The Mourinho Thread

[nadavTKL 1,787]

Mourinho: "I have a team, but no striker. Falcao does not have a team. A player like him can't play in front of 3,000 people... AS Monaco is a club to end [your career with]" (Canal)

What does it mean...

I must know how our strikers feeling when they read Jose's quotes every week, he completely say it out loud that his strikers are crap lol

[Hkibou 622]

What happened to the quotes where he said our strikers don't score? I also heard he said falcao shouldn't play in monaco??

Did he really say that??

Yes, he said all those things in another video (http://www.canalplus.fr/c-sport/c-football/c-ligue-1/pid6219-canal-football-club.html?vid=1025868) which is not the "official" interview, it's a "casual" conversation with some guy I don't know, who seems to be there to welcome him in France or smthg.

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

He said it would be impossible to buy Falcao as he did with Cavani and Ibra, but you do get the feeling that with the whole 'I have a team... I don't have a striker... He has no team' chat the club may pursue Falcao in the summer, although I'd rather we didn't because of his ACL injury, and plus whilst he is a very good finisher I wouldn't say he's a world-class striker (not very good link-up play) and thus wouldn't warrant the outrageous fees we'd have to pay to get him.

As you saw, he did not talk about Falcao in the interview, he talked about him behind the cameras (sort of), when he also joked about Etoo's age, so he might of actually meant it that it is impossible to sign him. As I stated in the Falcao topic, he is my favourite CF and I won't change my opinion and as much as I want him here, at the same time I'm worried about his knee injuries. Back in 2006 he suffered the same injury (torn ACL), but at the right knee. Now, it's the left knee, so basically we have a player who suffered horrible injuries at his both knees. I'm not a doctor, but this can't be good, this is one of the worst injuries you can get as a football player. For some it's even a miracle to be back at their highest level. Add to this the money Monaco would demand and Falcao's wages and this transfer seems impossible, as Jose said.

But I wonder - no Cavani, no Falcao, no Rooney. Then who? Benzema (with Suarez going to Madrid)? Diego Costa? Balotelli? Jackson Martinez?

[kellzfresh 7,226]

Our strikers either react strongly to this on the pitch, or become more shit

[Mohammed Seif 1,451]

Our strikers either react strongly to this on the pitch, or become more shit

I hope they would react strongly on the pitch

[kellzfresh 7,226]

I hope they would react strongly on the pitch

Mourinho said something similar about benzema in madrid. Higuain got injured and benzema was mis-firing. After that benzema became on fire and kicked on.

Let's hope torres has strong mentality even if its a size of a peanut

[The Chels 2,502]

A notion that is true and probably also want to get a reaction from Eto'o, Torres and Ba. Need them to perform and score as much as possible if we are to achieve our targets in this run-in.

I don't think this was a case of mind games/a 'trying to motivate the players' talk because it was said during an informal, behind-the-scenes type of frank conversation rather than anything pre-planned to feed the media.

But I wonder - no Cavani, no Falcao, no Rooney. Then who? Benzema (with Suarez going to Madrid)? Diego Costa? Balotelli? Jackson Martinez?

All signs pointing to Diego Costa, I reckon.

[Mr_President 404]

If those comments he made about our strikers are real then I have mixed feelings about it. Pretty harsh criticism which we fans know is true but I hope this spurs our strikers on rather than sinks their confidence etc.

At least we know Mourinho recognises the striker position as a considerable issue, so much so that he has made comments like this. Here's to hoping that, along with his other recent comments regarding the same issue, the summer will bring us a capable goal scorer. This team isn't that far off being really strong, just a few final (expensive) ingredients.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

What's the point of saying that in public? Very idiotic thing to say.

[Barbara 15,149]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2566236/I-no-idea-Terry-good-Mourinho-hails-skipper.html

the best thing about this article is the 'Super Stat' box:

A good omen for Chelsea? When Jose Mourinho has been top of the table in February — at Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid — his team have always gone on to win the title.

beast!

[The Chels 2,502]

What's the point of saying that in public? Very idiotic thing to say.

I don't think it makes much difference in fairness. It's not as though he's said anything shocking; he's been implying our strikers are **** for a while now but just because he (pretty much) admitted to it here I doubt it will make them suddenly worse (is that even possible?).

the best thing about this article is the 'Super Stat' box:

beast!

Hah! City do have a game in hand though so I'm not sure it's very promising.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

I don't think it makes much difference in fairness. It's not as though he's said anything shocking; he's been implying our strikers are **** for a while now but just because he (pretty much) admitted to it here I doubt it will make them suddenly worse (is that even possible?).

Hah! City do have a game in hand though so I'm not sure it's very promising.

What a ridiculous post. Name one manager who openly slags of his own players?

It was a ridiculous and egocentric comment to make.

It's not like we create that much apart from counter attacks, set pieces & individual errors. Our entire offensive game-plan is pretty much give it to Eden and pray he does something.

Ba, Lukaku, Eto'o, Sturridge, Torres are all prolific outside Chelsea. Why is this club a strikers graveyard? You could argue against 2/3 players there but ALL 5?

[Tomo 21,681]

What a ridiculous post. Name one manager who openly slags of his own players?

It was a ridiculous and egocentric comment to make.

It's not like we create that much apart from counter attacks, set pieces & individual errors. Our entire offensive game-plan is pretty much give it to Eden and pray he does something.

Ba, Lukaku, Eto'o, Sturridge, Torres are all prolific outside Chelsea. Why is this club a strikers graveyard? You could argue against 2/3 players there but ALL 5?

Ba is a momentum player, he will deliver a decent return if given a run off games and responsibility, he has never got that here.

Lukaku barely played for us, Sturridge had a decent record for us actually.

Torres was on the wane under Woy before he even got here and Eto'o's not scoring like he use to for the same reason Drogba didn't post double.

[Jase 43,479]

I don't think this was a case of mind games/a 'trying to motivate the players' talk because it was said during an informal, behind-the-scenes type of frank conversation rather than anything pre-planned to feed the media.

And yet now the video is out there to the public...

[Mufassir08 2,400]

Our strikers either react strongly to this on the pitch, or become more shit

I'd bet on the latter mate!

[The only place to be 11,313]

What's the point of saying that in public? Very idiotic thing to say.

Yeah, it might dent our strikers confidence and stop them from being the free-scoring beasts that they are.

It was a low-risk, high-reward thing to say. Maybe it spurs them on to prove him wrong (like Azpi did when he wasn't playing earlier in the season) or maybe it just hastens their exit in the summer. It's also a devastatingly effective assessment of Falcao's current situation. I'm not his biggest fan but if Jose thinks he's the man for us then it's a nice way to turn his head.

Jose has spent a lot of time downplaying our chances this season and he's right to do so. We don't have a striker and that was evident on Saturday. Without that person to lead the line everything else we do on the pitch can be quite pointless because there's no player up top to keep the defenders honest. You need that threat from a number 9 to occupy the thoughts of the defenders which in turn gives an extra half-yard of space to the likes of Hazard and Willian.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Our strikers either react strongly to this on the pitch, or become more shit

[Gilvorak 3,734]

He should focus on giving interviews about Cahill's improvement or JT's resurgence instead of throwing players under the bus to save his arse.

Like I said earlier he's the one who loaned Lukaku out. No one else forced him.

It isn't some imaginary motivational tool either. He's just handing out early excuses in case we don't win anything this season.