The Mourinho Thread

[Rhino's Skin 972]

I see the NO vote on 'Should he be sacked?' creeps up every day.People seeing sense.

it will get so far, then another reason to restart it again will crop up ;-)

[Henrique 9,133]

Spurs counter attack?

For them to 'counter attack' that would require us to 'attack'

They were attacking and we were trying to counter. 11 men behind the ball whenever Spurs had it.

I guess I just see the game differently and if this is called 'progress' then I'm devastated as we are truly in a dark place.

Indeed. When I was watching the game I thought it was a good piece of football. To other side, people think it was a good performance because it was Spurs (in form team), so its okay to park the bus and play like the underdog. Mourinho again was playing to not lose the game. The team cant play like that the whole time. Mourinho didn't fixed the defense, because playing with 11 players behind the ball is not how you fix your defensive system. To other side the team showed tactical discipline, something that was not there in other matches, so there is some kind of "progress".

To other side this season is doomed. At the end of the season the club must evaluate what happened since 2013 and come up with a decision.

[Fulham Broadway 17,810]

it will get so far, then another reason to restart it again will crop up ;-)

Yup another ISIS attack and Mourinho will be in the frame

[Henrique 9,133]

That's the thing, when they had the chance we didn't have 11 men behind the ball, there lack of urgency allowed us to regroup.

Remy wouldn't have made much difference, we were struggling with our decision making in the final 3rd and Remy would have made that worse.

Spurs is a 5th ot 6th place quality material. The fact a 0-0 after parking the bus 90 minutes is seen as a good results speaks loud about the current state of things. After 14 games played, the 14th place in table is well deserved for what this team has produced this season.

[Atlas Lion 1,223]

Spurs is a 5th ot 6th place quality material. The fact a 0-0 after parking the bus 90 minutes is seen as a good results speaks loud about the current state of things. After 14 games played, the 14th place in table is well deserved for what this team has produced this season.

I understand how many view the result and performance as an improvement, i agree with that. However, with how much we have invested into the squad, it is almost mortifying how bad/anti-football we play with all the talent in our disposal.

[Muzchap 8,966]

Yup another ISIS attack and Mourinho will be in the frame

well seeing as it's likely a 'false flag' episode and Mourinho is the 'false' special one.... I do wonder

[Muzchap 8,966]

I understand how many view the result and performance as an improvement, i agree with that. However, with how much we have invested into the squad, it is almost mortifying how bad/anti-football we play with all the talent we have in our disposal.

Shhh... we're in the minority here - can't you see the results of the poll :) :)

We have to remember that we are fortunate for such a manager and without him we'd likely be facing a relegation battle

[Fulham Broadway 17,810]

well seeing as it's likely a 'false flag' episode and Mourinho is the 'false' special one.... I do wonder

I know you reckon hes the best man for the job really M, youre just overpowered and find it hard to reconcile your strong manlove for him. :

[Muzchap 8,966]

I know you reckon hes the best man for the job really M, youre just overpowered and find it hard to reconcile your strong manlove for him. :

Dam, my thin veneer has been shattered!

I honestly, 100% DID believe he was the right man for the job, but since Jan - it's just been very weird

I remember the elation of August, September and October of 2014, November and December were ok too, Jan was a bit shit and from then on it's just slid down the pole (quicker than a 40yr old greased up stripper!)

He has until the summer to rescue the situation I guess. Yes I wish we'd beaten the Spuds (as half my family are season ticket holders) and my old man (Millwall) is giving me plenty of stick as well (despite them being two divisions lower).

I dunno - just keep hoping for a miracle, maybe it will happen this Xmas - if not Hollywood is not to be believed ever again LOL

[Rhino's Skin 972]

Honestly I don't care anymore. I don't care if Mourinho stays or not, I don't care anymore if we win or lose. As long we don't get relegated I'm happy now. I've written this season off completely.

I'm even prepared for no Champions League football next season.

thats the spirit !!

look forward to you trying to put a positive spin on things from now on then ;-)

[ZOS 580]

I am OK with him not sacked. But supporters of the club shouldn't be OK with letting it slip without an explanation. A failure as epic as ours warrants an explanation and Chelsea fans deserve to know what went wrong.

[OhForAGreavsie 6,128]

...The last thing I want to be is a scaremongering cynic...

You needn't worry about giving the wrong impression. You don't scare me and I think you are the very opposite of a cynic.

[OhForAGreavsie 6,128]

...it is almost mortifying how bad/anti-football we play with all the talent in our disposal.

I think the implication of this statement is completely wrong. Hazard obviously, and certainly Courtois too if he were fit, but how many other of our first choice players would be automatic selections for top six clubs? The answer you'd give might be higher than the number I would offer but it can't be that much higher I'm sure. We are getting the results our squad deserves, no more no less.

Now, if you blame Jose for the shortcomings of the squad then that is at least arguable. (Personally, I don't blame the boss for this, at least not entirely, but it could be argued.)

[Laylabelle 9,754]

I see the NO vote on 'Should he be sacked?' creeps up every day.

People seeing sense.

sorta forgot was even a thing!think got use to being rubbish lol.

[Fulham Broadway 17,810]

sorta forgot was even a thing!think got use to being rubbish lol.

Yeh, getting a taste of what your mum was used to

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

Shhh... we're in the minority here - can't you see the results of the poll :) :)

We have to remember that we are fortunate for such a manager and without him we'd likely be facing a relegation battle

We may well have been... It's incredibly hard to deal with so many players not playing to standard and only bit part subs available to the manager. To have 9 of your starting 11 to be dreadful for the first 7 or 8 games is not easy to deal with - I don't think this is appreciated enough, imo.

[Essien19 1,415]

mata was not a great player under jose cos he was played as a RW. mata never got the protection of matic. my first impression when matic was bought was "awesome, now jose can play mata without worrying about his no.10 having to be "defensive"". but we went out and sold him, instead. THAT is a thing that will always be my biggest problem. maybe i am biased but yes, i think cesc does a brilliant job of de-stabilizing teams. that arsenal team was a joke defensively. look at barca with cesc in his 3 years and look at them now. look at us. totally agree about this. luiz as a midfielder needed to be replaced. replacing a big game defensive midfielder and a massive character with literally no one was also a massive mistake.

I'm sorry but using the wing position as an excuse for not living up to the required standard isn't good enough for me, because the position was nothing new for Mata.

He had played as a winger before, under Emery it worked perfectly and that was one of the reasons why Villas-Boas signed him up.

It's so easy to shift blame away from yourself, can you really make Mourinho responsible for performing that badly?

Mata has been gifted with great abilities, but Mourinho and himself don't like each other very much.

Mata:

‘For better or for worse, we had no relationship, there was no dialogue,’ Mata told El Pais. ‘I was not happy, but always gave the most respected and my colleagues. You never know what will happen in life.’

Who's fault was that?

Surely there are two parties involved, both have to take the blame.

Working under these circumstances isn't healthy.

Back in the day, Chelsea wanted to fully comply with the Financial Fairplay, but Mourinho wanted to bring in Matic.

Therefore the revenues had to be increased, to a greater or lesser extent selling Mata and De Bruyne and bringing in Matic haven't been turned out to be brilliant businesses, but in my point of view it's not that bad.

Mourinho made Hazard player of the year, for some time ago he said:

Mourinho added that the decision to let De Bruyne go has contributed to the development of Eden Hazard.

"If you think it [De Bruyne's sale] is my mistake, then it's my mistake that Eden Hazard is worth more than £100 million," he said.

"What I cannot do is bring us up to a certain level and then not play him. If I don't play Hazard and play De Bruyne or Andre Schurrle, they would have been playing for Chelsea, but Hazard wouldn't."

That's controversial. Can De Bruyne and Hazard consistently get it together? Thinking about the last world cup, not good enough, maybe next time, who knows.

For the record, i agree with you that De Bruyne should be in the current Chelsea squad.

But a lot of choices and tough calls have to be made, that's the way it is.

Personally it's too exhausting, one small tear has to be enough.

Overall Cesc Fabregas flopped in Barcelona.

For that miserable time Fabregas has to take the most of the blame, but one has to take into consideration during that time Barcelona had no stability in their head coaches and some of the stars went through a tough spell or already started regressing (Xavi).

Of course 3 years are a lot of time, especially in the football world so i don't want to bring too many excuses to the table.

At Arsenal, he was a very young guy but already the captain and taking the league by storm, imo.

Fabregas had the legs, i disagree, for me he didn't make them defensively a mess, guys like Song were responsible for that.

Wenger wanted to build the team around Fabregas, Barca got into his head and Fabregas didn't want to stay anymore, we can never find out what they could have won.

In Goonerland they are still dreaming...

how often does that happen? even hatim ben arfa plays a couple of world class games in a season. just like yesterday's performance, i just dont see how exactly would we lose anything if we sold oscar and replaced him with RLC/musonda. what exactly does he brings or did he ever bring to the team that people thought he was a world class potential talent? also, i can agree to many things but i will never agree to oscar's passing. almost as bad as rambo. his only saving grace is that he can score goals and that he USED to tackle around. last time i saw him put in his trade mark oscar-ish tackle was well, i dont know. i cant go that further back in time. not saying he is doing it on purpose. simply think, he is just is not that good.

Oscar is, let me put it like this, a very frustrating player to watch.

For me there is one thing in which he is still good at; reading the opponent who has the ball at his feet. Have seen it in the last match, his perception is good, imo.

He knows where the opponent most likely will go to, maybe his approach draws too many fouls, but that's another thing.

The match against Croatia in the first game of the recent World Cup is in my understanding a good example of Oscar.

On his best, for me he is good at everything, but only short-term, the longer the match goes, the lesser good comes from him, fading away...

One can call that inconsistent. You don't want to have that on your side of the pitch, but how to solve this, not easy.

You criticised Oscar's passing, yeah, your right, now the questions arises; can't he do it or is it a mentality problem?

Taking into account his (sometimes) very good crossings, i say it's mentality, but concentration isn't an easy thing to fix.

At least a new midfielder has to come in now, Mourinho clearly wanted to get his fingers on Pogba (Tour-Eiffel), maybe we won't get him, but someone has to be bought.

If the price is right and Oscar himself thinks that his time is up, then he can go, but i don't have a problem with having Oscar around, there is still undiscovered potential in my opinion and he offers more width in the squad, expensive, but that's how things are. Can't change -and can fully live them.

Loftus-Cheek here, there, it seems the dude is all over the place, yes, also for me he has got quite some talent, but there are a lot things which he has to work on.

Has to get more engaged during the game, has to improve on his passing (long balls imprecise as fuck imo) too, positioning not good enough and so on.

During a very bad crisis i can agree with Mourinho that for some time experience is necessary, but a point will come, where he will field the kids.

Mourinho:

"If the season goes in one direction, that it becomes closed and we can't win [trophies], I will go just with the kids. It makes no sense, when you have nothing to win, to play the older players."

"I'll play the players we're waiting for instead. I can arrive in a moment where I will look to the kids and say, 'Let's go. Non-stop.' I am ruthless.

i dont think its "imagination". its not just one person we are talking about. its not just mata or kdb. lets look at the list of players that have left us simply cause of playing time: mata, kdb, lukaku, bertrand, salah, luis. look at what he is doing to remy. it cant always be the other person's fault. i would rather blame one person than think alll the other 8-10 players are the wrong party. fair enough on the benzema-higuain point, but in his 2 and half years here, his rotation has been dreadful. absolutely shocking. infact that rotation is the key reason why we have lost some top players. i dont think greizemann was even on our list. we needed a RW (pedro). antoine is a second striker/striker. would not have made any sense. i did not want stones cause i still think there is no way jose would have dropped GC and JT. my suspicions were confirmed with the way he handled the ivanovic situation. also, who is to blame for the stones situation. who made the deal public? who called everton "a small club" and made everton dig in their heels and tell us to get lost. now, i dont think we can get stones for even 50mil. but i still think stones was not necessary. as for pogba/CM, here i have to say that we dropped the ball. anyone remotely related to the club knew we needed a midfielder. an upgrade to mikel and ramires or atleast one of them. a player who can easily replace cesc for big games. why did not we go for cabaye/schneiderlein/wanyama/imbula/kondogbia. i mean the amount of options available in this window were immense and we missed out on all of them.

I can't disagree with you about the rotation and that it could have been handled differently. Spot on!

You know and i know Mourinho believes in having a "small" squad around, that worked out well for him until this season, Ancelotti, another highly decorated coach shares that belief. Is it wrong, is it right, that's so binary, black and white, what you can't take away that Mourinho predicated problems before the upcoming season and wanted to bring in some new players. Yes, in public he said otherwise, but that's all strategy and trying to push the prizes downwards. Can't hate him for that, imo.

Mourinho made an error with his attempt to get Stones, it's well known at "auctions", went into meltdown and the way back has quickly been blocked.

So, you mentioned a lot of players and on some of them i can agree with, but for me it's way too simple to put the blame for their departures on the playing time.

There had to be more than one thing wrong, weren't the up for it in the training ground, keep your head down and work hard.

Willian did it and look how it has turned out? Not too bad, i think.

What have all of your mentioned guys in common?

You're only talking about the bad stuff, excuse me, but i can't call this a fair assessment.

The club didn't get Stones done, nevertheless Mourinho dropped Terry or Cahill, in particular the handling of John Terry i call ruthless.

So in my point of view, Stones would have got playing time here or Terry/Cahill would have upped their game significantly, both ways aren't that bad.

A similar thing happened after the purchase of Cuadrado, Willian has matured quickly, imo.

Stones could have been the new right back, there is more than one possibility to get playing time.

At least now i think Stones would have been the perfect signing, the boy has got it all.

Mourinho:

[Diego Costa]

This is the player we bought and we were waiting for since last season. This is why we didn’t buy a striker in the winter market. We were waiting for him, we have him and hopefully everything goes well.

At Chelsea, i believe most of our guys over the years were nice, but their abilities haven't always been world class.

We all have seen the arrivals and departures of Moses, Schurrle, Salah, Cuadrado and a lot more.

What do you prefer?

Buying a player because he is currently doing well, maybe scored against you, Moses comes to my mind, but aren't the best solution for long-term.

Can you wait for some time and then when the opportunity arrises grab it by the balls?

I wouldn't have closed my door for a guy like Kondogbia, but i can understand where Mourinho and the board are coming from.

The german powerhouse Bayern Munich has adopted to that "philosophy", over are the times of buying without serious consideration.

This season, shit is hitting the fan, but Mourinho is a bit longer around than a few months and some things he got bang on the money.

For example, according to Rafa Benitez, John Terry was finished, but Mourinho disagreed and look how it turned out for 2 seasons.

Bringing back the lost son Matic, being ruthless with Ashley Cole, not afraid of replacing Cech with Courtois whose goal kicks have been a lot better,

having confidence in Zouma, until this season getting the best out of a lot of players, playing unbelievable good football imo,

creating a wonderful atmosphere within the fans and having a fan of the club in charge who's not taking shit from the media imo,

matches against Atletico, Psg, Liverpool, Arsenal have been porn imo.

It's not Disneyland, on some things one has to be critical of, but as i said before, failure is human, everyone makes mistakes, it's how we recover and there will be one.

Sooner than later. At least that's my belief.

As always, nice talking to you, sorry for my late response, been busy with work.

See you around, mate.

[didierforever 7,349]

I'm sorry but using the wing position as an excuse for not living up to the required standard isn't good enough for me, because the position was nothing new for Mata.

He had played as a winger before, under Emery it worked perfectly and that was one of the reasons why Villas-Boas signed him up.

It's so easy to shift blame away from yourself, can you really make Mourinho responsible for performing that badly?

Mata has been gifted with great abilities, but Mourinho and himself don't like each other very much.

Mata:

Who's fault was that?

Surely there are two parties involved, both have to take the blame.

Working under these circumstances isn't healthy.

Back in the day, Chelsea wanted to fully comply with the Financial Fairplay, but Mourinho wanted to bring in Matic.

Therefore the revenues had to be increased, to a greater or lesser extent selling Mata and De Bruyne and bringing in Matic haven't been turned out to be brilliant businesses, but in my point of view it's not that bad.

the stats that you have shown, mata has the highest pass%, 2nd highest key passes, highest crosses, 2nd highest long balls and 2nd highest through balls.

mata played as an attacker in valencia and under AVB. under jose, mata was playing to cover for iva. the person who got the freedom was hazard, not mata. there is a massive difference in that aspect. so obviously this has to be taken into consideration.

for example - playing mata as a right winger against luke shaw and lallana who were probably the best left wing combo in PL at that point of time, made no sense. most of us on here knew that mata should not start that game as a RW. there was no way in hell that mata was going to have a good match. why? was it because lack of effort or lack of motivation. no. he simply is not a player who can be played on the wings for defensive purposes. it is one thing to play a CAM on the wing and totally another to play a CAM on the wing and expect him to be defensive.

obviously its the managers fault. KDB had said something like "you dont talk to jose, only jose talks to you". jose is our manager. he is as much responsible for the tactics as he is for keeping the players happy and in the loop of why things have been done the way they have been done. if there was no dialogue, then it is only the manager's fault. also, again - it cant be mata's, kdb's, lukaku's, bertrand's, luis' etc etc fault. i would rather look at the one person common in all of this as the guilty party.

if chelsea wanted to be FFP compliant, we should have sold hazard. 100mil pounds easy. if chelsea wanted to be FFP compliant, we should not have bought willian (who looked like a luxury signing with hazard, mata, schurrle, oscar, kdb, moses) already in the squad. we sold mata, kdb, lukaku, bertrand, luis etc etc.. because these players were unhappy under jose and wanted to leave. getting good money for them was a good job by the board.

Mourinho made Hazard player of the year, for some time ago he said:

That's controversial. Can De Bruyne and Hazard consistently get it together? Thinking about the last world cup, not good enough, maybe next time, who knows.

For the record, i agree with you that De Bruyne should be in the current Chelsea squad.

But a lot of choices and tough calls have to be made, that's the way it is.

Personally it's too exhausting, one small tear has to be enough.

Overall Cesc Fabregas flopped in Barcelona.

For that miserable time Fabregas has to take the most of the blame, but one has to take into consideration during that time Barcelona had no stability in their head coaches and some of the stars went through a tough spell or already started regressing (Xavi).

Of course 3 years are a lot of time, especially in the football world so i don't want to bring too many excuses to the table.

At Arsenal, he was a very young guy but already the captain and taking the league by storm, imo.

Fabregas had the legs, i disagree, for me he didn't make them defensively a mess, guys like Song were responsible for that.

Wenger wanted to build the team around Fabregas, Barca got into his head and Fabregas didn't want to stay anymore, we can never find out what they could have won.

In Goonerland they are still dreaming...

i am sorry, but again. that just shows how wrong jose is. hazard had nothing to do with KDB. kdb is a CAM. we lost KDB because oscar was jose's "undisputed" no.10 with no merit. why? will he take the blame for this?

playing for belgium is one thing and playing for chelsea is another. the world cup is a stage where a lot of big games have not lived upto their expectations. but i am still sure KDB and hazard would do something together in the coming years.

barca2014/15: no cesc: CL, liga, copa

barce 2013/14: cesc: nothing

barca 2012/13: cesc: la liga (but mainly because jose screwed it up with RM)

barca 2011/12: cesc: copa

barca 2010/11: no cesc: CL, liga

barca 2009/10: no cesc: liga

barca 2008/09: no cesc: CL, liga, copa.

xavi was regressing last year too. cesc was their xavi replacement just like rakitic. cesc was horrid in his time at barca. also, why dont you think they had any stability? the barca 4-3-3 under pep was changed to 3-4-3 just to accomodate cesc, which ultimately led to his downfall.

cesc became an arsenal player from 04/05 season. he consistently featured in arsenal from that season even though he was bought in 03. is it surprising that arsenal did not win jack squat since then? i am not saying cesc should be the only one to blame, but he just is not a player around whom a title winning team can build a team. and he is also not a player who can play without the team being built around him. he just cant do the bit-part stuff like seen at barca.

Oscar is, let me put it like this, a very frustrating player to watch.

For me there is one thing in which he is still good at; reading the opponent who has the ball at his feet. Have seen it in the last match, his perception is good, imo.

He knows where the opponent most likely will go to, maybe his approach draws too many fouls, but that's another thing.

The match against Croatia in the first game of the recent World Cup is in my understanding a good example of Oscar.

On his best, for me he is good at everything, but only short-term, the longer the match goes, the lesser good comes from him, fading away...

One can call that inconsistent. You don't want to have that on your side of the pitch, but how to solve this, not easy.

You criticised Oscar's passing, yeah, your right, now the questions arises; can't he do it or is it a mentality problem?

Taking into account his (sometimes) very good crossings, i say it's mentality, but concentration isn't an easy thing to fix.

At least a new midfielder has to come in now, Mourinho clearly wanted to get his fingers on Pogba (Tour-Eiffel), maybe we won't get him, but someone has to be bought.

If the price is right and Oscar himself thinks that his time is up, then he can go, but i don't have a problem with having Oscar around, there is still undiscovered potential in my opinion and he offers more width in the squad, expensive, but that's how things are. Can't change -and can fully live them.

Loftus-Cheek here, there, it seems the dude is all over the place, yes, also for me he has got quite some talent, but there are a lot things which he has to work on.

Has to get more engaged during the game, has to improve on his passing (long balls imprecise as fuck imo) too, positioning not good enough and so on.

During a very bad crisis i can agree with Mourinho that for some time experience is necessary, but a point will come, where he will field the kids.

Mourinho:

I can't disagree with you about the rotation and that it could have been handled differently. Spot on!

You know and i know Mourinho believes in having a "small" squad around, that worked out well for him until this season, Ancelotti, another highly decorated coach shares that belief. Is it wrong, is it right, that's so binary, black and white, what you can't take away that Mourinho predicated problems before the upcoming season and wanted to bring in some new players. Yes, in public he said otherwise, but that's all strategy and trying to push the prizes downwards. Can't hate him for that, imo.

Mourinho made an error with his attempt to get Stones, it's well known at "auctions", went into meltdown and the way back has quickly been blocked.

the lesser about oscar, the better. simply dont think he is worth the time and effort.

as for RLC, he will get more engaged in a game IF he gets to play a game. how can he improve sitting on the bench doing nothing. what is a player's motivation when he sees the team getting beaten so badly, players like cesc, matic, oscar underperforming match after match and yet he cant get a game to save his life in any of the positions he can play (10, 8, 6). i know these players are "professionals" and should act like one, but they are also human. how long can a player keep "training" knowing he is never going to get a chance. forget RLC, lets talk remy. we fought tooth and nail to keep him here and look at how we are using him. atrocious.

as for the kids comment. i will talk about it when does do it. jose simply likes to speak, speak and speak. when it is time for him to actually walk the walk, he shows no balls.

I can't disagree with you about the rotation and that it could have been handled differently. Spot on!

You know and i know Mourinho believes in having a "small" squad around, that worked out well for him until this season, Ancelotti, another highly decorated coach shares that belief. Is it wrong, is it right, that's so binary, black and white, what you can't take away that Mourinho predicated problems before the upcoming season and wanted to bring in some new players. Yes, in public he said otherwise, but that's all strategy and trying to push the prizes downwards. Can't hate him for that, imo.

Mourinho made an error with his attempt to get Stones, it's well known at "auctions", went into meltdown and the way back has quickly been blocked.

So, you mentioned a lot of players and on some of them i can agree with, but for me it's way too simple to put the blame for their departures on the playing time.

There had to be more than one thing wrong, weren't the up for it in the training ground, keep your head down and work hard.

Willian did it and look how it has turned out? Not too bad, i think.

What have all of your mentioned guys in common?

You're only talking about the bad stuff, excuse me, but i can't call this a fair assessment.

The club didn't get Stones done, nevertheless Mourinho dropped Terry or Cahill, in particular the handling of John Terry i call ruthless.

So in my point of view, Stones would have got playing time here or Terry/Cahill would have upped their game significantly, both ways aren't that bad.

A similar thing happened after the purchase of Cuadrado, Willian has matured quickly, imo.

Stones could have been the new right back, there is more than one possibility to get playing time.

At least now i think Stones would have been the perfect signing, the boy has got it all.

Mourinho:

At Chelsea, i believe most of our guys over the years were nice, but their abilities haven't always been world class.

We all have seen the arrivals and departures of Moses, Schurrle, Salah, Cuadrado and a lot more.

What do you prefer?

Buying a player because he is currently doing well, maybe scored against you, Moses comes to my mind, but aren't the best solution for long-term.

Can you wait for some time and then when the opportunity arrises grab it by the balls?

I wouldn't have closed my door for a guy like Kondogbia, but i can understand where Mourinho and the board are coming from.

The german powerhouse Bayern Munich has adopted to that "philosophy", over are the times of buying without serious consideration.

This season, shit is hitting the fan, but Mourinho is a bit longer around than a few months and some things he got bang on the money.

For example, according to Rafa Benitez, John Terry was finished, but Mourinho disagreed and look how it turned out for 2 seasons.

Bringing back the lost son Matic, being ruthless with Ashley Cole, not afraid of replacing Cech with Courtois whose goal kicks have been a lot better,

having confidence in Zouma, until this season getting the best out of a lot of players, playing unbelievable good football imo,

creating a wonderful atmosphere within the fans and having a fan of the club in charge who's not taking shit from the media imo,

matches against Atletico, Psg, Liverpool, Arsenal have been porn imo.

It's not Disneyland, on some things one has to be critical of, but as i said before, failure is human, everyone makes mistakes, it's how we recover and there will be one.

Sooner than later. At least that's my belief.

As always, nice talking to you, sorry for my late response, been busy with work.

See you around, mate.

a small squad thinking is a "short term" way. look at SAF and his squads. he always had 22/23 players and kept them happy. and i know, SAF too made a lot of mistakes, but compared to the things he did right, it was a drop in the ocean. jose seems to have got as many right, as wrong. his approach of a "small squad" is a very short term thing in my opinion. it is not lasting, and over the course of time, players will drop off due to exhaustion or the lack of motivation seeing that they are never going to be played irrespective of the situation.

fair point on stones. and if we had played him as a RB, i dont think we would be in this poor a condition.

also, fair point about willian. i can look at azpi and say the same thing. BUT, each player is different. and it is the manager's responsibility to mould himself a bit. i dont think jose EVER does that.

also, buying kondogbia would never come under the "buying without consideration" philosophy. everyone knew that we needed a quality CM. lets just hope we can get one soon.

no need to apologize dude. been a pleasure talking to you and looking at your perspective. just wish things were a bit different.

[Essien19 1,415]

First things first, thanks for your response.

he stats that you have shown, mata has the highest pass%, 2nd highest key passes, highest crosses, 2nd highest long balls and 2nd highest through balls. mata played as an attacker in valencia and under AVB. under jose, mata was playing to cover for iva. the person who got the freedom was hazard, not mata. there is a massive difference in that aspect. so obviously this has to be taken into consideration. for example - playing mata as a right winger against luke shaw and lallana who were probably the best left wing combo in PL at that point of time, made no sense. most of us on here knew that mata should not start that game as a RW. there was no way in hell that mata was going to have a good match. why? was it because lack of effort or lack of motivation. no. he simply is not a player who can be played on the wings for defensive purposes. it is one thing to play a CAM on the wing and totally another to play a CAM on the wing and expect him to be defensive. obviously its the managers fault.

KDB had said something like "you dont talk to jose, only jose talks to you". jose is our manager. he is as much responsible for the tactics as he is for keeping the players happy and in the loop of why things have been done the way they have been done. if there was no dialogue, then it is only the manager's fault. also, again - it cant be mata's, kdb's, lukaku's, bertrand's, luis' etc etc fault. i would rather look at the one person common in all of this as the guilty party. if chelsea wanted to be FFP compliant, we should have sold hazard. 100mil pounds easy. if chelsea wanted to be FFP compliant, we should not have bought willian (who looked like a luxury signing with hazard, mata, schurrle, oscar, kdb, moses) already in the squad. we sold mata, kdb, lukaku, bertrand, luis etc etc.. because these players were unhappy under jose and wanted to leave. getting good money for them was a good job by the board.

An assessment of Mata is difficult because of his new role under Jose Mourinho.
I can agree with that, but that's how life is, one has to make difficult decisions and i think your highlighted sentence says it all, Mourinho said it himself, he put his faith in Hazard and in my opinion, it has turned out to be the right judgement call, imo,
even today i don't have a problem with it.

Before this season, Mata didn't live up to his price tag at United (imo), then after some very good games this season it was difficult to welcome the departure, but since the recent international games Mata has been poor (again), my opinion, whoscored backs it up.

At United there isn't a Ivanovic for whom he has to work for, but it's still not that special, imo.
Mata is and has always been (sometimes) an inconsistent and frustrating player (like a surprise bag, you never know what you will get and his overall play is questionable), a good second striker, imo, Van Gaal isn't his biggest fan either.
There we have two guys, Del Bosque never ever used him very often, no matter what form David Silva was in, still the man.

Three coaches, i found a pattern, i think.

You have condemned Cesc Fabregas and marked him as a liability, what about turning the tables and ask why Chelsea have become an immediate title contender for winning the league since Juan Mata has left?
Mata pulled off great stuff at Chelsea, but he couldn't lead the team to the biggest title in England, in contrast to Hazard.

So, i stated why i think it's been the right call to give Hazard more space and freedom.

Fairplay to you for outlining Mata's positive aspects, his passing was still there.

As much as you don't rate our number 8, back in 2013/2014 not only his heat map sets the direction,
overall he performed, imo.
Whoscored backs it up, again.

At that time i very tough call to make, because on the one hand there was a promising prospect who lived up to the hype imo
(you have a different opinion) and on the other hand we had the current player of the year who had to play in a different position which didn't work out that good.

Yes, you complain about the lack of comunication between Mourinho and some of the players.

Apparently Mourinho is a bit distant, but others like Fabregas are speaking highly of Mourinho.
I think the truth lies somewhere between, in the end it's all speculation.

That's what leaders do, they decide, instead of De Bruyne/Mata we have Oscar.
The loss of de Bruyne is bad, you can pin it a bit on Mourinho, but a tango requires two, never forget that.^^

Instead of Mata having Willian around does it for me.

i am sorry, but again. that just shows how wrong jose is. hazard had nothing to do with KDB. kdb is a CAM. we lost KDB because oscar was jose's "undisputed" no.10 with no merit. why? will he take the blame for this? playing for belgium is one thing and playing for chelsea is another. the world cup is a stage where a lot of big games have not lived upto their expectations. but i am still sure KDB and hazard would do something together in the coming years. barca2014/15: no cesc: CL, liga, copa barce 2013/14: cesc: nothing barca 2012/13: cesc: la liga (but mainly because jose screwed it up with RM) barca 2011/12: cesc: copa barca 2010/11: no cesc: CL, liga barca 2009/10: no cesc: liga barca 2008/09: no cesc: CL, liga, copa. xavi was regressing last year too. cesc was their xavi replacement just like rakitic. cesc was horrid in his time at barca. also, why dont you think they had any stability? the barca 4-3-3 under pep was changed to 3-4-3 just to accomodate cesc, which ultimately led to his downfall. cesc became an arsenal player from 04/05 season. he consistently featured in arsenal from that season even though he was bought in 03. is it surprising that arsenal did not win jack squat since then? i am not saying cesc should be the only one to blame, but he just is not a player around whom a title winning team can build a team. and he is also not a player who can play without the team being built around him. he just cant do the bit-part stuff like seen at barca.

Why didn't Granovskaia put a buy-back clause in the contract with Wolfsburg?

Yes, Mourinho has to take some of the blame too.

Again, i think the highlighted sentence hits the nail on the head. Fabregas can't dictate play, he can't structure nor do his defensive duties in a struggling squad properly. For me, he is an accuracy player, who gives you very few good passes, which can decide the match, but you have to handle the handicaps carefully.

When playing in an in-form team, he can give you good moments, remember Spain, but funnily he played most of the time as a striker, i think.
Irrelevant, i get your point on this one, finally.

the lesser about oscar, the better. simply dont think he is worth the time and effort. as for RLC, he will get more engaged in a game IF he gets to play a game. how can he improve sitting on the bench doing nothing. what is a player's motivation when he sees the team getting beaten so badly, players like cesc, matic, oscar underperforming match after match and yet he cant get a game to save his life in any of the positions he can play (10, 8, 6). i know these players are "professionals" and should act like one, but they are also human. how long can a player keep "training" knowing he is never going to get a chance. forget RLC, lets talk remy. we fought tooth and nail to keep him here and look at how we are using him. atrocious. as for the kids comment. i will talk about it when does do it. jose simply likes to speak, speak and speak. when it is time for him to actually walk the walk, he shows no balls.

At least Loftus-Cheek is training, i think you underestimate a daily training day, that will work some wonders.
Yes, playing time is better, but come on, the boy is just 19 years old and without professional experience, a total freshman.
If we had a Bertrand done to him, i would have understood you better, but it's a bit early, isn't it?

Loftus-Cheek should have played more in pre-season, i give you that.

Mourinho stated that Costa could have been dropped some time ago, but he didn't do it.
Maybe there is some remorse, don't know.

For me Remy is an average striker, he scores some, but he misses some too (for example Stoke), gives you some runs,
but he isn't offering much more.
Is he currently better than Costa?
Maybe, but imo Costa is a much better player and there is hope he will hit his form again.

The situation seems delicate, but if i'm absolutely honest, i prefer Pedro upfront instead of Remy, more intelligent, offers more.

a small squad thinking is a "short term" way. look at SAF and his squads. he always had 22/23 players and kept them happy. and i know, SAF too made a lot of mistakes, but compared to the things he did right, it was a drop in the ocean. jose seems to have got as many right, as wrong. his approach of a "small squad" is a very short term thing in my opinion. it is not lasting, and over the course of time, players will drop off due to exhaustion or the lack of motivation seeing that they are never going to be played irrespective of the situation. fair point on stones. and if we had played him as a RB, i dont think we would be in this poor a condition. also, fair point about willian. i can look at azpi and say the same thing. BUT, each player is different. and it is the manager's responsibility to mould himself a bit. i dont think jose EVER does that. also, buying kondogbia would never come under the "buying without consideration" philosophy. everyone knew that we needed a quality CM. lets just hope we can get one soon. no need to apologize dude. been a pleasure talking to you and looking at your perspective. just wish things were a bit different.

The squad already consists of >20 players.

Some players have been out of form, others hurt, that will decimate the available numbers.

Would have Kondogba blocked the development of Loftus-Cheek in the long-term?
I player like Pogba who is more suited to play a bit more upfront not?
One can speculate, but if Kondogbia were in the squad, it would have been a lot more difficult for Loftus-Cheek, imo.

Maybe Mourinho and the board made the wrong call...

Yes, i think you got a point with the fatigue, but i think most of the players don't lack motivation, rather they are helpless,

but that does reflect badly on Mourinho.
For example before the third goal from Pool, i think the players panicted and no one were there to bring calmness to team.
Leaders like Cech or Drogba should be in the squad, even Courtois isn't there, who imo is a better leader than Begovic, who can't safe a penalty -or make a good goal kick to safe his life. His coordination of the defence has been quite shocking so far, imo.

I also wish that things were a bit different.

Cheers, mate!

[Johnnyeye 7,593]

http://www.espnfc.us/club/chelsea/363/blog/post/2738185/mourinho-managing-chelsea-diego-costa-better-than-expected

This is why ESPN is one of the biggest piece of horsesh*t there is, nothing but hate, bashing and trolling towards Chelsea, actually this article is not that bad, but many are plain awful, anyway we just went trough November undefeated, which in the past was our worse month of the season and minding the season so far, it´s progress anyway you look at it. It´s very rare to find a decent article about Chelsea without something negative, always stirring things up, conspiracy theories, etc. They never give it a rest. Don´t even get me started on the idiots who work there: Hislop, Burley and co. Just stay away from the comment section in Chelsea articles, many idiots and trolls there. Daily Mail it´s another one i dislike. I know it´s the media doing what they love, making bullsh*t up most of the time to try and destabilize us. Cheers