The Mourinho Thread

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

The first half was clearly about us getting used to the tactics while surviving tottenham pressing. After the break they didn't create jack even when they attacked more and we didn't park the bus till 6mins left.

This was a complete contrast to how we've been playing when we go one up against all the big teams this season. I clearly noticed how fabregas covered for Hazard when he was left high up and ramires covered for Willian. It was because of the 3 in the middle with fabregas on the left side instead of a pivot with fabregas in the centre trying to press and failing.

I know it was one match but I really saw a clear tactical difference imo, Willian was sending long passes through to hazard and fabregas was spreading to ivanovic. The only problem is we need to play with it more often so that we get used some counter-attacking pattern

Couldn't agree more. This season we have completely abandoned the counter attack. And with the likes of Hazard/Willian/Rambo that is criminal. Now i understand that Rambo was sidelined for what felt like forever, but still, this was the first time since his time back in the squad where we've looked to play on the break. I mean even against the big oponents, its clear our tactic is just to knick a set piece goal and then see it out, which we all know has been unsuccessful this year.

And the thing that surprises me, is that we've been a very clinical team this year.

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

maybe he has already complied or isn't coming back to post - CFC is too industrial for him IMHO

I am a man of my word and like I said I would stop deactivate my account if we won with that line up, im going to honour what I said. By the way I was away becuase its a Monday and I work so can only post on the forum after I leave work at 4:30 which is now. Im not hiding because we won, Im happy we won, even if we lost I would not have celebrated at being right rather I would be hurt that my team lost

[Ainsley Harriott 2,732]

Well im only doing what I promised because I am a man of my words,laugh at me all you want but this is not a Nazi forum were we are supposed to follow one man's school of thought. Yes we won last night and Mourinho proved me wrong, but that does not make me a criminal for criticising his team line up. Its a discussion forum and we are all entitled to different line of thoughts which we all have to respect regardless of them being right or wrong. Lets say we had lost last night I would never have come out glotting to you that I was right about the line up because at the end of the day we are all Chelsea fans and we want the best for the team

Criticising the line-up isn't a problem, 90% of us (me included) did it. Critics to Mourinho happen quite often. The problem is the way you did it, you went over the top... You're in your right to dislike him, but do it in a respectful way. He's the manager of our club afterall. Cheer up, we won and you had trolling coming to you after the stuff you said. Friendly banter never hurt anyone, did it?

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

Criticising the line-up isn't a problem, 90% of us (me included) did it. Critics to Mourinho happen quite often. The problem is the way you did it, you went over the top... You're in your right to dislike him, but do it in a respectful way. He's the manager of our club afterall. Cheer up, we won and you had trolling coming to you after the stuff you said. Friendly banter never hurt anyone, did it?

I accept friendly banter, we all do, im happy we won, but @Chelsea Legend's responses are over the top, saying he doesnt like me for having a differnt opinion to others, just felt it was un called for the nature of his aggressive responses. At the end we are all happy Chelsea won

[Barbara 15,149]

missed this fierce celebration to JT's goal.

<3

x

[SS 93 14]

Some of you might think I'm talking shite but about half-way in the first half I thought to myself "fuck, we're winning this", before we looked like scoring, the way we were set up was perfect imo and the end result reflects that. Our defence just looked solid - proper solid, one of those games I just KNEW they weren't scoring, and to top it off, while it wasn't perfect our counter-attacking was good enough to cause them problems.

Basically my point is there really was no point in this game were I was ever worried, I knew the result would come and I hope we stick with the 4-3-3 in the bigger games, we look more compact.

I've still not got over the fact it's the first trophy for this new team, Mou's first trophy in a couple of years... brilliant.

(Also to the Canadian guy above, don't delete your account mate, no need. :blue scalf: )

[iseah100 5,612]

Well im only doing what I promised because I am a man of my words,laugh at me all you want but this is not a Nazi forum were we are supposed to follow one man's school of thought. Yes we won last night and Mourinho proved me wrong, but that does not make me a criminal for criticising his team line up. Its a discussion forum and we are all entitled to different line of thoughts which we all have to respect regardless of them being right or wrong. Lets say we had lost last night I would never have come out glotting to you that I was right about the line up because at the end of the day we are all Chelsea fans and we want the best for the team

Don't leave, man. Just learn to criticize in a nore effective way. Not bashing the manager and trusting him. Sure, it wasn't the prettiest win, quite a few people were skeptical about the lineup. But there is a reason Jose has only lost 2 finals ever. Just friendly banter, everyone has an opinion, express yours on here. We're all, after all, Chelsea fans. [emoji111]

[Tomo 21,751]

Nigel Pearson reacted to criticism by a Leicester fan by telling him to "fuck off and die" and refused to apologise.

Kind off puts Mourinho's supposed "cuntishness" into perspective.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Sorry I didnt know we are all yes man and we are supposed to follow one school line of thought??? This is a discussion forum not a propaganda site were one person's beliefs are forced on to the masses. I dont like Mourinho's brand of football but fair enough to him its showing results as witnessed by last night's win. But dont be naive and think that nothing could have gone wrong with his call last night, Spurs were clearly the better side in the 1st half and were unlucky to go down just before half time. We got the result yes, Mourinho proved me wrong yes, but that doesnt mean my argument was without credit, you come here and attack me with out any logical reason, just attacking me for not following the same train of thought u have?? Like I said this is a discussion forum and everyone has the right to their opinion which everyone must respect just the same way I respect your thoughts on Mourinho.

Just to end at the end of the day regardless of what you might think of me I am a Chelsea Fan and I love my club whether you approve it or not or whether Benitez, Mourinho, Avram Grant, Vialli, Glenn Hoddle is in charge.

You don't have to be a yes man to have respect for someone who has won everything possible in Europe. The question you need to ask yourself is what makes you think you know what's best for a team you've see play maybe 6hrs a week?

Jose spends every waking moment with this squad and he's only ever lost 3 times in all competitions with them, you can couch critique when he's proven to be a failure. Clearly the decisions he's getting paid to make are paying off! The idea is to win and that is exactly what he is doing, if you don't like his style of football perhaps Chelsea isn't the club for you? I've never known Chelsea to be a team that play expansive attacking football, we've pretty much always been an opportunistic club that rode their luck and above all else won. That is the hallmark of Mourinho football, its not always pretty but it is highly effective when you are a results driven club.

And what is this drivel about "not being naive and that it could've gone wrong"? Of course it could've!! but why are you crying before a ball is even kicked? If you were to ask me before kickoff what I thought the lineup would be I would've wanted Ake in the midfield with Ramires and Cesc. That would be totally based on my extremely limited knowledge of the club. When I saw it I didn't assume the sky was falling, I got behind the manager whose done nothing but win for this club and supported his well thought out plan! What did you do? piss and moan about how terrible it is before they even got on the pitch... That's wack. We are supporters! SUPPORT being the operative term. Its the badge before everything else!

Yes this is a discussion forum but before its that it is a SUPPORTERS discussion forum! We try to emanate positivity and show our love for the club! All you ever do is post your pissing and moaning and clearly more than a few are just sick of it. Either get behind the club or piss off... There are zillions of other outfits that may suit your particular brand of "positive" football.

IF you truly love the club try showing it every now and again, there is nothing wrong with disagreeing with what the club or the manager is doing but when its all you do its deemed negative and you will most certainly get negative responses, DEFINITELY from ME

UP THE CHELS!!!

[robdog 2,084]

Don't leave, man. Just learn to criticize in a nore effective way. Not bashing the manager and trusting him. Sure, it wasn't the prettiest win

if Cesc would have converted that Chilena, people wouldn't be saying this

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Some of you might think I'm talking shite but about half-way in the first half I thought to myself "fuck, we're winning this", before we looked like scoring, the way we were set up was perfect imo and the end result reflects that. Our defence just looked solid - proper solid, one of those games I just KNEW they weren't scoring, and to top it off, while it wasn't perfect our counter-attacking was good enough to cause them problems.

Basically my point is there really was no point in this game were I was ever worried, I knew the result would come and I hope we stick with the 4-3-3 in the bigger games, we look more compact.

I've still not got over the fact it's the first trophy for this new team, Mou's first trophy in a couple of years... brilliant.

(Also to the Canadian guy above, don't delete your account mate, no need. :blue scalf: )

Exactly, we played a proper 4-3-3 with zouma in the Makelele role. No need for pivot in the big games, we're too open whenever we play that.

The 4-3-3 allows the left cm and right cm (fab and ramires) to protect hazard and Willian when they go forward. And with ramires energy to join in the attack and still come back to defend it's a perfect fit.

I just hope we didn't play that formation just because Matic didn't play, we need to continue with it until cohesion in our counters is reached.

[We Hate Scouse 10,330]

Majority of people acted like Vybz when Benitez was in charge. There was a ridiculous amount of negativity and people not supporting the manager and his decisions/tactics as is being preached here.

The guy has a different opinion to the majority and is voicing it...on a forum. No need for everyone to jump on the poor guys back or claim he isn't a supporter.

I certainly hope you stay Vybz Kartel. The forum would be boring if we all agreed with each other, I enjoy seeing things from other peoples perspective and hearing different opinions even if I don't agree with them.

[OhForAGreavsie 6,091]

Sorry I didnt know we are all yes man and we are supposed to follow one school line of thought??? This is a discussion forum not a propaganda site were one person's beliefs are forced on to the masses. I dont like Mourinho's brand of football but fair enough to him its showing results as witnessed by last night's win. But dont be naive and think that nothing could have gone wrong with his call last night, Spurs were clearly the better side in the 1st half and were unlucky to go down just before half time. We got the result yes, Mourinho proved me wrong yes, but that doesnt mean my argument was without credit, you come here and attack me with out any logical reason, just attacking me for not following the same train of thought u have?? Like I said this is a discussion forum and everyone has the right to their opinion which everyone must respect just the same way I respect your thoughts on Mourinho.

Just to end at the end of the day regardless of what you might think of me I am a Chelsea Fan and I love my club whether you approve it or not or whether Benitez, Mourinho, Avram Grant, Vialli, Glenn Hoddle is in charge.

Well said.

I am strongly pro-Jose so you and I will probably find ourselves on opposite sides of a few discussions, but, everything you say about expressing your views, and your right to self-identify as a Chelsea fan, is entirely correct. I find it hard to believe that anyone would disagree with a word of it.

I admit that I don't like the way you expressed your view and if you had any interest at all in my opinion I'd advise that you made your points in a different way. You are not subject to my veto on your style however, and nor should you be so keep posting please.

[DYC. 7,542]

Majority of people acted like Vybz when Benitez was in charge. There was a ridiculous amount of negativity and people not supporting the manager and his decisions/tactics as is being preached here.

The guy has a different opinion to the majority and is voicing it...on a forum. No need for everyone to jump on the poor guys back or claim he isn't a supporter.

I certainly hope you stay Vybz Kartel. The forum would be boring if we all agreed with each other, I enjoy seeing things from other peoples perspective and hearing different opinions even if I don't agree with them.

I like you, WHS (don't get any ideas).

[lionsden 4,689]

Why is it that every other top teams in Europe with comparable transfer budget to ours are able to balance success with attacking style of play in big games but it's apparently an impossible mission for us to achieve. What's the point of buying and having array of technically sound players if we intend to continue parking the bus. Football is just as much about success as it is about entertainment. ultra defensive football is tolerable when we win like on Sunday but looks beyond ridiculous when we lose like against Atletico last season.

There's absolutely no empirical evidence that disproves the link between quality/attacking football and success. The idea that our chances of winning a big game is weaker with attacking football is a myth invented by those who support everything jose does blindly. If this is how we want to approach every big game moving forward then we should just replace the likes of fabregas,hazard et al with highly mechanical and efficient players who are more suited to a defensive style.

Haven't said that, in reality, we weren't ultra defensive on sunday especially after JT's goal, we counter attacked spurs at every opportunity and it being a final makes it more justifiable but the problem is this is how we always approach every big or semi big game under jose. There has to be a balance.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Why is it that every other top teams in Europe with comparable transfer budget to ours are able to balance success with attacking style of play in big games but it's apparently an impossible mission for us to achieve. What's the point of buying and having array of technically sound players if we intend to continue parking the bus. Football is just as much about success as it is about entertainment. ultra defensive football is tolerable when we win like on Sunday but looks beyond ridiculous when we lose like against Atletico last season.

There's absolutely no empirical evidence that disproves the link between quality/attacking football and success. The idea that our chances of winning a big game is weaker with attacking football is a myth invented by those who support everything jose does blindly. If this is how we want to approach every big game moving forward then we should just replace the likes of fabregas,hazard et al with highly mechanical and efficient players who are more suited to a defensive style.

Because it is Jose Mourinho. When you ever see the teams he managed play attacking football consistently? Never

[Rom2013 446]

Why is it that every other top teams in Europe with comparable transfer budget to ours are able to balance success with attacking style of play in big games but it's apparently an impossible mission for us to achieve. What's the point of buying and having array of technically sound players if we intend to continue parking the bus. Football is just as much about success as it is about entertainment. ultra defensive football is tolerable when we win like on Sunday but looks beyond ridiculous when we lose like against Atletico last season.

There's absolutely no empirical evidence that disproves the link between quality/attacking football and success. The idea that our chances of winning a big game is weaker with attacking football is a myth invented by those who support everything jose does blindly. If this is how we want to approach every big game moving forward then we should just replace the likes of fabregas,hazard et al with highly mechanical and efficient players who are more suited to a defensive style.

Haven't said that, in reality, we weren't ultra defensive on sunday especially after JT's goal, we counter attacked spurs at every opportunity and it being a final makes it more justifiable but the problem is this is how we always approach every big or semi big game under jose. There has to be a balance.

THere are empirical evidence that we do a lot better than any other big team in Englad against big teams. 0 defeats against City in the League (2 wins and 2 draws), 0 defats against Arsenal in League (1 win and 2 draws), 4 wins against Liverpool in League, 0 defeats against Manchester Unuted (2 draws and 1 win), 1 defeat against Toteenham in League (1 draw and 2 wins).

About our counter attack one of the problems we have is that Hazard is a great attacking but he suffers in counter attack, the same for Fabregas, Oscar can't do ir aso. We should do a lot better in that, anyway we still are by far the best team en Englad in every aspect. Specialy

Hazard needs to improve a ot playing in counter attack, sometimes we seem Barcelona that didn't know what to do when they were in numerical superiority in attack, and every time tried to do the same.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Majority of people acted like Vybz when Benitez was in charge. There was a ridiculous amount of negativity and people not supporting the manager and his decisions/tactics as is being preached here.

The guy has a different opinion to the majority and is voicing it...on a forum. No need for everyone to jump on the poor guys back or claim he isn't a supporter.

I certainly hope you stay Vybz Kartel. The forum would be boring if we all agreed with each other, I enjoy seeing things from other peoples perspective and hearing different opinions even if I don't agree with them.

Someone has to said : "we doesn't mind having someone with different opinion in here, but the problem is with how the way you expressed it, with 'f*** here', 'f*** there' never sounds good, and it is become annoying a bit"

There I have said it

[lionsden 4,689]

Because it is Jose Mourinho. When you ever see the teams he managed play attacking football consistently? Never

And I get that but the issue is most posters are suggesting his ultra defensive football is our best and only chance of winning against big teams. this might be the case for the smaller teams operating on limited budget but not a top team that aspires to join the very elite in Europe. We shouldn't be approaching every game against top 6 teams domestically and in Europe with the same set up and mentality as a team like Leicester city for example. This approach is not too bad every now and then when it's actually necessary but not literally every time.

He's not using the squad to its full potential and capacity imo. Zlatan said it best, to paraphrase him,when you buy.have a ferrari, you don't drive it like a fiat. the more balance approach will be to allow the attacking players attack and the defensive players to defend and depending on the situation, roles can be reversed or mixed.

[lionsden 4,689]

THere are empirical evidence that we do a lot better than any other big team in Englad against big teams. 0 defeats against City in the League (2 wins and 2 draws), 0 defats against Arsenal in League (1 win and 2 draws), 4 wins against Liverpool in League, 0 defeats against Manchester Unuted (2 draws and 1 win), 1 defeat against Toteenham in League (1 draw and 2 wins).

Yet there's no evidence that another style (a more balanced style) wouldn't work or be as effective with the type of players we have. We have the quality to win big games without going the ultra defensive route. and no one is advocating a gungho style neither but to attack and defend sensibly rather than full on defensive.

About our counter attack one of the problems we have is that Hazard is a great attacking but he suffers in counter attack, the same for Fabregas, Oscar can't do ir aso. We should do a lot better in that, anyway we still are by far the best team en Englad in every aspect. Specialy

Hazard needs to improve a ot playing in counter attack, sometimes we seem Barcelona that didn't know what to do when they were in numerical superiority in attack, and every time tried to do the same.

So players like hazard and Fabregas, who aren't suited to that style of play, have to adapt but the manager shouldn't try to be more tactically flexible to get the best out of them?