,488]

Question....Is this the first time a manager has been fined for sarcasm?

[bushman 2,043]

Well, for some in here, math has never been their favorite subject during their schooling, I read.

Of course, Chelsea has got a much better chance to win the CL than the PL. To rely on Citeh or Liverpool losses is just not very smart. Jose knows it, most of us know it & let Jose to field the B team on Sunday.

[Sheva. 5,373]

I don't believe his hands were tied at all, he had good options in Oscar and Schurrle who everyone knows are more than capable of effectively contributing to the defensive part of our game but could do something going forward.

You don't think his hands were tied 'at all' without his best and most dynamic player?. Because otherwise, Willian and Hazard would have started, with one of Lampard and Mikel dropping to the bench.

As for the options Mourinho had, Oscar has been terrible lately and doesn't deserve to play... but Schurrle i agree with like i said previously.

[Imran_CFC 2]

The truth of the matter is Mourinho can't risk any of his potential starters for the Champions league against Liverpool even if he wanted to.

The season is coming to a conclusion and players have a great number of mileage on the clock and anyone can pull up injured even with a minor knock, we are already short in numbers for Wednesday, The game which will define our season so the sensible thing to do is rest players for the Semi Final.

[Stats 7,060]

Get lost asshole!

Truth hurts doesnt it and btw I call it 'maths'.

I am happy you have done that. Lol.

Well when many members of the forum has maybe you should reflect on your attitude. It stinks and you have the nerve to tell other people to don't insult you. Do one you lunatic.

The question is what do we have a greater chance of winning? The CL is in our hands, the league isn't.

Does playing our starters for the Atletico game in the Liverpool game diminish our chances of getting a result on Wednesday? If the answer is maybe then why take the risk?

As for throwing away the league we already did that against Villa, Palace and Sunderland.

I see your point but Atletico are going to have to put two similar teams out against Valencia and Chelsea. We can rotate some but putting these youth players in defence I am not sure about. But I would rather we put our best into both. The CL is definitely more realistic but you know beating Liverpool and being only 2 points behind I will believe in both. I don't think we will win the league but I will hate the thought of Liverpool virtually winning the league against us. I don't really mind what midfield and attack he puts out as I am sure it will pose Liverpool a threat but only in defence I am worried about. Might be a risk but I would rather he played an experienced defence for pride sake and with the hope of winning the game. Can see both points of view but I would rather if we have to only play one out of Kalas, Ake and Christensen.

[bushman 2,043]

Stats,

You are missing out on the facts.

Also, you were told to hit the road. Just do it!

[The only place to be 11,313]

Can see both points of view but I would rather if we have to only play one out of Kalas, Ake and Christensen.

Christensen will probably play in the youth cup the next day (WHS reminded me that was coming up), Ake is probably third choice left-back which we might be down to if we rest Cole and Kalas is third choice right-back and probably fourth choice centre-back right now.

I'd rest Cahill entirely now. He's too important with JT being out and would probably be captain on Wednesday with Cech, JT and Lamps all missing.

Ivanovic has had a few days rest so could start both games, although I'd probably want him in central defence against Atletico with Luiz in midfield.

Luiz struggles with the rigours of midfield work, so I'd rest him completely on Sunday.

So if we start Azpi, Ivanovic, Cahill and Cole on Wednesday then I think it'd be pushing it to go with anything to different from Azpi, Ivanovic, Kalas and Ake on Sunday. But we'll see. Jose could go first-choice in both games - 3 games in 8 days is tough but not earth-shatteringly so.

[Imran_CFC 2]

I think it will be vital for Mourinho to strike the right balance for Sunday, I believe Ivanovic has to play Sunday in order to get accomodated to the centre back position for Wednesday A also think Ashley Cole needs to play in order to get further match practise.

My team would be:

Schwarzer

Azpi, Ivanovich, Kalas, Cole

Mikel, Matic, Lampard

Salah, Oscar

Ba

[Henrique 9,133]

I get what you guys are saying but my point is Madrid were overmatched. Simply put: in an open game of football Bayern are comfortably better and would win because of their superior ability. There aren't many teams Madrid will play like that against. Why that's relevant to us is we're lower in the food-chain and will have to play like that against more teams than Madrid will need too.

Let's not kid ourselves and overrate our players; in this moment in time Atletico Madrid are to Chelsea what Bayern are to Madrid. They are comfortably better and we need to play against them in a way that allows us to compete.

The only difference between Madrid and Chelsea's game plan is they have Ronaldo, Benzema and Di Maria to make better use of their limited possession.

I think you are wrong, your perspective about football does not feel right to me.

I dont think Real were overmatched, having more possession does not mean you are overmatching the oponent. Both team had different strategies, but both were dangerous (Real were even more dangerous).

You are only looking at ball posession stats.

I believe 90% of the world would disagree about Atlético being confortably better. Actually Atlético is a very limited team in many aspects. They are very solid, but definetely not better, and even if thats the case, its still all up to our tactics, because our squad is way better than Atlético's.

And no, the difference was not a matter of Benzema, Ronaldo and Di Maria. We started the match with 4 Defensive Midfielders (Lampard played the whole season as a DM), and one atacking mid playing as a second right back.

[MHL 47 378]

People say (usually the corporate media, such as Sky who have a vested interest in covering anything dodgy up) that the Premier league is beyond corruption. I am not so sure. We've seen it in Italy and South America, China, Korea. etc

One thing is for sure they would do anything and everything to cover it up as its worth billions in TV revenue, and if anything was proven however small they would do all in their power to make it a damage limitation excercise

I'd be genuinely surprised if cash was changing hands directly.

However the 'politics' at play in both the FA and the PMGOL, might result in people being 'guided' down a path of actions, for say, the betterment of their career. The gold mine of the Champions League awaits those who tow-the-line. A referee gets over £5000 for officiating a group stage game in the CL. So if you do 6 group games, that's well over £30grand on top of your salary. These CL and PL refs are earning well over £100'000 per year, and taking their assistants with them as well on the wealth creation journey.

If you can pick up a cheap copy of Mark Halsey's book, I recommend it. It lays out the political nature of 'professional' referees and politicking of the structure, the cliques and their lead mans style I.e. at that time and currently Mike Riley. Halsey slaughters Riley, accuses Poll of all sorts of stuff to ensure Poll remained the main man in refereeing at that time.

My own take on Jose saying he congratulated Riley on achieving his objective is not directly to do with us but more to do with Liverpool.

[Barbara 15,149]

You don't know that. Sorry if you feel like I'm going to 'blast' you for your opinion, but bear in mind it is just your opinion. Jose clearly didn't want to lose the tie in the first leg but keep us very much in it when we'll have our most potent attacking threat back in the side. Now we've got home advantage and can set up to be a bit more attacking having stopped the leaders of La Liga from scoring against us (apparently breaking down teams who set up to defend is tough.....who knew?).

He should've should he? Why? Why risk losing a 0-0 result to maybe get a goal against one of the best defences in Europe marshalled by one of the best keepers in the world?

And he should've done this after our keeper was replaced by a 41 year old making his debut in the knockout stages of the Champions League and before or after we lost our skipper and defensive lynchpin?

No he shouldn't have done that...he could've done but why? That's just not how Jose thinks and it's worked out pretty well for him so far.

When not even our fans can acknowledge that it wasn't Atletico that had a bad day, but that WE neutralized and limited them, and give credit to the manager where it's due then you know nobody is going to understand Mourinho did what he had to do. Atletico was toothless because we reduced their spaces (in a huge pitch) and they looked clueless. Then someone suggests us to actually try to grab a goal? With our two best attackers injured? Of course no one can say what would have happened if Mourinho had tried a more offensive formation from 75' on, but I think chances would be really small of us getting a better result. People watched RM yesterday (some for the first time in the year) and they think that's what we should have done. Right, that's because we had similar players to Alonso, Modric, Ronaldo, di Maria, Benzema and Bale at our disposal then... People seem to fail to understand (and that's not towards The Skipper) that we don't have the people to play what RM did... we just don't.

Then we try to be more offensive, it means one piece of the system Mourinho got has to be dropped and then we may invite Atletico back to the match - not to mention we were without our main keeper and our captain was also off injured. It doesn't make that much a wise move imo.

Now we'll play in a very small pitch that naturally means a space reduction for Atletico's standards in Spain. We'll hopefully have at least one between Eden and Sami recovered (praying for both) and we'll play at home. I'm one of those that don't think 0x0 is much better than 0x1 to Atletico (although nonetheless better, it's just as Rapha said, among all good results, 0x0 is the 'worst' good). So why risk everything in the first 90 minutes, if this is a 180-minute battle where we have the advantage of having the final word at home? It's not like we had someone who's the same caliber as RM attackers to get. Schurrle didn't do much and although he was probably instructed to defend more than anything else, I'm not that sure he was going to be the guy to win us the match.

Sometimes I feel people are sort of delusional in what they expect from this team, as if they haven't witnessed enough times this season that we can't create chances and we are really bad capitalizing them... then in a very risky situation given all players that weren't playing, they want us to give an unproved guy the free pass to attack (or at least relieve him from some of his defensive role). Yeah, not much sense in my head. Unless you have Cristiano, di María, Bale or Benzema.

[zolayes 14,489]

Question....Is this the first time a manager has been fined for sarcasm?

probably .........but it may not be the last ....

[Special Juan 27,488]

I want to share this with you lot because I think it's a fair point for the discussion on referee's and all things officiating that we are discussing in this thread.

I have refereed at Grass Roots level for under 7's, 8's, 9's and 10's for two years, as well as coaching the game from a level 2 badge mainly for kids football. I hear all the time from parents, coaches and general dogs body on the sidelines having a go at refs and at the level I deal with from both coaching and reffing the abuse is horrific, but this is the foundations of the house and where it all begins. We are talking serious abuse, from calling them out to wanting a fight because their son or daughter has been badly challenged. But this leads me direct to my next point and one that relates to officiating now in the PL and how refs are so called 'Lost in the game"

At Grass Roots level you are dealing with a game that is a lot slower thus becoming easier to read, which then points direct back to the ref and it becoming easier to officiate that because it is slower but also at the same time it allows you to build and get the basics correct, and like I said the foundations. I feel at the level I coach at and ref at it is crucial I speak direct to the children involved in the said incident and also the ones i am giving instructions to who cross the white line. It's about interacting, the discussion, the explanation if you like and putting across the point why you have given the decision and what the reason was…..eyeline to the children and clear talk to them. It's also the same from the sidelines, at this level of football you have to deliver a direct point because their age does not allow them to process this and transmit it to their feet, but the clearer and shorter the advice is the better the transition to the field.

Now onto the the main point about officiating and where we are at now. week in and week out you will see the official giving a card and the player asks why…the ref will then walk away and do nothing but brandish the card. I wouldn't say I agree or disagree with this but what is lost is the players understanding of who exactly is the boss. Now this leads to my next point of consistency in todays game and why players get wound up and makes the react in the way they do. All that supporters ask is for these high class , well trained officials to get the basics right, and this season it's been far from that, in fact probably one of the worst seasons. Take the Azpilcueta so called challenge against Sunderland last week, the ref is way behind the play, that is fine, it's a fast paced game and that will happen, but what follows from that point is the case in point for me. He is then relying on his linesman, the man who is supposedly in the best position of all, but he isn't, he's caught at the angle of looking at both players feet at pace and bare in mind it takes us one replay to see it was not a foul, you cannot tell me in that split second the linesman is 100 percent sure that is a penalty, and that is where the communication lines between officials becomes a grey area. Of course the officials stick together, they will say that but we often talk about this 'Element of doubt' and that is where the officials get it wrong along with the basics of the game of football, and it comes from the Grass Roots level from whom they are taught.

Officiating these days has gone away from the basics, the refs make it difficult by not getting the basics right. Turning their backs on players, telling them to go away and discarding managers like they are a piece of scum. If a manager asks me to speak with him I ask him if he is going to be civil, if so, we speak and chat about because if i feel I have gone wrong I can then put it right if i feel i have done wrong. If the refs continue to wave away players and managers then we will not see change, and was is most prominent about it is, the things the managers and players want to discuss are basic poor decisions. And by the way don't get me wrong in all this, todays players do themselves no favours with the way they react, swear and generally get in the face of the referee, it's wrong, but what is also wrong is the fact nobody is allowed to get the answer from the ref, speak with him and that's that.

That's my view on why managers get annoyed, and i stand by it. Officiating has dropped massively across the board.

[Special Juan 27,488]

probably .........but it may not be the last ....

Ah yes….Mourinho the example!!

[The Skipper 20,593]

Likewise with grass roots football, I have recently been watching my cousin (U16) play some football and the general philosophies in play were absolutely shocking, as was the refereeing. Can you believe someone got sent off (straight red) for apparent dissent? A lot of things need to change from the foundations up, that's for sure.

[Tomo 21,733]

My view is thst referee's should face the cameras post match, if they make a mistake then fair enough but they should atleast explain why they thought it was a pen.

Im just thinking from my Chelsea POV, if a ref made a genuine mistake that cost us a game but came out infront off the cameras held his hands up and explained why he gave it but got it wrong i would genuinely respect him for it.

Could be the small baby steps to improving refereeing in this country because lets be honest all of them bar possibly Probert are fucking dreadful.

[Strike 7,272]

what skipper's been saying. commiting 1-2 men on the counter doesn't mean atletico will surely punish the team at the back. it's not a risk or anything to have a winger playing instead of ramires. schurrle, willian, oscar are more than decent workers off the ball

0-0 is still a good result. Chelsea are a LOT better at home + Hazard Eto'o coming back, the first team players getting a rest on sunday. atletico won't be resting many of their players away at valencia. think chelsea will nick this at home