The Mourinho Thread

[HRiver 1,512]

Wow, this is starting to become a bit ridiculous. All of you who believe the coach is being too harsh on the players by "putting all the blame on them" and being arrogant... seriously get real. They're grown men, I'm pretty sure they can handle it. Besides, what if this is his way of motivating them? And since when can't a coach criticize his own players? He took Matic off after less than thirty minutes and now Matic has been made a scapegoat and it's the end of the world. Since when can't a manager take off a player if he believes he's not doing his job properly? Yes, it rarely happens, but the manager has every right in the world to do it.

[Adnane 1,101]

That is some really aggressive love right there

And I believe that is exactly what he needs from the board !

[Henrique 9,133]

Just went to hang out with my ladie and watch The Martian (thought the movie was pretty average), and when I returned home I was really shocked by two things:

1- Mourinho has not been sacked yet.

2- Only 50% of people who answered the poll so far believe Mourinho should not get the axe. I thought it would be up to 90%.

If people who make decisions know what they are doing, Mourinho will sacked as far as monday, but since they already gave him a contract extension, one year before the end of the current deal, then perhaps they don't know what they are doing, and there will be a dead man wakling as the manager untill someone realize the axe is rational thing to do.

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

I've been very very very patient with JM. I was positive that the second half of last-season could be justified once the 2015/16 campaign got started. I admitted we were playing poorly, but I thought a PL Title would restore a collective sense of relief and belief in everybody's confidence, especially for JM who I believe couldn't fathom going two straight seasons without a league title for show. Especially when you consider how we lost 2013/14.

How fucking wrong I was.

You guys were right in the end. @MrExcalibur100,@lionsden, @Styles

-----------------------------------------------

The issues from the beginning of 2015 have escalated to alarming levels.

I have no problems seeing Chelsea lose a match, but these aren't even competitive losses.

Look at Man City-1 West Ham-2. Wave after wave after wave of attack. Which result in real, goal-scoring opportunities, those are losses I can accept. A competitive loss.

Those matches where the opposing GK is just playing out of his skin, or every shot rattles off the post/crossbar.

But not once this season has Chelsea lost a match in that fashion. Not Once! Crystal Palace, Everton, Man City, Porto & Southampton all deserved their 3pts on the day.

There is no defending that.

Our "pressing" continues to be a joke. In fact, all we're doing is creating more space for the opposing midfield to pass more efficiently.

It's so disjointed, you can tell this has never practiced properly in training. Come on Jose.

The lack of open-play goals is scary. Our infamous Chelsea Bus has been moved to the other side of the pitch.

Also, JM doesn't even tell our CMs/AMs to sit back,and play more conservative. Not once this season has our team been setup to play on the counter, Or play like we did against Man U in April. At least then I can say, "JM is changing our approach to matches, trying to stop the leaking, etc. etc.."

Instead, for some reason, every match our players stroll on the field attempting to out possess/attack the opposition, and it's been failing on disastrous levels.

Like, forget the whole Ivan & Cesc thing for a sec, JM isn't even instructing our players to play more defensive! Where's the infamous pragmatism FFS?!

This to me is the most glaring and indefensible reality of this season.

At the end of the day, I support whatever Roman decides to do.

We'll come out of this. Chelsea Football Club always does..

Watch us get to a cup final and/or Top 4.

[Henrique 9,133]

@DYC., Do you remember when I said Mourinho doesn't have many options after Chelsea?

His post-match interview reeked of somebody who knows his options are limited.

For me Mourinho's future is pretty clear: he will manage a european NT after Euro 16, probably England or Portugal, and stay there for the next 4 or 6 years.

[Despiadado.Maleante 1,046]

I Have more respect for AVB. At least he had balls. Give this greedy fukker his 20mil and be done with it.

[Reddish-Blue 2,510]

Seems on this forum that many of the people who are craving stability are the same people calling for Mourinho's head. Our first real wobble since his return, off the back of a double no less, and they want him gone... Stability indeed.

Makes you wonder how much time any new manager would be afforded. Klopp to pick a popular name, would he also be under intense scrutiny if he were in the same position? Is a period of instability all it takes to declare a potential the long term project a failure and so on to the next one?

Stability means taking the rough with the smooth and since José came back this is the only really rough period we've had.

This is something more than a rough period, it's more like the start of a downward trend

I just wish Mourinho would hold every player accountable for their poor performances this season...rather than having double standards and playing favourites with Ivanovic/Fabregas.

I'll be surprised if Mourinho is the manager next season as let's be honest, he wasn't brought here for 'stability', because Mourinho and stability are like antonyms

[11Drogba 2,000]

What pisses me off the most is the fact that we still play without real fullbacks, well we do play one but he has to play out of position... I wonder how the fuck he even came up with that idea.

At Real he was using Arbeloa and Coentrao frequently. They did not play much after Mourinho. I really don't understand how he evaluates fullbacks.

[Henrique 9,133]

Its unbelievable how 9 out of 10 people writing in UK press is saying we are favorites to win the PL this season. I'm getting the feeling those people barely know what's really going on with teams, because the amount of problems with this squad is really worrying. It won't be a surprise if the team struggle during this season but if that happen I imagine many "10 reasons why" articles everywhere.

In some predictions some guys only point to "Mourinho factor" as the reason the team will win the league.

Before the start of the season, anyone who understood what was going, knew this team had many problems. The idea that Matic was world class DM, Cahill was world class and Terry was as good as 10 years ago, all of those ideas were crazy.

You just can't accept that Mourinho started his 3rd season with Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta as the main defense.

Despite that, I'm really shocked about the current situation. The football today is easily worst than any game from AVB, Scolari or RDM years. Southampton completely outplayed us all over the field. For a moment, I was afraid they would score 6 or 7.

Its clear Mourinho lost the dressing room. I'm sure in the future there will be many stories in the online papers about how Mourinho lost the dressing room, and was sacked less than one year after winning the PL. Its hard to say why he lost the dressing room, but he only got himself to blame for the quality of this squad.

I won't point the players that were here when he came back in 2013, because everybody know who they are and what they are doing elsewhere.

I think in some years from this day, many will understand what happened since 2013, but at this point I realized that Mourinho is VERY limited. I'm shocked about how limited he is. He is a winner, but he is limited. I mean, he arrived saying his formation was 4-2-3-1. Instead of trying to take the best out of his squad, he asked the players to adapt to his 4-2-3-1 formation. Mata was playing as a winger who must mark the opponent's full backs, and thats not what Juan Mata is about.

It doesn't matter if you are facing City at Eithad or the worst team of the league at SB, its the same 4-2-3-1.

I was never a big fan of Ancelotti during his 2nd season, but during many games in 09/10 season, the team was playing mid/attack: Ballack, Lampard, Joe Cole; Malouda, Anelka, Droga. The team played with no proper DM during many matches, something that Mourinho would never do.

Opponents realized how this team play, beacuse its pretty predictable.

[ack17 205]

People did. Even though we won the title, when it was Hazard who was mainly stepping up more than other players and Oscar went back to hiding again, many people were making it clear that KDB should be here. Not so much Mata, but KDB especially as he was always scoring or assisting if not both every week in the Bundesliga. Mata despite not being excellent last season still got into double figures with goals and that is considering one stage he struggled to get in the team. Mata was a fans favourite and one of our best players and while we got a big fee for him, his replacement is not as good and has not lived up to the hype Mourinho gave him which is more frustrating.

The most worst decision of Mourinho is selling Mata and KDB, and signing of Cesc and Pedro. That make Chelsea need to rebuild again.

[Despiadado.Maleante 1,046]

I honestly thing if we had gotten another manager instead of Mourinho we still would have won the league. We had great squad depth especially in attack. All we needed was a DM and ST. Bring back KING CARLO please before this idiot ruins the team further.

[11Drogba 2,000]

Rumor is Rodgers will be sacked after Everton's game. Some Liverpool fans think they'll get Klopp.

[robsblubot 3,595]

Rumor is Rodgers will be sacked after Everton's game. Some Liverpool fans think they'll get Klopp.

Rodgers is a good manager and a lot cheaper than Jose...

[Blue Armour 4,448]

Tell me what would those transfers do at the current situation? Who are those transfers that he wanted?

Mouinho biggest failing is getting the best out of his players; almost every midfielder and forward has either stagnated or regressed at Chelsea. The frightening thing is that the longer our players have been exposed to Mou tactics and training the worse they have gotten.

Remember how good Matic was when he arrived? Damn it seems like a distant memory when he had that game against City and had prime Yaya in his pocket. Was a Lion when he came in, and literally the perfect DM he had everything? Now he got shamefully substituted as a sub.

Cesc in his first few months here was so good. Not just his assists but he was genuinely controlling the game. Always on the ball and always looking to receive the pass and passing forward. Now the game just passes by and he avoids the ball, and has been like this for most of last season too. Or Oscar how much promised he showed in his first first season, the boy has stagnated and I know him and many other players are better then they have showed under Mou.

How about the players who have left like KDB, Salah, Cuardado. They have been sensational since leaving Mou and his tactics.

It is honestly disheartening when Chelsea fans or oppositions take a swap at our players. Call Hazard overrated, Oscar shit, Cesc a fraud, Matic a poor mans Carraick. It is simply not true, under a friendlier attacking tactic and training they would be different players.

I really wish our players the best and it would be such a waste for them to continue under Mou. They deserve better.

it doesn't matter who we bring in you simply cannot over look this.

They are playing like frauds. The whole lot of them in fact, with maybe exception to Azpilicueta and the GK.

I can accept that they are lacking confidence upfront, and are not able to create a decent chance of that, but in the past three matches they have been going AWOL when it comes to pressing the opposition and closing down space. They don't cover for each other, they refuse to track back.., and put in limp tackles. These are the basics, and you can't forgive them for failing in this. When Mane from Southampton does 10 times of what Hazard has done in recent matches, you know that the team is just caving in for the opposition. No fight in the whole lot of them. I don't trust them to recover even if we bring in a new manager at this point.

[didierforever 7,349]

What are you on about in that first paragraph? The whole squad is currently playing horribly. What have that list of players got to do with anything? The current crop weren't rubbish last season, poor at times, but not like this. So it seems to me like his hands are somewhat tied given that the lot of them seem poor.

I can't comment on Baba as I know nothing about him, it would be a sad state of affairs if he isn't good enough to get in to our defence, but I'm not on the training ground every day.

i was stating the number of "replacements" we had for iva which jose does not deem good enough. not that hard to understand.

[Laugh1ngMan 393]

Seems on this forum that many of the people who are craving stability are the same people calling for Mourinho's head. Our first real wobble since his return, off the back of a double no less, and they want him gone... Stability indeed.

Makes you wonder how much time any new manager would be afforded. Klopp to pick a popular name, would he also be under intense scrutiny if he were in the same position? Is a period of instability all it takes to declare a potential the long term project a failure and so on to the next one?

Stability means taking the rough with the smooth and since José came back this is the only really rough period we've had.

Mourinho has been given the entirety of the first season to sort things out.

Before Mourinho arrived our plan of approach was clear. Buy talented youngsters, let them evolve and integrate the best ones in our team to create a long sustained succes at our club but that has gone all to waste.

What Mou did was bring some short term fixes in the team with experience to win him the title. This man has no long term vision what so ever and we are now beginning to see the effects. We sold alot of our talent and we currently have no solutions in our squad. The biggest hopes are RLC and Kennedy at the moment but he is refusing to put his faith in them like usual.

I would like to give him more time but judging by his actions so far to try and turn things around he just seems clueless (having yet to drop our two worst performers in Cesc and Iva as a prime example).

He reminds me a lot of Moyes at Manchester these days who looked so far out of his depth it was clear very early on he had to go. Whenever Mou is asked what is going wrong, he can't point his finger at something. And he starts giving the same crap about bad individual performances.

He has nothing else to fall back upon.

Our players have nothing else to fall back upon but individual hard work.

We played a total of 3 months of good football under him and hoping he will change his ways is being deluded.

I'm afraid his time is over.

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

Rumor is Rodgers will be sacked after Everton's game. Some Liverpool fans think they'll get Klopp.

Klopp's waiting for the job at Bayern next summer when Guardiola's gone. One of my best mates runs the FC Bayern Fan Club in Romania and he usually attends at least one game per month there. He's got a lot of German friends in Munich, season ticket holders at Bayern and they confirmed it to him. Also one of the Bundesliga commentators at Eurosport Romania, Bayern fan as well and probably the best and most intelligent commentator in this country, keeps talking about this thing every match like it's a done deal already. This guy adores Guardiola and his philosophy but agrees that this will be his last season in charge there and Klopp will be taking the reigns at Bayern next summer. I'm thinking that you would not be speaking about something live on TV week-in, week-out if it had not had any substance in it I guess.

[nowhereman 7]

Mourinho has achieved a lot with Chelsea so I think he deserves more time, at least until Christmas, if by then he will not have turned things around then he'll need to go and be replaced with a manger who is good at developing young players and playing attractive football like Klopp.

[Alan Partridge 1,124]

They would be mad to sack him

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

Hope that 2 weeks are enough to sort his contract situation.

Voted for yes.

I'm probably the biggest Jose fan boy but you can't help him if he wants it so much. What infuriates me the most is that he didn't see that coming yet internet warriors did. I used a phrase in March or April that even unarmed eye can see problems in the squad and in the team and there are many things that are not rosy. There was me and other guys but honestly it was so obvious I'm not taking pride for that. Yet the guy that has UEFA Pro badge since 1992 and is coaching at the top level for 15 years pretends to be blind, as long as scoreline is good, no matter performance, no matter if you were lucky or not lucky, he thinks everything is alright. He really believed that we were actually that good last season, imagine that ! He should be using PSG matches as a reference where the team is. Instead he decided to ignore that and he is literally abusing this term "champion" like if this is giving special skill and status to the players and make them better. But problems as were previously as are now with or without champion badge on a shirt. The team should be developing all the time. Yet we're resting on our laurels completely, thinking that we already are at the peak and it is our manager who allowed this to happen. So blind. But remember, he can't hear critics over clanging of all his medals !

In attack we look abysmal. We can't interchange few passess, we look way way more like a country who meets every 2 months than a club. No drilled attacking patterns, no triangles, literally like this element wasn't exercised. We rely on individual brillance. This article from ESPN that attacking drills under Mourinho are very basic, as true as it was, it's not discovering much we can't see. Especially our counter-attack looks shocking, the amount of time we did great transition with few passes you can count on both hands and half of that amount is from City game at Etihad in 13-14 season.

Yet our manager looks clueless, he doesn't try anything and I mean anything to change that. We kick ourself in heads. Sort the full-backs at least, how HOW EVERY CLUB AND COUNTRY play with two natural full-backs yet we still can't do that and try Ivanovic at RB and Azplicueta at LB over again ? It's basic thing to give you few new options, there's a reason why every manager does that. But our manager even this can't change. He is so limited in attack it's un-be-liavable.

The idea that we still play with Cahill, Ivanovic and JT in backline never stop to surprise me. We know every of them is limited and every of them needs protection to actually perform and we're in 3rd season and still play with so XX century defensive block. We won't start building attacks from the back when you have backline so vulnerubable for any act of pressing. We will always have Sunderland mentality.

I wrote this before that I think no one from ours attackers actually developed. You can have a case with Hazard but I say he's supreme talent and he had to develop no matter what. Apart from one in generation talent in Hazard, who is better under Mourinho ? You just have to thank us from the whole footballing world that we didn't sign Douglas Costa because now we would call him fraud, another Willian, toothless technican, no end product, overrated. The whole footballing world now have a great player to watch who otherwise would be ruined, devoid of confidence and playing on a right wing with no purpouse. Thank letter from the world of football beckons for Chelsea.

And how I can ignore how big, annoying liar he is ? What's still with all the talk that he picks players based on performance and there's no untouchables ? How stupid I feel when 1,5 years ago I tried to speak to the people that KdB was in already lost cause and Mourinho/Chelsea gave up on him before he gave up on them. He didn't want to fight for his place. Yes, with manager oriented around 12-14 names who alienetes squad players and berefts them of any confidence, literally like he was on exterminate mission.

How you can imagine him being here long-term when he can't identificate problems BEFORE they arise and how you can imagine him being here long-term if he can't rotate ? If he has untouchables, deprive any others of confidence when they feel as low as ever in their carrer. This guy takes it to the whole new level. Now whole squad feels alieneted not just bench players. Why we start pre-season so late ? Because players were fatigued. Why they were fatigued ? Because there was no rotation. Vicious circle. If we were still scraping wins coming into this season Mourinho would again orient around few names and tire them to death.

I'd prepare safe landing. We have to get to top 4 whether is it with Mourinho or no it's different matter. We will make huge signings in winter to save the season.

However there are no sings for him being able to be at the club long-term. When motivation is down you see how limited we are. We can't rely on something we drilled in training because there's nothing there.

We should prepare Jurgen Klopp. He's basically Mourinho 2.0 with pressing, counter-attack, intensity, something Mourinho was known for. He is also great character and personality so we won't lose that either. He integrates youth. He does speak English well. Yes, he had terrible last season but there are few circumstances softening assessment and it was after 6 seasons at the club not 2 ! He also took sabbatical so should be fresh to start again with clear head. Something Mourinho should do btw.