The Mourinho Thread

[Jase 43,479]

He's rotated out most of the stars after giving them a fair chance?

I wouldn't say so when Ivanovic, Fabregas etc are still playing regularly. Mourinho is only rotating because we have been so awful this season. Otherwise, he doesn't really rotate much. Last season being a case in point and it was one of the reasons why we looked poorer in the second half.

[Jokesy 53]

@Jokesy, don't get me wrong, I know Hazard has been poor this season (the team's inability to attack doesn't help). But why does José publicly criticise him, while coming up with excuses for Ivanovic or not even metioning Cesc? How many games since Mourinho has arrived did we see him as the only one who tried to play football?

What I want is fairness and for him to stop being a hypocrite, to treat everyone the same. To take the blame for this run, not to come up with excuses or deflect everything on to the others.

Oh, and for the team to start playing football for the first time since the end of 2014. I'd really love that.

I now got your point.

Fabregas has been poor too, but you know he's got a lot of unnecessary defensive work to do lately and that's not actually his primary role. He's supposed to be the orchestrator of the team play but hasn't been able to do so probably because Matic has been poor too.

Personally, I don't know why Mourinho usually pairs Fabregas with a single CDM. I have always thought playing two CDMs behind him will afford him more freedom like Sneijder had at Inter. Heck, Mourinho could even play Oscar or Hazard in that role if Fabregas isn't productive enough. That would also give Hazard more freedom like Ozil had at Real but he'll only need to be more creative and decisive on the ball.

Also, I think Hazard, like Matic, IMO may be that type of player that needs to be pushed harder than normal private discussion. He appears to be the complacent fellow, I may be wrong though. Matic responded by playing much better in last match especially off the ball, though he misplaced many passes too.

Having watched our last two matches more than three times, I believe Fabregas showed a lot of improvements in his game. For instance, he was magnificent in the first 45 minutes against Southampton when he paired with Ramires. He also showed more calmness and desire Against Aston Villa, arguably his best match in the league this season.

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

I wouldn't say so when Ivanovic, Fabregas etc are still playing regularly. Mourinho is only rotating because we have been so awful this season. Otherwise, he doesn't really rotate much. Last season being a case in point and it was one of the reasons why we looked poorer in the second half.

Yes but that's surely the time for rotation!

I get your point though, obviously.

[Johnnyeye 7,455]

http://www.espnfc.us/chelsea/story/2671497/fa-releases-written-reasons-behind-jose-mourinhos-fine

What a big joke, bunch of twats, Mourinho has done right to appeal, don´t bow down to them. Fark them all

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

So he didn't want to criticize that poor referee? His English just wasn't good enough to say what he really meant?

Clown.

[Rhino's Skin 972]

wonder if that poll about whether Mourinho should get the sack is a true reflection of how Chelsea supporters ( the whole community ) hink.

A lot of the ones I know cannot be arsed with online forums and having to deal with OTT reactionary postings and keyboard warriors who would debate 'black was white' until the cows come home.

But, I would guess around 90% of those I do know (and thats several hundred ) would want Mourinho to stay.

It would be interesting if the poll was broken down further or someone who has the knowledge and time makes a spreadsheet showing voting patterns in different genres such as age, male/ female, country, type of supporter such as match going on a full time basis, occassionaly, never etc etc etc

I just seem to get the impression ( and its only my humble opinion ) that its the ones who are in the UK and go to matches are more likely to say yes to keeping him .

Could well be wrong ...hence it would be interesting to see patterns.

I dont mean this post as a pop at 'anti' Mourinho fans or fans who are not priviliged to be able to watch the team at Stamford Bridge

[Billy. 2,742]

Lets say as of now he has left the club, who would you want in/or think can lead the club to more glory?

[Rhino's Skin 972]

Lets say as of now he has left the club, who would you want in/or think can lead the club to more glory?

at this moment....no one.

In ten years time , the romantic notion that an ex player such as JT, Lampard, Drogba etc etc is very successful as a manager sounds appealing

[Roquila 1,335]

Lets say as of now he has left the club, who would you want in/or think can lead the club to more glory?

Well, since it's hard to get any worse i would like Roman to appoint a young and hungry manager with an attacking mind, and actually have patience on him.

[Tomo 21,733]

There's no facts that say he's even waging in personal battles. That's all created. Has any player come out and say they disagree with what Mourinho has said about them? Did we see Hazard throwing a fit? Did we see Baba crying because Jose has no confidence in him? Do we see Loftus-Cheek say he's being treated unfairly? Maybe, just maybe, Hazard will work harder to prove to Mourinho that he's better. Maybe we'll see Baba working harder to be a more solid defender. Maybe we'll see Loftus-Cheek track back more.

It's just another article making Mourinho out to be a ruthless dressing room tyrant and the players poor little victims.

To add to it, when the players ran riot under AVB these same people were banging on about how much of a bad example we were letting players have control and how a manager should always have full control of the team and even stick the boot in occasionally, now we've got that they are screaming and shouting about the players getting disrespected.

Criticised for having player power, now we have a manager in charge fully people basically saying we should return to those days

[Tomo 21,733]

As another poster said.

We sold our future for a league title.

How exactly?

We were signing some good young players circa 10-13 yes, but there was absolutely no balance to the signings, we entered 12-13 with our squad in a similar position to Holland's now, good players under 24 and over 30 but no one in their prime, well Ramires maybe.

If we kept the transfer policy of 10-13 to this very day I can almost guarantee we wouldn't have won a league title or come close too any time soon, we would have been the second coming of Liverpool's 'spice boys', in fact for that short spell of Di Matteo here full time that's exactly what we were.

[Blue Armour 4,328]

To add to it, when the players ran riot under AVB these same people were banging on about how much of a bad example we were letting players have control and how a manager should always have full control of the team and even stick the boot in occasionally, now we've got that they are screaming and shouting about the players getting disrespected.

Criticised for having player power, now we have a manager in charge fully people basically saying we should return to those days

Basically, at that time Drogba, Lampard and Terry were the old to-be-discarded toys, while AVB was the shiny new one.

Now its Mourinho in the former role, and the current squad in the latter.

[quickpassnmove 924]

Maurizio Sarri at Napoli is probably a much more interesting manager story so far this season: https://provenquality.com/napoli-full-of-potential-as-maurizio-sarris-formation-change-reaps-dividends/

more recent: http://www.football-italia.net/74500/sarri-napoli-remain-realistic

[the wes 7,212]

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho still believes his side can win the quadruple of Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup this season, despite a poor start to their campaign.(Daily Express) is mourinho for real here

[kmk108 1,186]

That's your view and so, fair enough. But Fabregas is the certainly the worst for me if we exclude defenders. That guy can't even tackle or bother to put in the shift to save his life.

The thing is, are others even doing enough offensively to justify their place in the squad? No. The fact that we're currently winning based on luck (almost) and we leaving our best attacker out is daft. I also don't buy this nonsense that just because Mourinho is our manager, we have to accept the fact he asks our attackers to defend a lot. In a way, yes simply because he's in charge at the moment but with a mindset like that (preference of defending more than attacking), we'll never progress to the next level and be alongside the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich etc.

No one will be daft enough to come and criticize Mourinho but that doesn't mean the players are happy behind closed doors. Mourinho's obsession of always taking the aggressive approach in handling players (or even the referees, the club etc) is tiresome, predictable and history has shown that approach does more harm than good to the team/club.

I'm not arguing that Fabregas isn't shit. He deserves to be playing with the reserves, but looking at the statistics, he's done more defensively than Hazard. That's mostly because he's got more of a defensive duty than Hazard, but he is doing more.

Someone else said it, but we don't know how these players are responding to the aggressive comments by Mourinho. It may not have worked elsewhere but every team is different. Time will tell, but Hazard has responded well to it before, so I'm inclined to believe it'll work again.

And while I don't think Fabregas and Ivanovic deserve to be playing, him not calling them out like Hazard and Matic may be purely down to personality types. Fabregas and Ivanovic may be players that wilt under scrutiny, while Hazard may be a player with a big enough ego to positively respond to it.

[kmk108 1,186]

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho still believes his side can win the quadruple of Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup this season, despite a poor start to their campaign.(Daily Express) is mourinho for real here

We're still in all competitions. I'd rather my manager believe we'll win everything possible until it's not mathematically possible than concede defeat 2 months into the season.

[Roquila 1,335]

How exactly?

We were signing some good young players circa 10-13 yes, but there was absolutely no balance to the signings, we entered 12-13 with our squad in a similar position to Holland's now, good players under 24 and over 30 but no one in their prime, well Ramires maybe.

If we kept the transfer policy of 10-13 to this very day I can almost guarantee we wouldn't have won a league title or come close too any time soon, we would have been the second coming of Liverpool's 'spice boys', in fact for that short spell of Di Matteo here full time that's exactly what we were.

We sold the likes of KDB , Mata and Lukaku while signing Salah, Cuadrado and Falcao.

Look at KDB , Mata and Lukaku now and look at the players we signed.....

Jose destroyed the squad completely, instead of trying to build a squad around what he had he decided to literally KICK these players out with his ego.

Who is our future now? Terry,Cahill,Ivanovic,Ramires,Mikel,Cuadrado,Falcao,Moses,Fabregas,Willian,Oscar? It's looking grim.

[Blue Armour 4,328]

We sold the likes of KDB , Mata and Lukaku while signing Salah, Cuadrado and Falcao.

Look at KDB , Mata and Lukaku now and look at the players we signed.....

Jose destroyed the squad completely, instead of trying to build a squad around what he had he decided to literally KICK these players out with his ego.

Who is our future now? Terry,Cahill,Ivanovic,Ramires,Mikel,Cuadrado,Falcao,Moses,Fabregas,Willian,Oscar? It's looking grim.

We sold KDB, Mata and Lukaku , the likes of players who didn't want to stay and play second fiddle unlike the likes of Nasri at City.

It was either KDB or Oscar, and while you could argue we let the better player go, you cannot group him with Lukaku and Mata. Lukaku was aiming for the no.1 striker role, a role which he could not be afforded without being thoroughly tested. Neither did he show the same potential as KDB. Mata is quality but he's a finished product at 27 years and not budding potential, judging from the way you grouped him together with KDB and Lukaku.

And when you mention our current future, I see you have conveniently left out Courtois, Matic and Azpilicueta who were very much part of the core of the team last season. You don't need more than 4-5 players to realistically form a spine to a good team. We managed quite well with Drogba, Cech, Lampard and Terry over the years. All we needed was to surround them with quality and not necessarily budding potential to be called the 'future of Chelsea.'