The Mourinho Thread

[LAB 1,030]

Well, is it only me who feels relieved to see that we are still capable of playing for the 1-0 or 1-1 when we need to? It was our trademark old school type performance a great team just has to be able to give once in a while.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Just because we scored 6 against Everton, doesn't mean we controlled that game. Our possesion was 38%.

Yes, they play really well that time, and dominate the ball possesions, but we're certainly not park the bus in there.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Agree but I don't think our attacks were helped yesterday by the rubbishness of Willian and Ramires on the ball. Spoiled so many of our attacks because they couldn't even keep the ball for longer than 5 seconds!

That's because we never maintained any serious period of sustained possession. Just look at the areas Willian was receiving the ball in. On the break with 1 or 2 City players pressing him. Not just him but even Hazard and Costa were losing the ball. All their attacking players had so much time on the ball, 20-30 passes worth of build up while our attacking players treated the ball like a grenade. It all boils down to Mourinho and how he sets up the team to play.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/manchester-city-1-chelsea-1-mourinhos-men-coldeyed-and-calculated-but-they-cant-prevent-citys-emotional-reaction-9747820.html

[Styles 9,790]

I could fully understand the cautious approach but with the attacking ability we have now we should never be this cautious. It hurt me to see the likes of Hazard, Costa and Fabregas just isolated...

Jose needs to find the right formula, the squad is far too complete for us to still be playing this kind of football. Showed a bit too much respect for City tbh, Pellegrini's comments were just expected for me. In a sense Manuel can goad and say we played like a Stoke yesterday because it's true.

Hopefully Jose finds the correct formula soon. It wasn't right to play the way we did yesterday.

Ramires playing as a defensive winger in the 2014-2015 season is depressing.

[Cholo 428]

Funny, how a Neville praies Mourinho and our 'fans' here criticize him. Shame on you

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Funny, how a Neville praies Mourinho and our 'fans' here criticize him. Shame on you

Criticism doesn't make you a bad 'fan'. The fact is, we see things differently because we're emotionally invested in the club.

Criticism of something you love shows you're humble enough to see flaws in it and shows a rational approach..

[iseah100 5,612]

That's because we never maintained any serious period of sustained possession. Just look at the areas Willian was receiving the ball in. On the break with 1 or 2 City players pressing him. Not just him but even Hazard and Costa were losing the ball. All their attacking players had so much time on the ball, 20-30 passes worth of build up while our attacking players treated the ball like a grenade. It all boils down to Mourinho and how he sets up the team to play.

We didn't keep possesion cause of Willian and Ramires' poor play. We were playing to counter, Schurrle or Oscar are more suited to launch counters. Willian has very poor vision.

[Sheva. 5,373]

If we play so defensively against Man utd and Arsenal etc, then I can understand the complaints - just like last season.

But Man city is different, just watch all the other top 5 teams go there and lose. We're not good enough to take the game to a team like that, especially away from home.

What we do need though is better counter attacks, there's no excuse for 0 shots in the 1st half with the pace and quality in the side.

[Cosmin 2,484]

Funny, how a Neville praies Mourinho and our 'fans' here criticize him. Shame on you

That's right, we're not real fans and that is because we dare to criticize the manager's tactics. I wonder if you realize how lame you look when you make all these asumptions about other people not being real fans just because they disagree with you or with the manager. Mourinho is not God, you know, and I personally don't give a crap about the fact that some people here seem to be ready to build him statues in front of their own home. If I think he made a mistake, I say he made a mistake. But, hell, probably I'm not a real Chelsea fan.

[iseah100 5,612]

Mourinho never makes mistakes.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

We don't criticize Mourinho for having a cautious approach when we have 5 points on City and play at their ground. IMO our defensive tactics were excellent. The defensive runs of our players were damn efficient. For the major part of the game we made them work extremely hard for a few corners.

But after we got our lead, we should have played to our strengths. without Willian and RAmires we were defensively more vulnerable and should have pressed City. Their patchwork defense wihtout fullbacks, agüero and yaya running out of steam.

WE could have also tried to undo them on the break and committing bodies to City's vulnerable flanks. Though Mourinho subbed on Drogba who he cringeworthly still clinges to, instead of Remy, who would have offered the pace required to kill the game off.

But we let City dominate us with schürrle marking Silva.So the equalizer was always gonna happen. Even after that we did not even try to score again. When we got the ball we simply passed it in our own half, even in the 94th minute when there was no chance City would have another chance, we refused to attack. This is what I don't understand.

[Tomo 21,754]

With players like Costa, Hazard, Willian, Oscar, Fabregas and so on, I can understand and relate to the frustration of our style of play in this match. If football was solely about results then no one will have any qualms about the way we played today. But unfortunately, for one of the biggest clubs in the world, with fans all around the world, it isn't. No one is questioning Mourinho's record as a manager. His managerial record shows he is one of the best managers not only of this era but in history.

But he's not perfect. And part of his defects were shown today. We were clearly set up to play counter-attacking football (as is almost always the way with Jose away from home) and the problem with that is that when it doesn't work, we produce one of the most turgid brands of football among the big European clubs.

Mourinho's tactics were ineffectual today, at least part of it. He said it himself in the post match interview. The "final phase" of attack never happened. But it never happened vs Man United away, vs Atletico away, vs Man City FA cup loss away, vs Arsenal in the league away. He's going to have to brainstorm and come up with some new ideas in these big matches away from home. We have to start playing like a big team now, not just at home but away to other big teams. No excuses.

Can't wait for the next game so I can forget how we played in this one.

Ferguson had players like Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo, Rooney avalible to him yet almost always wentoto Highbury, Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Ethiad with similar tactics to what we did yesterday, even pre 2005 Wenger played these type of games when needed and that was with Henry, Bergkamp and Pires at his disposal.

Being cautious in big games isn't anti football, it's common sense, or do you want to lose 5-1 at Anfield in November?

[Tomo 21,754]

Yep, it's why he struggled so much against Benitez who was one of the few managers to play him at his own game; the games were reduced to nothing with both teams afraid to commit more than 2 players to attack. I still have nightmares about our peformance away to Atletico last season.

It wasn't nice but we were heading to the home of the mist in form team in Europe and had half a team out, if we tried to fight fire with fire we would have had our backsides tanned and quite frankly we would deserved it.

[DYC. 7,542]

Ferguson had players like Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo, Rooney avalible to him yet almost always wentoto Highbury, Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Ethiad with similar tactics to what we did yesterday, even pre 2005 Wenger played these type of games when needed and that was with Henry, Bergkamp and Pires at his disposal.

Being cautious in big games isn't anti football, it's common sense, or do you want to lose 5-1 at Anfield in November?

Nothing wrong with being cautious, nothing wrong with football (slightly) on the defensive side. It's very understandable even. But this exceeds caution.

And I don't understand these 'or do you want to get destroyed' comments.. If Chelsea play anything but very defensive football, they will loose. Not only does it guarantee a loss, it means a big loss. If so, I don't understand how this team is anything remotely close to a top team.

[Tomo 21,754]

Nothing wrong with being cautious, nothing wrong with football (slightly) on the defensive side. It's very understandable even. But this exceeds caution.

And I don't understand these 'or do you want to destroyed' comments.. If Chelsea play anything but very defensive football, they will loose. Not only does it guarantee a loss, it means a big loss. If so, I don't understand how this team is anything remotely close to a top team.

It was no different to how Carlo approached the game at Eastlands in 10/11 or Fergie did that season or the year after at the same place.

All the top managers are partial to defensive games when need must but when Jose does it he's the second coming off Kim Jong Un.

[DYC. 7,542]

It was no different to how Carlo approached the game at Eastlands in 10/11 or Fergie did that season or the year after at the same place.

All the top managers are partial to defensive games when need must but when Jose does it he's the second coming off Kim Jong Un.

Fergie isn't exactly known for his brilliant offensive philosophy is he? If he is, I'd seriously disagree. I always thought his Utd teams were just like Mourinho's.

Not all. And I personally don't have anything against defensive football. Counter-attacking football can be absolutely brilliant to watch. But it's performances like the one I saw yesterday that I will never agree with. That's too much for me.

[Tomo 21,754]

Fergie isn't exactly known for his brilliant offensive philosophy is he? If he is, I'd seriously disagree. I always though his Utd team were just like Mourinho's.

Not all. And I personally don't have anything against defensive football. Counter-attacking football can be absolutely brilliant to watch. But it's performances like the one I saw yesterday that I will never agree with. That's too much for me.

Fair enough and I can't say I enjoy it but can understand it, well if not all most. Fergie, Rafa, Carlo, Wenger pre 2005 I could think of a page full of games those lot played similar tactics to us yesterday in PL games alone if I racked my brains together, I have already given some examples above.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

We don't criticize Mourinho for having a cautious approach when we have 5 points on City and play at their ground. IMO our defensive tactics were excellent. The defensive runs of our players were damn efficient. For the major part of the game we made them work extremely hard for a few corners.

But after we got our lead, we should have played to our strengths. without Willian and RAmires we were defensively more vulnerable and should have pressed City. Their patchwork defense wihtout fullbacks, agüero and yaya running out of steam.

WE could have also tried to undo them on the break and committing bodies to City's vulnerable flanks. Though Mourinho subbed on Drogba who he cringeworthly still clinges to, instead of Remy, who would have offered the pace required to kill the game off.

But we let City dominate us with schürrle marking Silva.So the equalizer was always gonna happen. Even after that we did not even try to score again. When we got the ball we simply passed it in our own half, even in the 94th minute when there was no chance City would have another chance, we refused to attack. This is what I don't understand.

After we lead, we did try to score the 2nd goal while defending well, see Costa chance.

After they equalized, their spirit are in sky high and it is just under 6-7 minutes normal time, if we go all out, there is a massive risk, they will score the 2nd goal on a counter, the reasonable objective for us that time is to defend the 'draw' and secure the point.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Fair enough and I can't say I enjoy it but can understand it, well if not all most. Fergie, Rafa, Carlo, Wenger pre 2005 I could think of a page full of games those lot played similar tactics to us yesterday in PL games alone if I racked my brains together, I have already given some examples above.

We never did full bus parking under Carlo, evident for example by that title decider in Old Trafford 2011 where we lost after going 2 down in the 1st half. The only time we have been doing extreme bus parking is under Robbie at Barca/Bayern in 2012 CL but that was understandable. Now however it is not alright, I mean the only way you can improve this squad is probably by signing Robben/Messi/CR7/Vidal...etc and yet Jose still insists on that small team tactic. I mean Stoke with Diouf and Crouch doing this is understandable but a team of Hazard, Fabregas, Costa, Matic...etc doing it is unacceptable really.

I hope Jose learns from this and take the initiative next time a similar type of situation occur, but knowing him and considering he was 'very, very happy' with the performance it will be the same again. If we draw Juve/Atletico/Barca/Bayern/Real/Dortmund or any team that is considered top 10 he will employ this tactic again in the knock out of CL while in theory it should only be used in the case of Real/Barca and Bayern.