The Mourinho Thread

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

I think its only fair that he is criticized the same way we did to Robbie, AVB and Benitez. Had it been any of those who sent out that line up and made those dreadful subs we would be calling for their head. He got it wrong by not bringing on Lukaku and Mata

[meetdoscar 335]

Well he played with four prolific attackers so you can't fault him and its much better than playing ramires or bertrand on the wings. By the way where? Is bertrand.

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

Benitez defeated Manchester at Old Tradford, 1-0, and also got a 2-2 in FA Cup that could have been a 3-2 if Mata had scored in the last minute.

Football is not as complicated as it seems. Today Mourinho got his tactics wrong, as simple as that. The result was good, but the football was far from convincing.

Exactly what I have been saying his not immune of criticism. He messed up today had that been AVB, Robbie or Benitez we would have been calling for their head already

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Benitez defeated Manchester at Old Tradford, 1-0, and also got a 2-2 in FA Cup that could have been a 3-2 if Mata had scored in the last minute.

Football is not as complicated as it seems. Today Mourinho got his tactics wrong, as simple as that. The result was good, but the football was far from convincing.

To be fair the PL game at OT is not decisive anymore for them last season.

[╫rue Blue 47]

Thats it. Whats the point of buying 10 attacking players to go to Old Tradford to get a drawn. Some people are even claiming Mourinho when to his match to get a 0-0. Thats pretty weird. Whats more strange is if Benitez was our manager today people would be saying:

-Benitez is garbage, he left Lukaku on the bench.

-This guy is crazy, he left Mata on the bench.

-Many talents and playing a defensive football.

Many things to improve, I really dont see De Bruyne as player start big matches like this, and leaving Mata the entire match on the bench was far from a wise decision. It makes me wonder about Mourinhos tactics against Liverpool in 4 UCL semi-final games, when Chelsea had the better squad but he opted for a defensive tactic. Liverpool was 5th in PL in 2005 and the team could not score a single goal. I hope Mourinho changed his approach in these kind of matches, I hope this was just an unusual game.

edit: watching his interview, it seems he thought the team would be more dangerous, but the players made a lot of mistakes, but I still dont get the fact De Bruyne played instead of Mata.

this is Mou explanation

"He (mata) is very important for me, for Chelsea. The stories coming are nonsense stories, he goes nowhere and is very important for me. He had a very small pre-season after the Confederations Cup, during that small pre-season he was injured. He started training two days before we played the first Premier League match, and had a match last week against Aston Villa, a difficult one, and today I decided to put him on the bench.

'I played with De Bruyne on the right because I know De Bruyne will give complete control of Evra defensively. When Juan plays on the right he comes more inside. I don't say the kid is more tactically disciplined but is more adapted to that situation. I wanted Oscar to play behind the striker so I decided not to play Juan.. Minute 70, 75, I was feeling [it was] difficult to win, I don't want to lose, so I made the changes to control the last few minutes of the game, but no chance Juan goes anywhere.'"

[The Skipper 20,609]

The biggest thing I didn't understand is why we kept booting the ball from Cech to Schurrle in the first half. Really doesn't make sense especially when Lukaku and Ba would've been better recipients.

[Henrique 9,133]

Why did Chelsea just get referred to as a 'brand'? I feel sick now...

Because football and sports in general are huge business. Nowadays thats exactly what big clubs around the world are: brands, and believe me, even people are brands, like Nadal, Federer, Lebron James...Deal with it.

[Henrique 9,133]

It's only one game TBF. If this goes on, then serious concern would have to be raised. And Mourinho has said as much that this team is built for the future and he's still looking to set the foundation for this team to truly prosper. He also mentioned before that we usually see the best of his teams in the second season.

It's still early on the season as it's only the 3rd game. Take the point and move on even if Mourinho's approach is dodgy against United. It's arguably still better than RDM going all defensive against QPR away last season.

The problem is that we already know Mourinho, and we do know that sometimes he is so afraid of losing, that he makes it difficult to win.

[francozola 2,040]

Thats it. Whats the point of buying 10 attacking players to go to Old Tradford to get a drawn. Some people are even claiming Mourinho when to his match to get a 0-0. Thats pretty weird. Whats more strange is if Benitez was our manager today people would be saying:

-Benitez is garbage, he left Lukaku on the bench.

-This guy is crazy, he left Mata on the bench.

-Many talents and playing a defensive football.

Many things to improve, I really dont see De Bruyne as player start big matches like this, and leaving Mata the entire match on the bench was far from a wise decision. It makes me wonder about Mourinhos tactics against Liverpool in 4 UCL semi-final games, when Chelsea had the better squad but he opted for a defensive tactic. Liverpool was 5th in PL in 2005 and the team could not score a single goal. I hope Mourinho changed his approach in these kind of matches, I hope this was just an unusual game.

edit: watching his interview, it seems he thought the team would be more dangerous, but the players made a lot of mistakes, but I still dont get the fact De Bruyne played instead of Mata.

Whilst I am not defending or talking about the subs/team selection, I feel that this early on in the season, where the attacking players have not gelled yet and we still don't have a proper striker (Lukaku has not played with our team, so we really do not know anything for certain), it may not have been the worst mindset in the world to get a draw.

If this match had been played 4-6 weeks later, I'm sure we would have been more adventurous.

[1chelsea 864]

It seems no one noticed that the mention of RVP is 2-3 time in the game did anybody see the striker. Come on Jose made all the RVP look like he is still in the bench....,wow

[TrippingStep 336]

You can't blame the manager when some of our players cant do simple things like dribble and pass the ball. Hazard/KDB/Andre/Oscar were all woeful today. our defense were solid at the back. our creative/attacking players let us down today.

I agree they were not good but the system was not good for them either.

The build-up from the back is slow, very static.

The opponents doesn't need to be a genius to disturb it and it can pack players on our creative players as no one from the back will move and carry the ball forward.

[coolhead23 1,147]

I dont know abt all u guys, but i wanted to punch Jose right on his face when he was giving his post match interview ... He got it all wrong and thats simple as it can be ... If this was Rafa we would have raped him till now but just because it is Jose we are like blinded. He wants to use Mata on the right, a player who pulled the strings in the middle for almost the last 2 seasons, a player who makes everyone look better around him is the one who will play on the right. Hell ya!

[Heisenberg 1,824]

José was class yesterday

[didierforever 7,349]

I dont know abt all u guys, but i wanted to punch Jose right on his face when he was giving his post match interview ... He got it all wrong and thats simple as it can be ... If this was Rafa we would have raped him till now but just because it is Jose we are like blinded. He wants to use Mata on the right, a player who pulled the strings in the middle for almost the last 2 seasons, a player who makes everyone look better around him is the one who will play on the right. Hell ya!

punch him in the face, heh??

tell me how he got his tactics wrong??? we were playing the CHAMPIONS of england in their own backyard. OLD TRAFFORD. and this team would have put their heart and soul in, to get a good result. he got a couple of players wrong, but his tactics were right. mata could not have been brought on. there was no point of bringing him on. with mata we would have controlled the game and let united counter us, this was EXACTLY the type of thing jose dint want to do last night. the way oscar played in the center, man -marking carrick thru out the game, do u actually think mata could have done that? NO, not evn one-tenth of it. with the tactics that we used yesterday, mata would have been as useful to us as he was against bayern or barca.

so no one is blinded. people accept that jose made a mistake by not playing lukaku, but mata (specially the one that played against villa, the same one who every1 said was pathetic on that day), was no option for today.

we have a big squad we very different types of players. and jose used that versatility of the squad to gain us a point.

[coolhead23 1,147]

punch him in the face, heh??

tell me how he got his tactics wrong??? we were playing the CHAMPIONS of england in their own backyard. OLD TRAFFORD. and this team would have put their heart and soul in, to get a good result. he got a couple of players wrong, but his tactics were right. mata could not have been brought on. there was no point of bringing him on. with mata we would have controlled the game and let united counter us, this was EXACTLY the type of thing jose dint want to do last night. the way oscar played in the center, man -marking carrick thru out the game, do u actually think mata could have done that? NO, not evn one-tenth of it. with the tactics that we used yesterday, mata would have been as useful to us as he was against bayern or barca.

so no one is blinded. people accept that jose made a mistake by not playing lukaku, but mata (specially the one that played against villa, the same one who every1 said was pathetic on that day), was no option for today.

we have a big squad we very different types of players. and jose used that versatility of the squad to gain us a point.

Firstly tell me how he was right? Every one has been saying that to win the title we are a striker away yet we didnt play one yest ... U think Schrulle/Hazard/Oscar did a decent job, they were lost at times... we were more like headless chicken ... Coming to the CHAMPIONS of England, just because they are champions would u give them that much respect? .. Do u want Chelsea to be the champions again or not? These are games which makes the difference.

United hasnt got a better side than ours i sure u agree with it, so why the hell be so defensive and scared. I dont get it .. so as per u we didnt wanted to control the game we just wanted to man mark players and keep falling back? Mata could have controlled the game and would have created options up ahead for goals and counter could have been tackled by our defense (each counter would get u goals) and honestly i would rather control the game than worry about the counters. And yes i think Mata could have man marked Carrick.

I keep saying with this team we shouldnt be aiming for a draw but to win because that what Champions do ... rest your happy with a point, i m not ...