The Mourinho Thread

[GodZola 630]

Of course the players deserve blame also but if we control the game, create good amount of chances and PSG scored from two corners, we will not come here talking about Mourinho, we will be talking how ivanovic or cahill lose their man.

But yesterday we were just awful, we got soft red card, got outplayed by 10 man (same thing happened against City). For some reason in big games we just simply cannot play where we have to dominate the other team, and that has to fall on Mourinho.

and people forget we have 1 week to prepare for this game, there is no excuse.

No, we need to talk about the players too, did they or did they not make mistakes too? 2 corners that put us out, one is poss fair enough but 2 in one game is completely unacceptable, they would of been drilled by José on who to mark what, where & when & I've said & now you have reiterated it, they have had a week to prepare & still played like amateurs.

See my post to Fernando, I am not defending him, just stating a point that the blame is equally shared with the players.

[GodZola 630]

This is my biggest fear tbh. We saw what happened the last time Mourinho was sacked. United went on the win the title 3 years in a row. I don't really trust the board to replace him properly. Let's just hope that he learns from his mistakes and that the new tv deal will give us an edge over other teams in the CL. Anyways, I reckon that we'll know very early on next season how things are going to turn out. If he takes the same approach in the big games as now, I'll hope he is sacked.

If you want him sacked then that's your opinion fella, I hope next season we will see some new faces & a different approach but you simply cannot do it all the time, Utd scraped so many results by playing poorly but ending the season as champions, didn't see their fans moaning about their style then.

Yeah I hope José & the board have learned some valuable lessons from the past.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I'm all for criticism, and I do believe that Jose takes the biggest blame for yesterday's result. But sack Jose? Really? Ironically it's some of the same people that a couple of years ago were moaning about stability and it's effect on the club and youth integration.

And to those announcing the death of 'pragmatic football', it seems all of you have forgotten last season, when this pragmatic football had the team punching well above it's weight both domestically and in Europe.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

I'm all for criticism, and I do believe that Jose takes the biggest blame for yesterday's result. But sack Jose? Really? Ironically it's some of the same people that a couple of years ago were moaning about stability and it's effect on the club and youth integration.

And to those announcing the death of 'pragmatic football', it seems all of you have forgotten last season, when this pragmatic football had the team punching well above it's weight both domestically and in Europe.

I think what we have here is a clear case of over analyzing a game we had no business losing. (two leads) Those who are asking for Jose to be sacked are the same people who have been his detractors all season. They wait for an opportunity like yesterday to get everyone to buy into the bullshit that Jose has lost it and is stuck in 2010.... LOL.

[Fernando 6,484]

I'm all for criticism, and I do believe that Jose takes the biggest blame for yesterday's result. But sack Jose? Really? Ironically it's some of the same people that a couple of years ago were moaning about stability and it's effect on the club and youth integration.

And to those announcing the death of 'pragmatic football', it seems all of you have forgotten last season, when this pragmatic football had the team punching well above it's weight both domestically and in Europe.

Stability for me is between 3 to 5 years.

You can accomplish a lot in that time.

What I don't agree is to have Mourinho as our saf.

I think that saf was an anomaly and should not be used as measuring tool.

I would prefer to look at the time frame that pep did for his team. 5 years is good enough.

Mourinho has done two and have not been two years of greatness. Two years that someone like pellegrini has done with similar resources if you can call it that...

But mourinho will get his third year, and who knows maybe 4th.

But I have not see nothing of greatness that merits unlimited amount of years.

Unless we are going the Arsenal way and be satisfied with a certain standard...

[bababoom 4,478]

I'm disappointed about yesterday but never would i want him to be sacked, we're top of the league ffs... we need some stability.

We do need to kick on though, the last few months we've played some turgid stuff, i dont know why we've gone off the boil, whether it's Jose' tactics or the players lacking form. We played some beautiful football in the beginning of the season, we looked like a top, top european team. Whenever the opposition scored i knew we were going to come back. Now, we play with no urgency, everything seems so laboured, also for the first time yesterday we looked scared of defending, it was like the players had no idea what they were meant to do... it also doesn't help the likes of Willian, Oscar, Ramires and Cahill have massively dipped in form as of late.

I trust Jose 100 percent and think he's the best man for the job, but i'm not sure what type of team he's trying to create here, whether it's a Chelsea (04-06) 2.0 or a more attacking team like he previously stated (link), I'd have no problem with either, its just right now we cant defend a lead to save our life or play with any attacking flair like earlier on in the season. I also hope he keeps his word about integrating the youth players such as RLC, we need to start seeing some of the youngsters break through at Chelsea, Jose has a tendency to just say things and not actually mean them, not slating him it's just what he does.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

I'm all for criticism, and I do believe that Jose takes the biggest blame for yesterday's result. But sack Jose? Really? Ironically it's some of the same people that a couple of years ago were moaning about stability and it's effect on the club and youth integration.

And to those announcing the death of 'pragmatic football', it seems all of you have forgotten last season, when this pragmatic football had the team punching well above it's weight both domestically and in Europe.

Sacking Mourinho is ridiculous but he really does need to rethink his tactical approach for next season.

If he wants to sit deep and counter then fine but make it work so that we don't concede chances and are actually capable of effectively countering.

It just isn't working this season. We've got 10 behind the ball yet we're still conceding big chances and our counters have been very poor this season.

[Jase 43,479]

Sacking Mourinho is ridiculous but he really does need to rethink his tactical approach for next season.

If he wants to sit deep and counter then fine but make it work so that we don't concede chances and are actually capable of effectively countering.

It just isn't working this season. We've got 10 behind the ball yet we're still conceding big chances and our counters have been very poor this season.

To be fair, it doesn't help when the players have a tendency to produce brainfart decisions with their final passes and/or have poor technique/control of the ball to screw up the counter attacks.

[bababoom 4,478]

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

To be fair, it doesn't help when the players have a tendency to produce brainfart decisions with their final passes and/or have poor technique/control of the ball to screw up the counter attacks.

True but that's down to our squad being riddled by players that have poor technical ability and Mourinho is responsible for playing/ buying them/not replacing them.

Based on technical ability Oscar, Ramires, Ivanovic, Cahill and Willian shouldn't be starters for us. That's 5 players that are regulars for us yet lack the proper technical ability to play at the top level.

It's totally unacceptable at this level that players consistently fuck up chances or cheaply give away possession because they can't properly control a football or panic when put under pressure or always make the wrong decision in the final third.

[WNDS 502]

True but that's down to our squad being riddled by players that have poor technical ability and Mourinho is responsible for playing/ buying them/not replacing them.

Based on technical ability Oscar, Ramires, Ivanovic, Cahill and Willian shouldn't be starters for us. That's 5 players that are regulars for us yet lack the proper technical ability to play at the top level.

It's totally unacceptable at this level that players consistently fuck up chances or cheaply give away possession because they can't properly control a football or panic when put under pressure or always make the wrong decision in the final third.

I'm not at all convinced that Willian actually lacks technical ability. I'd even place him in the top 3 players in this team when it comes down to raw technique (alongside Hazard and Fabregas). The problem he has is that, whilst also possessing good balance to go with his technical abilities, he is not at all agile. It's probably for this reason that he doesn't dribble as much as he could (or should), and also why he sometimes struggles when denied space. Like many of our players, his decision-making in the final third IS an issue, however.

Oscar is a weird one in that from touch-to-touch within a single game his technique can look either very good or appalling; I'm STILL not sure which better represents the 'real' Oscar.

Ramires and Ivanovic are undeniably sub-par in terms of their technique, and I think you could also add Costa to that list as well. Cahill's technique is 'fine' for a CB as far as I'm concerned.

The biggest issue I have with the squad is that so many of our players have poor decision-making all across the pitch (as you and so many other have already noted); only Fabregas, Matic, Luis (when he plays), and Terry appear to be genuinely reliable in choosing the 'correct' option more often than not.

[The Chels 2,502]

True but that's down to our squad being riddled by players that have poor technical ability and Mourinho is responsible for playing/ buying them/not replacing them.

Based on technical ability Oscar, Ramires, Ivanovic, Cahill and Willian shouldn't be starters for us. That's 5 players that are regulars for us yet lack the proper technical ability to play at the top level.

It's totally unacceptable at this level that players consistently fuck up chances or cheaply give away possession because they can't properly control a football or panic when put under pressure or always make the wrong decision in the final third.

Good point. How many of our players would you say are consistently able to make the right decision when pressed (and not just in their head à la Terry and Cesc who are intelligent but not mobile enough)? Personally I'd say Luis, Hazard, Matic and arguably Azpi (only when at RB though). That's it.

I know it's unreasonable to expect 10 outfield players who are all intelligent, mobile and technically excellent but to have only 2-3 of that kind in our starting line-up is very underwhelming.

[manpe 10,861]

We lost on an away goal, nothing else separated us. Ivanovic lost Luiz for the first goal, Silva scored a monstrous unsaveable header for the second and I think it was JT who should have done better. I can understand all the philosophical discussions over Mourinho's approach, but yesterday's elimination is hard to blame on him.

[Despiadado.Maleante 1,046]

Too many big game flops in your team, especially in attack. Willian, Oscar, Fabragas and Costa to an extent are practically useless in big games.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

I'm not at all convinced that Willian actually lacks technical ability. I'd even place him in the top 3 players in this team when it comes down to raw technique (alongside Hazard and Fabregas). The problem he has is that, whilst also possessing good balance to go with his technical abilities, he is not at all agile. It's probably for this reason that he doesn't dribble as much as he could (or should), and also why he sometimes struggles when denied space. Like many of our players, his decision-making in the final third IS an issue, however.

Oscar is a weird one in that from touch-to-touch within a single game his technique can look either very good or appalling; I'm STILL not sure which better represents the 'real' Oscar.

Ramires and Ivanovic are undeniably sub-par in terms of their technique, and I think you could also add Costa to that list as well. Cahill's technique is 'fine' for a CB as far as I'm concerned.

The biggest issue I have with the squad is that so many of our players have poor decision-making all across the pitch (as you and so many other have already noted); only Fabregas, Matic, Luis (when he plays), and Terry appear to be genuinely reliable in choosing the 'correct' option more often than not.

Willian is a weird one for me. He has great technical ability outside the final third but the moment he gets into the final third he turns into Ramires in terms of technical ability and decision making. Very weird.

Was actually going to put Costa aswell. His first touch seems to be very hit and miss with lately it being more miss then hit.

Cahill's basic technique is fine for a cb but his ability to play out from the back is not. He's absolutely horrendous at it imo. He waits and waits then when he gets pressed he panics and knocks it long into no man's land.

Inconsistent technique and inability to play out from the back under pressure are things that i consider to be poor technical ability.

I suppose i'm a bit too loose with the term "technical ability".

Good point. How many of our players would you say are consistently able to make the right decision when pressed (and not just in their head à la Terry and Cesc who are intelligent but not mobile enough)? Personally I'd say Luis, Hazard, Matic and arguably Azpi (only when at RB though). That's it.

I know it's unreasonable to expect 10 outfield players who are all intelligent, mobile and technically excellent but to have only 2-3 of that kind in our starting line-up is very underwhelming.

Yeah i'd agree with the names you said. Luis, Hazard, Matic and Azpi on the right are the only players that possess the technical ability, mobility and intelligence to effectively handle getting pressed.

Wish we'd go after Varane and Pogba in the summer. (or players of the same ilk) and Mourinho stopped using Ivanovic over Luis.

We'd have such a great team.

Costa

Hazard Willian

Pogba Fabregas

Matic

Luis Azpi

Terry/Zouma Varane

Courtois

:worship: :worship: :worship: :worship:

[BlueLyon 9,359]

We are absolute shit in keeping lead this season.

I dont know why we keep on with such tactical approach if we cant get results.

Two seasons in row, we calculated in CL instead of playing football and we got burned both times. Its absolutely sad we cant learn from mistakes and improve. Even with Cesc, matic and Costa we couldnt beat Psg but we could do so without them last year.

Lack of heart in this team is disturbing and concerning.

[Blue Armour 4,311]

Jose should take responsibility for last nights result, but the way some people react here is as if we lost 3-1 at home to Monaco

[Henrique 9,133]

I'm confused about these news.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/563573/Jose-Mourinho-New-Four-Year-Chelsea-Contract

According to Express Mourinho's current contract is a 4 year deal. To be honest, it seems a little nonsensical to offer Mourinho a two years extend at this point if he still has 2 years and half left...

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/430451/Chelsea-Jose-Mourinho-Contract

Daily Star says its the current contract is a 3 year deal, so Roman is no willing to let Jose go at the end of the next season.

Both articles are saying that a "Chelsea insider" told them that Roman will give Mourinho a two extend even with "a catastrophic collapse in the Premier League title race".

To honest that doesn't make any sense. We must question the reasons behind this "Chelsea insider". Mourinho is a very influent man. To other side, at this point, everything the board want to avoid, is putting Mourinho and his team under pressure, because lets be honest, its really hard to imagine any manager in the world surviving an embarrassing UCL exit followed by a "catastrophic collapse" in the domestic league.