The Mourinho Thread

[BlueLyon 9,359]

lol cheeky mourinho

Wesley Sneijder has confessed that Jose Mourinho phoned him two minutes after the Champions League last 16 draw to try and get some inside knowledge on Galatasaray's tactics.

Sneijder, of course, won the Champions League under Mourinho at Inter in 2009/10.

Just two minutes after the draw, the phone rang and it was none other than Jose Mourinho. He asked some crafty questions about team tactics, players, trying to obtain information, but he could not fool me - I have played football for many years and know what is being asked and what to say. We will see how the team plays and if we can beat them.

http://www.itv.com/sport/football/update/2014-02-25/sneijder-mourinho-phoned-me-about-galatasarays-tactics-two-minutes-after-draw/

Sneijder should respond:

What tactics?! We have Mancini as our coach. We have no tactics...

[Jase 43,479]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzaPyRdiCpU&feature=youtu.be

Mourinho on Azpilicueta: "Azpilicueta is the kind of player I like a lot. I think a team with 11 Azpilicuetas could win the competition (Champions League) because football is not just about the pure talent, football is also about the character and personality and Azpilicueta has all that traits of a winning personality."

Mourinho on Oscar: "Oscar is a different profile. He has a fantastic talent, he plays his second year at Chelsea, plays more or less his second year with the Brazilian national team, so he's coming step by step. Physically, he needs time to put himself in top condition. Tactically, he is a very open boy that wants to learn and technically, he's a typical Brazilian talent. So, Oscar has everything to make some history in the competition (Champions League)."

[Benches not the shed 77]

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?

Drogba was good under Mourinho first time around, Eidhur Gudjohnson was better than any of the shit that we have now up front... Do you think he should say our strikers are great ? Cos they ain't they are fucking shit, they all seem to need 6-7 chances to score one goal. I would look as good as Sturridge does if I played along side the best striker in the premiership in Luis Suarez.

[lionsden 4,689]

Drogba was good under Mourinho first time around, Eidhur Gudjohnson was better than any of the shit that we have now up front... Do you think he should say our strikers are great ? Cos they ain't they are fucking shit, they all seem to need 6-7 chances to score one goal. I would look as good as Sturridge does if I played along side the best striker in the premiership in Luis Suarez.

Gil's point is that when seemingly every striker we have bought becomes less productive once they join us,bar few exceptions like drogba, then questions has to be raised about the impact the way we set up and attacking strategy has on the strikers because the sample size is far too large for it to be pure coincidence or solely the fault of the strikers. The truth is we are absolutely clueless and pathetic as far as creating clear cut chances (for our strikers) and in general period is concerned and have been for years.

People wank off to strikers like suarez,aguero,cavani et al but ignore the amount of chances they generally miss or fluff on a regular basis which is indeed a testament to the creativity of their respective teams.

Even some of the most efficient and clinical scorers the world has ever seen like messi and cron have a converson ratio of 30 odd percent which means they don't score the other 60% just to put things into perspective here. Our strikers don't have this luxury as they will have to wait a long while before another quality chance is created if they fail to capitalise on any rare chance they manage to get.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Gil's point is that when seemingly every striker we have bought becomes less productive once they join us,

He talks about Eto'o, Ba, Torres, Lukaku and Sturridge all being prolific outside of the club but not here. It's an atrociously flawed point.

Lukaku and Sturridge were never given a run as a number 9 here so it's impossible to say they weren't productive here. Eto'o hasn't played in a proper league since 2011. Torres and Ba are perhaps the only fair examples he makes, and Ba has never really been given a long run here because he's actually not that good. Torres....well there's a fair case for there being a gypsy curse on him.

But this whole notion of our club being a 'strikers' graveyard' could probably be used as an excuse for the last 20 or so years. We bought Robert Fleck for big money but he was a flop - is he included? Yet we managed to pick up Steino who was prolific for a time. Vialli struggled for a while but then we also had Flo. Casiraghi really did end up in the graveyard metaphorically.

We bring in Mutu and Crespo - again one almost has his career ended whilst the other actually pitches in. Drogba himself went through 10 goal seasons and 20+ goal seasons. But we're looking at a period when he was under different managers, different systems and had different levels of quality in the team alongside him.

At the moment, we have poor strikers. That's evident from the chances they miss game in and game out. There's nothing in the water that causes strikers to be poor, but I think you have to look at the way teams come here and look to defend deep. That's always going to make it hard for us and we have lacked some creativity at points over the last 5 years. In the past we also set ourselves up to get a lot of goals from our 20 goal-a-season midfielder (Lamps) which is something a lot of people overlook.

Look at how Swansea set up against us and Liverpool. When they came to the Bridge they sat back and managed to get just one shot on target the whole match. But at Liverpool they left massive gaps and looked to attack scoring THREE goals in the process. Teams come to the Bridge often looking not to get beat because we simply don't lose at home that often. That's always going to make it tough for a top striker to score, let alone our poor ones.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

Gil's point is that when seemingly every striker we have bought becomes less productive once they join us,bar few exceptions like drogba, then questions has to be raised about the impact the way we set up and attacking strategy has on the strikers because the sample size is far too large for it to be pure coincidence or solely the fault of the strikers. The truth is we are absolutely clueless and pathetic as far as creating clear cut chances (for our strikers) and in general period is concerned and have been for years.

People wank off to strikers like suarez,aguero,cavani et al but ignore the amount of chances they generally miss or fluff on a regular basis which is indeed a testament to the creativity of their respective teams.

Even some of the most efficient and clinical scorers the world has ever seen like messi and cron have a converson ratio of 30 odd percent which means they don't score the other 60% just to put things into perspective here. Our strikers don't have this luxury as they will have to wait a long while before another quality chance is created if they fail to capitalise on any rare chance they manage to get.

Very good point about the strikers not having as much chances as others. But first of all, our strikers finishing/dribbling/movement is still worse than all of them.

You also forgot that the aguero's, suarez, messi and even drogba create chances on their own with sheer skill on a daily basis. I have lost count the number of times those strikers turned a nothing situation into goal scoring chances.

Our strikers can NEVER do this. The last time I saw it was torres against mancity and it hit the bar. If I start mentioning the amount of goals drogba, suarez or aguero create for themselves we won't finish talking today. We need our strikers to come up with wonder strikes and bail us out for once in their lives.

[ZOS 580]

Why would it, our strikers couldnt score before the interview. It can only get better.

its about the mood in the dressing room, man, the mood! how a bunch of insulted players affects it.. he called all of them incompetent and Eto'o a liar

[kellzfresh 7,226]

its about the mood in the dressing room, man, the mood! how a bunch of insulted players affects he called all of them incompetent

[HD3D 1,038]

its about the mood in the dressing room, man, the mood! how a bunch of insulted players affects it.. he called all of them incompetent and Eto'o a liar

Under-developed countries often have trouble keeping track of birth certificates because too many people give birth outside of an hospital and don't even bother to register the baby. Because of this, it's common for people from these countries to have just an estimate of their real age. It doesn't mean Eto'o is lying. He might actually think he is 32 and isn't.

[Benches not the shed 77]

Under-developed countries often have trouble keeping track of birth certificates because too many people give birth outside of an hospital and don't even bother to register the baby. Because of this, it's common for people from these countries to have just an estimate of their real age. It doesn't mean Eto'o is lying. He might actually think he is 32 and isn't.

academy football is littered with African "kids" playing in age groups that they are obviously not part of... I heard a story a couple of years ago about an African kid at Fulham who had never been able to produce proof of birth details.. So before they offered hima. Scholarship at 16 they done a bone density test... He was 24

[Sidzeret 2,257]

Under-developed countries often have trouble keeping track of birth certificates because too many people give birth outside of an hospital and don't even bother to register the baby. Because of this, it's common for people from these countries to have just an estimate of their real age. It doesn't mean Eto'o is lying. He might actually think he is 32 and isn't.

Same goes for Essien as well. He could be 35 and,boy, does he play like he is 35 nowadays.

[AndersonBLUE 819]

Don't think it will affect them too much. Being top of the league will make them hungrier I'm sure.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

It was never just about the strikers but also about our style of game. Our attacking midfielders despite all their talent dont know how to create chances for strikers. Yes there are chances that strikers fail to score, but in general, just for example you dont see such pass like Sterling made to Sturridge last time. We dont have striker suited system and that is a fact. Maybe with more experience, new fullback and possible new CM and obviously striker, we might score more goals through striker, but still, even if we get Cavani or Suarez or whoever, he will never score 30 PL goals, maybe not even 20 per season...

[HD3D 1,038]

academy football is littered with African "kids" playing in age groups that they are obviously not part of... I heard a story a couple of years ago about an African kid at Fulham who had never been able to produce proof of birth details.. So before they offered hima. Scholarship at 16 they done a bone density test... He was 24

Yes. Then there's also that. Being 14 and playing with 8 year old kids is an easy way to stand out, catch the eye of top European clubs and be given a free entry to Europe and later a fat paycheck by the club.

[HD3D 1,038]

Eto'o's ex claims he was born in 1974 and is 39 years old http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2568284/Samuel-Etoo-annoyed-Jose-Mourinhos-jibe-age.html

[Gilvorak 3,734]

Eto'o's ex claims he was born in 1974 and is 39 years old http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2568284/Samuel-Etoo-annoyed-Jose-Mourinhos-jibe-age.html

See what I meant? How can anyone think those comments were sensible?

And can people stop claiming all Africans are lying about their age? It's borderline racist.

[HD3D 1,038]

See what I meant? How can anyone think those comments were sensible?

And can people stop claiming all Africans are lying about their age? It's borderline racist.

I haven't seen anyone in this thread saying all Africans are lying about their age. But it is true top clubs have reasons to be cautious when they are bringing in players from those countries that have a lot of trouble keeping track of birth registrations. It's not racism, it's a fact. And it's not just Africa. Falcao for example, has been accused of being 2 years older than what he claims to be.

[Jase 43,479]

Mourinho certainly has got a point there..