The Mourinho Thread

[lionsden 4,689]

Optajoe: 18 - Chelsea have allowed their opponents more shots on target against them than any other team in the Premier League. Exposed.

There's literally no positives to hold on to at the moment. We have started the season as the team with the weakest defence in the league, statistically and our offence has been non existent.

[Special 59]

We need a top midfielder. A midfielder to play with Matic and Fabregas. Oscar and Ramires are not good enough. And I'm not saying this because we lost to City, I never liked a player like Oscar. We had lots of chances on counter-attack that we lost because of Oscar and Ramires.

[NishC300 1,865]

  On 17/08/2015 at 13:45, supporter said:

If it were possible that all changed and we changed our mind for this summer market I think we need to do the following movements in the market.

Sales.

1. Ramires (Juventus).

2. Cuadrado (OUT!).

3. Mikel (I know, it is impossible ...)

Signings.

1. A right-back (a great right-back) (Coleman -I know, it's impossible, but I hate Martinez- or Fabinho) or a left-back as backup (maybe Alex Telles from Galatasaray) to play as a left-back Baba With Azpilicueta as right-back.

2. A defensive midfielder to play close to Matic in complicated matches (a new bus) or to be backup of Matic throughout the season. But a backup which comes to play, not to warm the bench. Maybe Willian Carvalho or Axel Witsel are the best options.

3. Another centre-back. John Stones... Zouma - Stones for the next decade since now.

4. MANDATORY. A creative CM or a magic N.10. This should be mandatory. In fact, if it were up to me, I would sign two creative players for the midfield. But it's impossible. So I would sign Isco because now Real Madrid will sign Kovacic and they have Kroos, Modric, James, Isco and Kovacic fighting for three positions in midfield and maybe he wants a change to play Euro 2016 in the starting eleven with Spain. Isco and Hazard together would be a holy madness.

But I think that Roman should be smart and sign Koke paying his clause (44 million pounds) and give him a good salary. Koke is exactly what we need now that Fabregas is missing. It is a relatively expensive signing, but it would be a strategic signing. But his signing is very complicated.

I do not know, but if Roman could read this .. he has to understand that we have a squad to fight to win every trophy but if we do 2/4 signings before the end of the market. We have a good team but it needs to be renewed to avoid monotony.

Or we react quickly in these last 15 market days ... or we are going to depend on the bus in the important moments.

Regards.

Do you no think we should be playing Azpi at RB and Baba Rahman at LB?

Also how much do you estimate Isco would cost?

Cheers.

[couris 232]

He still didnt replace Luiz. Sold Mata/KDB/Luis/Salah and now we are stuck with Cuadrado/willian. If it was another manager everyone would be calling for his head. Disgusting.

[LukakutoStamford 779]

That!s the thing except for the delusional muppets no one was suggesting that Chelsea needed 50 million pound players. Chelsea just needed solid players who are able to compete and give Chelsea options and depth. I would have been satisfied with Witsel/Aranguiz, Cabaye, Alderweireld, Coleman + Stones/Varane etc. it would have been a big depth upgrade and Cabaye has great chemistry with Hazard from their Lille days.

Adding those options would have given Chelsea depth and multiple options and cost would have been around 90-100 million pounds. Net spend with the players going out would have been 30-50 million pounds

[Roquila 1,335]

At the time we sold KDB/Luiz/Mata/Schurrle we all thought it was good but i would give a bollock to have atleast KDB and Mata here.

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

Anyone holding out for a marquee signing is going to be disappointed i'm afraid. Two weeks to go till the end of the window and the way negotiations drag on these days (Baba) i think it's highly unlikely we are going to buy someone big. Not sure Stones is a marquee signing per se but after yesterday he could find himself an automatic starter. If he is bought Everton are going to ask for a monster fee pushing towards 40 million quid which is extremely risky and on paper not a great bit of business.

[Last Sicarius 610]

  On 17/08/2015 at 14:53, Gilvorak said:

We could do with all of KDB, Mata, Luiz, Bertrand & even Lukaku. But yeah net spend eh?

But what if we get them behind Costa, Fabregas or Zouma? It is al in "what if.."

I like Jose when he cares Chelsea, we cant win anything but one thing he need to do: rotation in team.

[kmk108 1,186]

  On 17/08/2015 at 15:57, Roquila said:

At the time we sold KDB/Luiz/Mata/Schurrle we all thought it was good but i would give a bollock to have atleast KDB and Mata here.

But neither wanted to be anything but a starter, and Jose wasn't willing to do that.

It would be nice to have a bench full of great players, but great players don't want to sit on the bench.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Did he made one thing right this summer?

He brought great Gk backup but thats it.

He totaly missed with Falcao. He didnt improve our quality or quantity of squad. He still didnt bring CM but insists with Ramires.

Our defense is shit. We only look good because 8 players always defend. Our attacking movement is terrible. What happend to our form from last august_october, I dunno. Mou didnt solve one thing since then.

Im sure we will bounce back after this shit start and pre season but I wouldnt expect us to be this bad. We havent won single game since preseason started ffs.

Anyway I defended Mou despite not always agreeing and he got us many titles, but lets see how he does this year when opponents are actualy doing well.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

  On 17/08/2015 at 16:23, kmk108 said:

But neither wanted to be anything but a starter, and Jose wasn't willing to do that.

It would be nice to have a bench full of great players, but great players don't want to sit on the bench.

I don't buy that, money talks. City have an enormous amount of world-class talent warming their bench, with correct rotation and that it can work. Of course if they specifically want to leave, like KDB, then fine. But I'm sure Mata, Schurrle & Luiz didn't want to leave as soon as they did.

[zolayes 14,489]

  On 17/08/2015 at 16:27, LDN Blue said:

I don't buy that, money talks. City have an enormous amount of world-class talent warming their bench, with correct rotation and that it can work. Of course if they specifically want to leave, like KDB, then fine. But I'm sure Mata, Schurrle & Luiz didn't want to leave as soon as they did.

SPOT on Rotation is an option and protects against fatigue and burn out

[kmk108 1,186]

  On 17/08/2015 at 16:27, LDN Blue said:

I don't buy that, money talks. City have an enormous amount of world-class talent warming their bench, with correct rotation and that it can work. Of course if they specifically want to leave, like KDB, then fine. But I'm sure Mata, Schurrle & Luiz didn't want to leave as soon as they did.

I completely agree with that. The difference is Mourinho didn't want to rotate nearly as much as City do. If my memory serves correctly, Mourinho was not planning on rotating Mata. He was going to sit him until he turned into the player he wanted.

[Jase 43,479]

Our current starting XI + the squad depth of 2013/14 season would have been the perfect combination. Quality and options aplenty.

[supporter 3,088]

  On 17/08/2015 at 15:42, NishC300 said:

Do you no think we should be playing Azpi at RB and Baba Rahman at LB?

Also how much do you estimate Isco would cost?

Cheers.

Hi friend!

Yes, I think we should place Azpilicueta as right-back and Baba as left-back mainly because Ivanovic is completely overwhelmed as right-back since a long time ago. His best years as a right-back are gone and he should be refocused to play as centre-back to take the role of John Terry (c) as a veteran centre-back. Iva has been a great right-back, but he can no longer continue playing in our starting eleven as right-back.

And Azpilicueta is a multipurpose, he can play in left or right side with great performance. Azpilicueta is like Philipp Lahm: A versatile and perfect player.

Regarding Baba, Jose has trusted him and perhaps we can give him confidence from the beginning to play on our starting eleven. But, to be sure, I would sign another left-back of a low profile like Telles. So we could get him and Baba fighting for a place in our starting eleven, increasing competition and having Ivanovic (with Azpilicueta on the left side) as emergency solution.

About Isco I think we could sign him for about 50 or 60 million euros (35.50 / 42.60 million pounds). To me 35 million pounds (50 in euros) should be enough to sign him.

And Real Madrid is very close to signing Kovacic for around 35 million euros (24.86 million pounds).

Reports say that the price of Isco could be 33.7 million pounds. Maybe this could be a reasonable price considering that Real Madrid has just spent almost 25 million pounds to sign Kovacic. For me, 35 million pounds would be fine in terms of quality / price.

For example, two years ago Real Madrid sold Mesut Özil (when he was 24 years old) to Arsenal for 45 million euros (32 million pounds). I think that Ozil and Isco (23 years) could / should have a similar price. Another example is when Manchester City bought David Silva when he was 24 years for about 35 million euros (25 million pounds) in 2010, just after David Silva won the World Cup with Spain.

In the last days of the market, if Jose convinces Isco, and if Isco "requires" an exit I think that the final price could be more or less 35 million pounds. And,at most, Real Madrid could require 42/44 million pounds. But 35 million pounds could be enough.

Regards.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

  On 17/08/2015 at 16:38, kmk108 said:

I completely agree with that. The difference is Mourinho didn't want to rotate nearly as much as City do. If my memory serves correctly, Mourinho was not planning on rotating Mata. He was going to sit him until he turned into the player he wanted.

Yeah I for sure I guess. But the root of it comes down to the fact this club went a little too overboard concerning themselves with FFP when clearly there was much more dynamic way of approaching it which City found.

& if the case is true that transfer investment is going towards a new stadium instead.. Well looks like we'll be following an Arsenal approach then

[Gilvorak 3,734]

  On 17/08/2015 at 16:45, Jason said:

Our current starting XI + the squad depth of 2013/14 season would have been the perfect combination. Quality and options aplenty.

All we had to do was rotate more instead of alienating top class players. We could've easily kept most of those players & still signed Cesc, Costa & Matic.

[kmk108 1,186]

  On 17/08/2015 at 17:02, LDN Blue said:

Yeah I for sure I guess. But the root of it comes down to the fact this club went a little too overboard concerning themselves with FFP when clearly there was much more dynamic way of approaching it which City found.

& if the case is true that transfer investment is going towards a new stadium instead.. Well looks like we'll be following an Arsenal approach then

FFP is what we kept hearing about last year, and all was good when we were winning the title. Wonder if we would have had the restrictions dropped like City did...

I thought the idea was that Roman was going to finance the stadium so that our transfer activity wouldn't be affected. Maybe it was just a nice idea rather than an actual plan?