The Mourinho Thread

[Henrique 9,133]

Erm from my view the fullbacks played excellently but OK...

Indeed. Nothing wrong with his selection today. Even Kenedy was at least decent playing as a full back. To other side the team lacked ideas, and with 70% of ball possession you just cant suffer pressure in the final minutes from a side like Norwich.

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

Indeed. Nothing wrong with his selection today. Even Kenedy was at least decent playing as a full back. To other side the team lacked ideas, and with 70% of ball possession you just cant suffer pressure in the final minutes from a side like Norwich.

They're worse at time wasting than we are, they were playing for the 0-0 and we could have scored 3. Such a fucking boring game though...

Those that want Jose to play attacking football and/or want Pep to come here can have no complaints at Kenedy being at LB, he is attacking, has a hell of a left foot and brought in lots of width and overlapped with Hazard Brilliantly; against a team like Norwich Jose played it perfectly, he played possibly the most attacking lineup we can play.

TLDR stop bitching

[Tomo 21,733]

I understand most of the criticisms towards Jose this season but one ill never accept is criticising him for sometimes going ott in the media.

I mean, all the media and outside influences are always salting us and sticking the boot in, yet many criticise the one man who defends this club uncontinally, and how many were going berserk when Rafa wouldnt even defend Ivan after Suarez bit him?

[11Drogba 2,000]

According to Emelano, Guus Hiddink aside, the board always wanted to keep managers for the the long term, so they were actually thinking about giving Benitez the job?

This is really weird, I think among Roman's managers Hiddink is the only coach that we should have kept for the long term.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Erm from my view the fullbacks played excellently but OK...

It was good tactical decision, but looking from football philosophy it says alot. And his preferences between Iva and Azpi. Not to mention we paid 20m for Baba and Kenedy plays there now...a winger.

Also it was Norwich, I know we could easily lose with the current form, but still. Wait till we get more advanced opponent, spurs being good example. We see how Iva copes with their speedy players and Kenedy at LB.

[cfcs most wanted 657]

Playing Ivan ahead of Azpi and Kenedy on LB says alot about this mans opinion on football.

You don't understand, Azpi is sure a better defender than both of them but against Norwich we didn't need defending fullbacks, we needed the attacking ones. Kenedy was chosen to give a new dimension to attack from the wing due to his pace and strength. Ivanovic is a great header of the ball, Mourinho understood that if we aren't able to break their team down we would surely ensure a goal from a set piece with Ivanovic, Terry, Zouma, Costa, Matic. So i fully back his team selection

[Stats 7,059]

I want Kenedy to play but I don't want Azpi to sit on the bench either. Azpi doesn't deserve the bench.

Azpi is obviously very consistent for us but games like this and Bournemouth coming up, I have no problem with Azpi being given the occasional rest tbh. Especially if it means having a more attack focused player at LB, Ideally, I would like Azpi at RB, but for games like today, I am fine with Ivanovic and Kenedy/Baba.

[Jokesy 53]

Playing Ivan ahead of Azpi and Kenedy on LB says alot about this mans opinion on football.

Hahaha!

People will always be people.

[Special Juan 27,439]

I now expect Azpilicueta to become the new bench boy.

[Barbara 15,149]

Not sure how you concluded PVC doesn't like Mourinho, actually I really doubt there is a better commentator in the world that knows more about football than PVC, he is the kind of guy that would come up with a fake story just to prove a point, and I also can't remember PVX making any prediction about Jose Mourinho that didn't become true, care to explain more about that?

two seasons ago he went on and on in every Chelsea game he commentated that Mourinho was the new Luxemburgo, an expensive brand that wouldn't bring relevant titles anymore. He went as far saying it was a mistake to appoint him and that his work at RM was a testament to that. It was annoying to listen to him because he kept drawing comparisons between both managers. And while I think he's right in many of the things he said, he was repetitive and was wrong about his main claim, which was Mourinho didn't have it in him anymore to win a league title. That was his main comparison to Luxemburgo - the many years he went without winning a league title and how the same would happen to Mourinho. Then a season later he had his mouth shut.

I never said he fabricated a story, just that he may be exaggerating. He understands a lot about football - I agree - but what does it have to do with anything he said? He said the players complained to him about how Mourinho talks about them to the media (something that Filipe Luís said to the whole media, so I do believe he's fishing) and tells them different things. He said the environment is bad, players don't train well because they aren't happy and that's the reason why they don't play well in the games, but said a couple of times no one is sabotaging Mourinho. What does this kind of comment have anything to do with him understanding a lot about football?

I didn't agree with the few tactical inputs he had during the game. When the first half was about to finish and he went on his summary - as normally commentators do - he praised the team, said we deserved a lead, said Hazard and Willian were doing great (Hazard was, Willian was nothing special), pointed how Pedro had a supporting role in that and failed to mention Fabregas (although previously he had said the problem was the ball wasn't going through Fabregas anymore and that's one of our biggest problems currently). He made a mistake even interpreting the facts. Fabregas and not Willian was up there with Hazard changing the face of the team. Willian was the supporting role and Pedro didn't do anything worth mentioning to qualify him as a supporting role. Then in the same breath, talking about the three AMs he said Mourinho got it wrong, Willian and not Hazard should be centered and it was Mourinho's mistake.

Not only I disagree with him (and he does too, as some minutes before that comment he said the players were interchanging) because there was a lot of interchanging I find it amusing and mind bogging that after complimenting the team's approach, saying the team deserved a lead, he concludes his reasoning saying the manager got it wrong The feeling I got from his comment was that he did his homework and got everything he was going to say about Mourinho ready before the match and then it turned out to be different from the usual shitty presentations and he ended up contradicting himself. And you wonder where I take the idea he doesn't like Mourinho anymore (as if repeating like a parrot that he wouldn't win a league title anymore wasn't proof enough). He doesn't have to like Mourinho, he doesn't have to be impartial. He's a pundit, his main prerogative is to have an opinion and that opinion can be that Mourinho is a bad manager and who won't win anything anymore. I watched PVC a lot - every Monday on Linha de Passe - and every time someone corrects him or shows what he said isn't like that he reacts negatively. I've seen him snapping in the live show more than a handful times. I didn't see him talk about Chelsea's title though to know if he admitted to make a mistake, but that's because ever since he left ESPN and went to Fox I didn't watch him anymore, only when he's commentating a game.

And what is even more amusing is zolayes - who probably never even heard PVC likes your post. That's how blind people can be on their so called opinions.

[Magic Lamps 11,668]

two seasons ago he went on and on in every Chelsea game he commentated that Mourinho was the new Luxemburgo, an expensive brand that wouldn't bring relevant titles anymore. He went as far saying it was a mistake to appoint him and that his work at RM was a testament to that. It was annoying to listen to him because he kept drawing comparisons between both managers. And while I think he's right in many of the things he said, he was repetitive and was wrong about his main claim, which was Mourinho didn't have it in him anymore to win a league title. That was his main comparison to Luxemburgo - the many years he went without winning a league title and how the same would happen to Mourinho. Then a season later he had his mouth shut.

I never said he fabricated a story, just that he may be exaggerating. He understands a lot about football - I agree - but what does it have to do with anything he said? He said the players complained to him about how Mourinho talks about them to the media (something that Filipe Luís said to the whole media, so I do believe he's fishing) and tells them different things. He said the environment is bad, players don't train well because they aren't happy and that's the reason why they don't play well in the games, but said a couple of times no one is sabotaging Mourinho. What does this kind of comment have anything to do with him understanding a lot about football?

I didn't agree with the few tactical inputs he had during the game. When the first half was about to finish and he went on his summary - as normally commentators do - he praised the team, said we deserved a lead, said Hazard and Willian were doing great (Hazard was, Willian was nothing special), pointed how Pedro had a supporting role in that and failed to mention Fabregas (although previously he had said the problem was the ball wasn't going through Fabregas anymore and that's one of our biggest problems currently. Then in the same breath, talking about the three AMs he said Mourinho got it wrong, Willian and not Hazard should be centered and it was Mourinho's mistake.

Not only I disagree with him (and he does too, as some minutes before that comment he said the players were interchanging) because there was a lot of interchanging I find it amusing and mind bogging that after complimenting the team's approach, saying the team deserved a lead, he concludes his reasoning saying the manager got it wrong The feeling I got from his comment was that he did his homework and got everything he was going to say about Mourinho ready before the match and then it turned out to be different from the usual shitty presentations and he ended up contradicting himself. And you wonder where I take the idea he doesn't like Mourinho anymore (as if repeating like a parrot that he wouldn't win a league title anymore wasn't proof enough). He doesn't have to like Mourinho, he doesn't have to be impartial. He's a pundit, his main prerogative is to have an opinion and that opinion can be that Mourinho is a bad manager and who won't win anything anymore. I watched PVC a lot - every Monday on Linha de Passe - and every time someone corrects him or shows what he said isn't like that he reacts negatively. I've seen him snapping in the live show more than a handful times. I didn't see him talk about Chelsea's title though to know if he admitted to make a mistake, but that's because ever since he left ESPN and went to Fox I didn't watch him anymore, only when he's commentating a game.

And what is even more amusing is zolayes - who probably never even heard PVC likes your post. That's how blind people can be on their so called opinions.

And I always thought PVC was short for Polyvinyl chloride whilst Luxemburgo is a small European country^^

I don't know shit about what is said in Brazlian media by some whatsoever idk commentators. Whilst I don't like most of them anyway, I appreciate German commentators for not saying anything they are not sure about + they don't try to influence clubs they dislike by spreading rumours. So whatever your Polyvinyl chloride guy said about bad training and players leaking about it, as a Chelsea supporter I don't give a shit and I don't believe it will affect the club what Filipe Luis, an understandably bitter Chelsea outcast, passes onto the media.

And last - only because s.o. likes a post does not mean they are blind in their opinions. I have seen people mockingly like posts completely slagging them off. Liking does not equal supporting every syllable in it.

Back on topic.

Credit where it is due. Mourinho made some tactical and motivational tweaks and they worked out. The players interchanged positions like mad, Norwich had trouble marking them so we found openings every few minutes. Kenedy at left back is unconventional but it gave us another skilfull passing outlet. He also created some chances on his own, sadly there was no one in the middle finishing them off. I still don't get why he played Iva on the right instead of Azpi. Norwich are not particularly tall and Azpi does still contribute more offensively than Iva. Fabregas also improved, the time on the bench really did him a favour. He was more determined and focused, not suffering a single turnover, holding onto the ball amidst physical challenges. One thing that has been lacking for years now is finishing. Since the beginning of Mou's second coming, our finishing has been poor. Mou really should hire a psychologist or an attacking coach to work that out for once. I know confidence is low, but you really should not go down under a challenge until the opportunity to score is gone. If you stay on your feet even if you can't score, the defender has to intensify the contact and eventually foul you. Then you can still dive more convincingly. Also when defending we are still very nervous. Understandably but with the experience we have, there should be a time when the corner gets turned and stays turned. All in all, still a lot of hard work to accomplish until we click again but I am confident, with some reinforcements in January we can string an ok season together.

[Essien19 1,415]

I now expect Azpilicueta to become the new bench boy.

One game after the international games Azpilicueta had to sit on the bench.

Sometimes you need to rest some players and give others a chance to prove themselves.

We need to use all players and stop playing with ~13 guys.

You're right, it's a possibility that from now on Azpilicueta has sit on the bench more and more often, but i don't believe it. For me Azpilicueta is one of the better players this season and with all due respect, drawing that conclusion after just one game seems way too early.

[Iggy Doonican 4,186]

Tottenham next week god I detest them especially there fans. It's like the old joke, Wife '' Sometimes I think you love Chelsea more then me'', Husband '' I love Tottenham more than I love you''.

[Jase 43,479]

Playing Ivan ahead of Azpi and Kenedy on LB says alot about this mans opinion on football.

To be fair, that latter part is a bit harsh considering it's just a one-off at the moment. If he continues to use Kenedy at LB, then the point you're trying to make would certainly be more valid. And let's not also act as if Mourinho is the only one who does such thing. Even everyone's favorite Guardiola has a tendency to experiment and play players in unfamiliar positions. There isn't really much of a difference.

[Reddish-Blue 2,355]

One game after the international games Azpilicueta had to sit on the bench.

Sometimes you need to rest some players and give others a chance to prove themselves.

We need to use all players and stop playing with ~13 guys.

You're right, it's a possibility that from now on Azpilicueta has sit on the bench more and more often, but i don't believe it. For me Azpilicueta is one of the better players this season and with all due respect, drawing that conclusion after just one game seems way too early.

Totally agree with the bolded part.

A bit of rotation would actually help our first XI stay fresh for the rest of the season.

Also, I doubt Azpi will be on the bench for more than one game, he's just too valuable :blue scalf:

[Adnane 1,101]

I want Kenedy to play but I don't want Azpi to sit on the bench either. Azpi doesn't deserve the bench.

Azpi is probably the man who played the most games since the start of the season, so a little bit of rest is welcome.

And again, José explained the logic behind his choice, and it's pretty fair if you ask me.

The man is taking risks, nobody's happy again, as Barbara said, there is just no winning for him here or in the media..

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Kenedy provided width that we've been crying out for. We made more crosses in this match than usual which was pleasing to see.

Hopefully we stretch teams more using the leftback to support hazard cutting inside.

There was more rotation and movement than usual too, which made the team hard to mark.

[Last Sicarius 610]

Totally agree with the bolded part.

A bit of rotation would actually help our first XI stay fresh for the rest of the season.

Ok but why Jose didnt rotate Costa-Remy, Ivanovic-Baba, RLC-Fabregas/Matic? Azpi is great player he always plays good, so i dont understand why yesterday Ivanovic played instead him.