The Mourinho Thread

[Phil Driver 503]

Well the cv for Emenalo reads Notts County, Nigeria,girls team ,Avram Grant and and Chelsea his greatest achievement seems to be his ability to arse lick Roman ,if the squad seems unbalanced at the moment with too many similar players and gaps in other positions I place the blame on his work over the last few years not on the new manager . Ancellotti said he was not in control of the first team ,I want Jose in full control.

I do not see what qualifications Emenalo has to be Director of Football at Chelsea and the jury is still out on him. Lets leave it to serial winner and Champion manager not a girls team manager who got a break.

[AndersonBLUE 819]

Champions league is a tournament, it's about doing what's necessary to progress further. If this was a last 16 group tie, then yeah sure, moan and moan. But the fact is we have qualified and the league looks solid currently (4 points off aint bad in my book). And being Chelsea, we should never give up hope because we can achieve anything.

[Rmpr 8,977]

Actually I feel some people have issues with the sole fact Mourinho is experimenting with the squad at his disposal, and aren't even questioning the actual choices. Let's remind them the squad has been handled more or less well since Ancelotti's second season on many aspects: rotation, tactically, squad management etc... with a limited squad in terms of numbers or variety.

Mourinho has set up a ball recovery system, there's attacking patterns, as well as on set pieces. The homework has been made and there's relevant drills on paper. Because it's really something to take into account, Villas Boas had drills as well but it weren't working: it was a genuine harm to the team (high line without pressing), contrary to Mourinho's current set up which allows at least not to concede chances for fun (top 3 in the league for that).

Most of the work at the moment is about gel players together, mould* them into roles. Can't work wonders within a few months especially given the free license, and more generally, the clownesque sharing of duties which occured for more than 2 years

Hence why Mourinho is testing his players, looks at how they react if they start several games running or the opposite. Someone only there for the short term would field his best XI every week until getting the boot. That's what Di Matteo did, he knew he wouldn't last the season, reason why he fielded his best XI as long as players were fresh and other teams were still testing options

*: even if I don't like that word as Benitez pulled Oscar/Hazard inside out more than Mourinho will ever do with Mata. But Benitez's media & press fan club will never point that out, they prefer implying Mata would play wherever else in Europe's top teams (what is obviously wrong)

Yeah, I agree. But I also think he is still a bit lost and doesnt know our players that well yet...

Jose still hasnt found our best starting eleven, so he is experimenting and that will obviously result in huge ups and downs!

I have absolutely zero problems with it, but if he takes another month of two to figure out the best way to setup the team, it might be too late to try to win the title.

[zolayes 14,489]

I intend to do an article on Chelsea managers ,,but just a thought ... Hoddle was the last manager not to get sacked except for caretakers ...

sacking record breaking winning managers didnt start with Roman ,,he merely carried on from Bates ...

Perhaps it is a pity Hoddle ever got the England job

[The Mak 4,459]

Its his fault the squad is unbalanced. Huge gap between grandpas (Lampard and Terry) and the new boys. You are talking about Azpi, but right now he is a right back playing as left back, because the team don't have a good replacement for Cole. Oscar was playing for Brazilian NT, Hazard was wanted by some big european clubs. I don't even have to discuss Cahill here, because if you want to praise a Sports Director for bringing an average defender to squad, feel free, but thats really insane.

I'm more concerned about lack of a proper DM ( I don't think Van Ginkel is the one), lack of full backs, lack of CM, and why the club is wasting money on players like Kevin De Bruyne, Moses and thousands of u20 players that will end up playing in Bundesliga.

Both Oscar and Hazard still dont have that winning mentality, that kind of fierce desire to be on the pitch to slay the enemy.

I actually agree with this a lot.

I remember saying a while back during the summer that I hope José and his staff would now help Emenalo identify some more 'defensive' targets; because it seemed that Emenalo was taking his scouting from Football Manager or something. Everyone we signed were well touted by many clubs beforehand...and they were all attacking players.

I don't think he has the nous to spot the likes of a quality DM etc. For example, I think we even could've done with someone like Luiz Gustavo who was relatively cheap, but we weren't really linked. Or to any DLP (I don't think De Rossi was ever going to happen to be honest). Instead we brought in another 12 AMs....really worrying to be honest.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Yeah, I agree. But I also think he is still a bit lost and doesnt know our players that well yet...

Jose still hasnt found our best starting eleven, so he is experimenting and that will obviously result in huge ups and downs!

I have absolutely zero problems with it, but if he takes another month of two to figure out the best way to setup the team, it might be too late to try to win the title.

Probably. I think we have too many good players to have a defined best team; we have players that are suitable for different kinds of opposition, but Mourinho is having none of that atm.

[Strike 7,217]

Champions league is a tournament, it's about doing what's necessary to progress further. If this was a last 16 group tie, then yeah sure, moan and moan. But the fact is we have qualified and the league looks solid currently (4 points off aint bad in my book). And being Chelsea, we should never give up hope because we can achieve anything.

yeah. We are always extremely competitive in cups. Just know how to hang in there even if things aren't going especially well. I can't remember the team catapulting completely in a big knockout game in a while. even last year with a thin squad, the team managed to get to the semi-final stage in both domestic competitions and won the Europa to boot. I remember only 2011 when the club failed to reach the later stages of tournaments

[Spike 12,049]

We had one of the best performances of the season at home against Schalke yet Mourinho changed his team+gameplan against West Brom, and it didn't work as expected.

I think he wanted to see how his team would react being fielded two games on the run vs WH and Basel. But the 3-days interval & fatigue aspect proved to take over anything else

Hey look. It's a D-List French celeberity. How the fuck are you on TV?

[Special Juan 27,424]

We won't win the league IMO, we simply do not have the fire power.

[ChelseasMessiah 304]

Jose Mourinho claims winning the title this season would be his greatest achievement

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/winning-premier-league-title-season-2866364#ixzz2m4ztIjVm

It would be any manager's greatest achievement, winning the Premier League playing with 10 men.

[NishC300 1,865]

I was wowed when they got spanked 3-0 by Bayern Munich at home, and not in a good way. We drew to Bayern Munich 2-2 so that means we will beat Dortmund 5-2

Spanked 3-0? LOL! They actually outplayed Bayern and created an enormous amount of chances (more than we did). Dortmund don't even have a budget anywhere close to ours and they are still better than us hahaha.

We won't win the league IMO, we simply do not have the fire power.

Too early to say that. Things can change. We were top of the table last year till November and then everything fell apart and we ended up way behind MU. If we need to reinforce we might in January, but our rivals don't seem in the greatest form themselves. Hopefully that'll help us.

[Jype 6,398]

I'm more concerned about lack of a proper DM ( I don't think Van Ginkel is the one), lack of full backs, lack of CM, and why the club is wasting money on players like Kevin De Bruyne, Moses and thousands of u20 players that will end up playing in Bundesliga.

You serious?

Using Kevin De Bruyne as an example of 'wasted money' is fucking ridiculous. He had a wonderful loan spell last season at Werder Bremen and in the last transfer window he could have been sold to the Champions League finalists for over twice the amount of money the club bought him for back in 2012 but instead Jose decided to give him a chance in the first team. In hindsight he should have been loaned out again or even sold if the plan was to buy yet another expensive AM and make KdB sit in the stands all the time but if anything, spending £30m on an unnecessary player like Willian when we already had De Bruyne is something that can be classified as wasted money. Not only did he cost the club £30m, his arrival also made sure De Bruyne's market value is currently nowhere near the heights it was last summer and if we sold the Belgian now after six months of doing absolutely fuck all on the football pitch we'd be lucky to get €10m, which for a player of his quality is a bargain to whoever buys him.

And what about Courtois, is he another one of Emenalo's pointless U20 signings? Cost the club a mere £8m and is undoubtedly one of the best goalkeepers in the world already and either a future number one keeper at Chelsea or perhaps the world's second most expensive goalkeeper ever if he's sold. You win some, you lose some and hitting the jackpot from time to time like with Courtois has the potential to make this system profitable and even the ones who don't make it can still be sold for decent transfer fees to lesser clubs.

[NishC300 1,865]

You serious?

Using Kevin De Bruyne as an example of 'wasted money' is fucking ridiculous. He had a wonderful loan spell last season at Werder Bremen and in the last transfer window he could have been sold to the Champions League finalists for over twice the amount of money the club bought him for back in 2012 but instead Jose decided to give him a chance in the first team. In hindsight he should have been loaned out again or even sold if the plan was to buy yet another expensive AM and make KdB sit in the stands all the time but if anything, spending £30m on an unnecessary player like Willian when we already had De Bruyne is something that can be classified as wasted money. Not only did he cost the club £30m, his arrival also made sure De Bruyne's market value is currently nowhere near the heights it was last summer and if we sold the Belgian now after six months of doing absolutely fuck all on the football pitch we'd be lucky to get €10m, which for a player of his quality is a bargain to whoever buys him.

And what about Courtois, is he another one of Emenalo's pointless U20 signings? Cost the club a mere £8m and is undoubtedly one of the best goalkeepers in the world already and either a future number one keeper at Chelsea or perhaps the world's second most expensive goalkeeper ever if he's sold. You win some, you lose some and hitting the jackpot from time to time like with Courtois has the potential to make this system profitable and even the ones who don't make it can still be sold for decent transfer fees to lesser clubs.

I agree. It annoys me about how we're wasting so many talented players......

[Tomo 21,733]

Fielding the best XI every week wasn't much more successful for two years.

I don't put the title as Chelsea's first and foremost target this season. Part of me thinks we can win it but even if we end 2nd or 3rd there will be a fantastic plateform in place for the next years to come

I think we can win it, not because of our strength, because the other teams aren't all that.

[Jype 6,398]

I agree. It annoys me about how we're wasting so many talented players......

Yup, no doubt Willian is a great player and on his own maybe even worth the money spent on him, but is he really that much better than De Bruyne to warrant the £30m fee as well as making way for him by selling a quality player we already had for way below his value?

[Phil Driver 503]

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3556150/title/mourinho-envy-of-europe

[Mouri_Matic 560]

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3556150/title/mourinho-envy-of-europe

Kind of true because now no team is standing out, it is not a coincidence that 8 teams are so close to each other atm

[NishC300 1,865]

Yup, no doubt Willian is a great player and on his own maybe even worth the money spent on him, but is he really that much better than De Bruyne to warrant the £30m fee as well as making way for him by selling a quality player we already had for way below his value?

Exactly. As I said earlier it's annoying we're wasting so many talented players.......