The Mourinho Thread

[Shane 2,275]

I'd imagine he's the type of manager you'd hate letting down, and the players let him down today. Still have FULL confidence in Jose and Chelsea. Today changes nothing.

[Henrique 9,133]

He obviously isn't..

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3520976/title/final-whistle-verdict-deserved-defeat

And what Mourinho said here is definitely true..

Part of the reason for that is arguably down to Mourinho's somewhat negative approach against United and Spurs to begin with but really, if we do not start picking up our away league form soon, we won't come close to challenging for the title.

I beat you for 1 minute. I'm amazing.

[Henrique 9,133]

Mourinho should try something different. The team is not playing well but he just does not change the structure of the team. I would try something like this:

Cech; Azi, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Luiz; Hazard, Oscar, Willian (Schurle); Torres.

[bushman 2,043]

As I said, it´s too late to make excuses now. Jose had changed too many players in these last two games.

The players were not match ready, I feel. Also, current Chelsea team has too many players sitting around. Some might say, they will get their chances, later. I believe, this is the biggest problem for Jose. He even said it, himself.

[NishC300 1,865]

Di Matteo scored more goals in his Chelsea career than Mourinho. Obviously Di Matteo is a better manager. #BringDiMatteoBack #MourinhoOut

[TrippingStep 336]

What I don't understand, is why the club didn't buy central midfielders in the summer. I thought it would have been the priority of the new manager and club after the last seasons.

And what annoys me is that Azpi is not playing many matches, Mata Luiz Hazard are performing well below what they were doing under Benitez. Ramires has a very restrictive role and I miss his run full of pace after we would have set-up plays and creating space where he could go.

We had 61% possession yesterday but how much % in our own half. I prefered 55-60% but nearly all in their own half and with real pressure on their defence than our % with no change of rythm and no real plan in the final third.

For me Benitez did a good job, changing the personnal in the back four and have them play a higher line, the players in the pivot having less trackback running to do, Azpi in the right back was great as he gave width, Oscar could come inside, if not, Ramires could have space to run at speed.

I liked the triangle plays on the side to either release a runner behind their fullback, if not fixing a side of the opposition defense where a quick change of play to the other side could be dangerous. The way we were setting play with players like Hazard, Oscar, Ramires, even sometimes Luiz driving in a controlled way was giving a little bit of space to Mata.

And I liked that our passing between the back four was much quicker.

[Term-X 7,891]

I understand he has to juggle the ego's at the club but I'd rather he picked the most suitable squad for the opposing team. Rather than rewarding players like Mata a start mostly due to merit gained from the previous game. Players don't like being benched the following match after 'supposedly' earning a spot in the squad the game before.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

"Of course I am worried," he said at his press conference. "This season we have played five matches away – all difficult places to go – but we only have one victory and two defeats from those games so of course that concerns me.

"We were lacking everything – it was a really bad performance from us. We were not even thinking aggressively.

"We had the space to play the ball forward and between the lines behind Yohan Cabaye and Cheikh Tiote. We could have hurt the opponent and all we were doing is playing the ball from side to side – always horizontal, never vertical. We were slow and not sharp enough to attack spaces.

"In previous years the same performances have happened - Chelsea have been successful in cups but not in the Premier League.

"They have been finishing 15 to 20 points behind and one year they qualified for Champions League because they won it but finished outside the top four. Last year in December they were not in the title race."

Mourinho likened his side’s first-half performance to a friendly match, and says he will take some time to analyse what went wrong before looking ahead to future matches.

He continued: "The result is a consequence of one team not being there. When that is the case, they normally lose – so that is my explanation for the result.

"I think the first half was very easy to play – lots of space, no real pressure from the opposition. But we were not aggressive with the ball and often lost it straight away. We were not pressing. We were too soft, not aggressive nor intense enough. We gave them 45 minutes of a friendly.

"We deserved to lose. Maybe they did not deserve to win but we definitely deserved to lose."

The Portuguese boss admitted before the game he had been finding it tough to pick a team given the strength of squad at his disposal and was asked afterwards if he felt he made the right choices at St James' Park.

Mourinho joked: "I made eleven mistakes. I should have picked the other eleven rather than this one! That is the feeling I have when my team has played so badly.

"Of course I am exaggerating and some players had some normal or good performances but my feeling after a defeat is that I made eleven wrong choices. Before I think about how we will react I have to try to understand why we performed this way in this match."

[The_Flash 1,144]

He said 11 mistakes, so who will he play Tuesday?

[Phil Driver 503]

[quote name='kellzfresh'} "We had the space to play the ball forward and between the lines behind Yohan Cabaye and Cheikh Tiote. We could have hurt the opponent and all we were doing is playing the ball from side to side – always horizontal, never vertical. We were slow and not sharp enough to attack spaces.

Jose always thinks like me and that means Mikel would have added to our problem rather than solved it .

[Sheva. 5,373]

Jose always thinks like me

[Fernando 6,376]

I think the constant chopping of players is really starting to hurt the team.

Need to find his best 11.

[Stingray 9,441]

He said 11 mistakes, so who will he play Tuesday?

It is a figure of speech of course, but I do hope he rattles the cage. Pivot wise, backs, the directness and width in the am departement. About strikers - no fucking clue .....

[The_Flash 1,144]

It is a figure of speech of course, but I do hope he rattles the cage. Pivot wise, backs, the directness and width in the am departement. About strikers - no fucking clue .....

The players turned up expecting to win, and humiltated not only themselves, Jose but the fans. It was hellish watching.

[Heisenberg 1,824]

"Of course, of course I am worried, and I read in previous years, it happened the same.

"They (Chelsea) were successful in cup competitions, they were not successful in the Premier League. They finished 20 points behind, they finished 15 points behind.

"They qualified for the Champions League because they won the Champions League, but they finished fifth or sixth in the league.

"Last year in December, they were not in the race for the title because they were already 20 points behind. This season, we have played five matches away in the Premier League - I know at difficult places to play difficult matches - but we have one victory and we have two defeats.

"Of course it concerns me."

Really interesting how he uses 'They" instead of "We" to describe the poor performances of past 2 seasons. In his first interview he said " When WE won the UCL...".

Well...

Arretons de chercher la petite bete Dont know how to say it in english.José is a master in communication it is true, but I dont think he is trying to say "the wins are mine and the losses are from past managers" or anything surrounding theses theses, I think we should also notice how well José is changing the mentality of the squad, it needs time ok, but we'll be champions.

[Ollie 4,400]

I don't blame Jose at all for yesterday because he picked a very attacking team who were very much in form. The players just simply didn't turn up. On Wednesday he should play the same team that beat Arsenal with possibly Oscar coming in. I'm glad he said what he did because it shows he was as pissed off as we were and he thought we were as shit as we thought. We will bounce back though.

[Tomo 21,681]

2004/2005 Arsenal went 5 points clear off Chelsea early on, lost at Old Trafford, drew at home to Southampton and we got top and remained there.

2013/2014 Arsenal go 5 points clear off Chelsea, Arsenal's next two league games?

[Special Juan 27,104]

He needs to really let the Lampard thing go, it isn't working.