The Mourinho Thread

[Henrique 9,133]

Chelsea boss given go ahead to sign a new striker in the January transfer window

There is a good striker called Lukaku around. We should try him.

[Henrique 9,133]

Good article:

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/thematch/id/678?cc=3888

"I made 11 mistakes is my feeling when my team play so bad," Mourinho stated afterward, tongue embedded against his cheek. His suggestion that he should have picked his other 11 gave a nod to the strength in depth at Stamford Bridge.

Beginning with Oscar, Mata and Eden Hazard, it was that last one who proved the most dangerous of the trio as he constantly tried to go past his former Lille teammate Mathieu Debuchy. When he succeeded, the inclination was to bring him down, placing the ball in dangerous positions for Chelsea.

With Pardew choosing to remain deep and compact, the gap between Chelsea's back four and their midfield magicians only grew -- with David Luiz chosen as conductor of the Blues orchestra from defence. Seeking to bypass Newcastle's midfield with fast, precise balls into feet, at times his efforts skirted the border of success, but overall it proved a wasteful avenue for the Blues.

PA PhotosJose Mourinho vents his frustration on the touchline at Newcastle.

With John Terry unwilling to attempt the same approach, hitting it into the final third just twice, the pair would end the day top of the pass combinations list with 47 exchanges. It also meant the burden fell to Luiz to lead, with just four of his 14 attempted passes into the same area connecting to their target -- creating one chance.

-----------------------------

I think this is really a huge problem. In a squad with such talent its really worrying that a CB is the one responsible to make the connection between defense and attack. More worrying is that Luiz and Terry end up the day top of the pass combination (47 !!!), when you should expect that from Mata+Oscar, Mata+Hazard, Oscar+Hazard.

Perhaps Mourinhos was trying something new and really intriguing: choosing a CB as his n.10 player...in fact the problem is another one: our double pivot is not as good as it should be, and we always have the same problem playing Mata, Hazard and Oscar together: we have a big gap between defense and attack. It makes the creation more difficult and the team rely on long balls, but with a mid full of flair players, long balls are really a waste.

Mourinho must find a solution.

[Sheva. 5,373]

I wouls welcome Xavi Alonso personally to partner Lamaprd or Rammy and Rammy could play right side AM with those two .

Alonso and Lampard together is like begging to lose. Real Madrid always have an energetic player next to him and they still have problems.

[Roquila 1,335]

Can we already get over the Newcastle loss please? Every team loses someday, it's not THAT big deal. Some here make it look like we lost the League,Champions League, FA CUP, World Cup and our owner in the same day. It's only a loss , it happens and if you can't handle it then i think you shouldn't be watching football AT ALL.

[GeeMon 34]

Hey ya'll, im trying to find a sports coaching book that Jose said played a very big role in his life. I believe he even called him the author the greatest coach ever. From what i remember he was a coach for a team in the NBA.

Anyone know what it is?

Edit:

Dont worry i found it.

Phil jackson and his book 'sacred hoops: spiritual lessons of a hardwood warrior'

[Term-X 7,891]

Can we already get over the Newcastle loss please? Every team loses someday, it's not THAT big deal. Some here make it look like we lost the League,Champions League, FA CUP, World Cup and our owner in the same day. It's only a loss , it happens and if you can't handle it then i think you shouldn't be watching football AT ALL.

No, it's not just 'a loss', our away form is diabolical for a top side aiming to win the title. It's consistently bad so far, same problems as last season, and like Mourinho said.. this is still a cup team atm.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

I wouldn't risk Gundogan, he may very well turn into Sahin #2 judging by what he's showing so far. I mean he's good in Dortmund team and in his country, but forced to go abroad and play in different system he may end up being a big flop. So rather no.

I doubt him being a flop under Mourinho. Also he fits into our system rather nicely, him being a DLP so to speak. Its a great choice.

Moreover Sahin wasn't a great prospect even before he signed for Kop

[bushman 2,043]

As we all read, Jose wants to buy another striker in January.

When Jose speaks, Roman listens & subsequently buys. What an owner, I must say. Chelsea fans should worship the ground where Roman walks. It´s almost unbelievable to read about his willingness to spend his money to help the club.

Many other clubs can only dream about someone like Roman. May God be with this Russian & he should erect a gold statue of himself in front of the Stamford Bridge.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

Hey ya'll, im trying to find a sports coaching book that Jose said played a very big role in his life. I believe he even called him the author the greatest coach ever. From what i remember he was a coach for a team in the NBA.

Anyone know what it is?

Edit:

Dont worry i found it.

Phil jackson and his book 'sacred hoops: spiritual lessons of a hardwood warrior'

Trust me, you won't regret reading that book. Absolute master piece.

[Jase 43,479]

No, it's not just 'a loss', our away form is diabolical for a top side aiming to win the title. It's consistently bad so far, same problems as last season, and like Mourinho said.. this is still a cup team atm.

And funnily enough, part of the reason why the away form is bad is because of Mourinho's negative approach at United and Spurs to begin with. The Everton one was just pure unlucky. On another day, we could have won that one 3/4/5-0 easily.

[GeeMon 34]

Trust me, you won't regret reading that book. Absolute master piece.

have you got a .pdf of it? Struggling to find a download and you hooked me up with Ferguson's just recently.

All good if you can't but a big thanks if you can!

[Ainsley Harriott 2,732]

I wouls welcome Xavi Alonso personally to partner Lamaprd or Rammy and Rammy could play right side AM with those two .

You want a pivot of Alonso and Lampard with Ramires on the wing?

[hjperdeath 2,226]

have you got a .pdf of it? Struggling to find a download and you hooked me up with Ferguson's just recently.

All good if you can't but a big thanks if you can!

I had the book. Hard cover. Extremely rare to find. I'll search around and let you know !

[Barbara 15,149]

Can we already get over the Newcastle loss please? Every team loses someday, it's not THAT big deal. Some here make it look like we lost the League,Champions League, FA CUP, World Cup and our owner in the same day. It's only a loss , it happens and if you can't handle it then i think you shouldn't be watching football AT ALL.

People need to be remembered we're a team in transition from time to time because it seems they forget it too easily. The other teams are also in struggling shape and that's why a team that only had 1 win away is running second in the league. Everyone is struggling otherwise we'd be downer in the table because we're a team in transition.

Mourinho just said yesterday he doesn't know what's his best team although he has an idea. Those players still need to learn a lot of things for all this work together. If anything the loss to Newcastle is going to be useful in their learning curve.

The main thing remains though, we are a team in transition and people are expecting results and performances out of a miracle and from night to day because they think just because this team is valued a 500 million or whatever, we're the end product. This isn't 2004, this isn't the same kind of squad and Mourinho's and the Roman's goals are different now from what it was then and this team isn't the end product yet.

Did Chelsea fans grow so spoiled (by titles) that they can't accept a loss anymore? Struggle, transition, difficulties it's part of routine for any team. Losing one match isn't the end of the world, but for some it seems unacceptable. What is unacceptable is how we lost, simply because the players didn't turn up and played with no heart and soul. I'm sure Mourinho is working on that and they'll learn that lesson the easy or the hard way.

So if we have only one win away because of the poor and nearly coward way we played against ManUtd and how we woke up too late against Tottenham is because we're not ready. Mourinho while directly responsible for how we played both matches could be blamed for the results, but is it really that hard to understand that with the team he has in his hands, how young that team is in the attacking positions and how we're completely changing tactics from Benitez days Mourinho - or any manager in the world - would need a few months?

If we're going to criticize him - which everyone is entitled to and he should be held accountable for his mistakes - can we at least take those things into consideration? We haven't won the league since 2010 and ever since we've been pathetic finishing 14 and 20 points behind the champs. So actually fighting for the title in a season where all stakes are being moved around in our landmarks is more than decent and acceptable imo.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

Interesting article on why we struggle against compact teams

http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2013/11/4/5064212/why-chelsea-struggles-breaking-down-a-parked-bus-and-mazacar-in

[╫rue Blue 47]

^ in that article, i like this

I seriously believe that the fact that Cole has stopped overlapping (he used to be tremendous in it!) and that Ivanovic has been used instead of Azpi (/instructed to not do it) is a main reason behind our very apparent difficulty in breaking down shit teams. People might say "we have tiny players, we wont score off crosses" but that's misguided for two reasons:

1. cutbacks work for small players too and especially because they are often on the ground and for unmarked players arriving late in the box. Cases in point: Manchester city has two tiny forwards and David Silva who killed it off cutbacks this week. Cazorla picked up a cutback/cross in the Arsenal game, and Ramsey does it every week. There are many other examples.
2. playing to the overlapping fullback doesnt have to result in a cutback or a cross - its benefit is opening up the field of play and forcing some of the defenders to rush out to mark the wingback. this usually opens up space for the runs and could even result in a passing sequence/disarray which results in goals.

about width, its really makes me wonder, why mourinho does that ? make our fullback too static and shit,

are mourinho teams too vulnerable ? so to make the team balance is making our fullback cannot going forward anymore

[Barbara 15,149]

We need width, that's obvious, one of the reasons I was so vocal against Mazacar the moment the lineup was released (there are a few other, or many, didn't count). But we don't need much the fullback overlapping. We need the full back to linkup and to drag players, because as pointed by the guy himself, we have midgets in the attack except for Torres and Ba (all our AMs are short or not tall enough), the overlapping normally brings crosses, something Mourinho said we don't need or use. He's talking about ManCity midgets, but you can't compare Kun to whatever we have here, much less Silva... if we had Aguero we wouldn't have striker issues... so not a good example imo.

So I think Iva and Cole should be more present to link up - which sometimes will include overlap, many times won't and we need them to drag defenders mostly (which is his point 2 and I agree mostly with). Our best chances to score are our AM's and in the rare occasions our strikers do score, they seldom do it by receiving a cross. Torres - despite being injured again - has been running and taking on opponents - even daring to dribble, Eto'o likes to play behind the lines, and he's also better cutting and shooting, so why would we need overlapping as much as the guy stresses? I don't think we do because how many goals have we scored like Schürrle's recently? Also has this guy seen Ivanovic and now even Cole's crosses? I thank God we don't have them overlapping to cross that much because that's the quickest way for us to lose possession.

I think our FB need to take more action in the attack, but I doubt we'll ever see this team having FBs overlapping all the time because it doesn't work for a team like us. I know this is English football and I know this is how they played it probably since the 1800's. Still it's not as effective as it was in modern football and it'll be less effective (or even completely ineffective) if we stick with it. Cutoffs yes, as I suppose those are linkup plays (not familiar with the word to be honest, but from what I gather, it's giving the ball back to the winger or whoever without crossing into the box). So not only we don't have strikers who make good use of crosses, our FB can't cross to save their lives (Azpilicueta isn't much better at it either imo).

So I'd rather have them do what Azpili usually does, which is dragging and linking up, rather than overlapping. The cutoff I welcome if I understand it properly though. One thing he's spot on. We need width and we have with both Willian and Schürrle better than we have with any other players because while they do cut in like Hazard, Mata and Oscar do, they normally go higher than the other three, are faster (maybe except compared to Eden), more direct and exactly what we need now imo.

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

Meh, I don't buy any of the excuses for the Newcastle loss. That we are in transition, had no width, didn't pass to our AMs, didn't take our chances, or whatever. Considering our run of form, our play and the supposed high morale we should have won that match or at least put in a better performance. It was a failure by everyone, from Jose to the players. Just accept it and move on, no excuses apply imo.

As far as discussing the match, Jose should let his FB overlap as others have mentioned, not sure why he's so cautious against even pub teams. And he needs to do what he says he's going to do and only start players who deserve it (Cole and Lamps shouldn't have started that match based on form and the performance of the players against Arsenal).