The Mourinho Thread

[Ze Mario 638]

Thank god some of the posters here did not manage my beloved Chelsea. Its obvious in OT Manu was the team that HAS to win, not us. Mou used that as an advantage seeing Manu so desperate to gain point on their home ground. They will shot a thousand crosses if they have to and actually they really did. I bet my whole life that Mou has already train the players so much to deal with crosses and they did brilliantly through the match. But free kick is a different case. There wasnt our player disturb the passer. Opponent's forward had time and space preparing themselves. Had it been an open play, Im pretty sure we would not concede that late goal. If that was a different or better team I think Mou will use different approach. Because he knew it was slow brain United will do useless crosses and he was confident our players could deal with it. He wont think like that stupid wenger or pep gorilla whom will do a frontal attack even when they lead the score and ended up draw or lose,

[Jase 43,479]

[Fernando 6,743]

I remember when real Madrid fans was complaining about this same issue in the CL semi final they lost to Bayern on penalties.

That they was dominating the game and instead of killing it he made defensive substitute and allowed the opponent back in.

Now I understand why they was like that.

Mourinho needs to be a bit more ruthless.

I'm not a person that blames the ref like many people do here. It's just something childless to do because the reality is that if we kill the opponent no mistake from the ref will touch us.

Just like in the semi's of cl against Barcelona where ovrebo was very bad against us, all I can think of is that if we was more ruthless and bury our chances we would have won.

[bababoom 4,478]

Drogba was on his last legs, Oscar wasn't having his best game and Willian was doing his usual thing, I wasn't confident that another goal was coming tbh.. We should have won the match as well, Ivan shouldn't have fouled ADM and we most definitely should have defended the FK better... oh well, a possible 23 points out of 27 isn't bad at all especially when you consider we have already played United, City and Everton away and Arsenal at home. We're now six points clear of City, so let's be a bit more positive around here.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Mourinho sometimes tends to think of his players as chess pieces and not footballers. That, IMO, has something to do with Mourinho not being a player himself. It's almost impossible at 1-0 to go from total dominance with the ball, which it was from minute 45-69, to shutting up shop and defending in low-block from 70-90 and expect players to respond accordingly and execute perfectly.

But they did execute that perfectly. It was just lack of defensive organization on a (non-existent) FK in 94th minute after one of our players was (wrongly) sent off.

If Iva was still on we most like would have defender the FK. But since Iva was sent off, the players were still trying to work out who is to mark who. Cahill let Fellaini (who was originally Iva's man but he was covering for him) slip and young inexperienced Zouma was ball watching and let RVP to the ball first. Simple as.

[LAB 1,030]

Jose brings Mikel too soon this time imo. Other than that he did well at HT talk apparently and the red card wasn't his fault. Bright side is that, hey, we are unbeaten @ Manchester.

[GodZola 630]

Mikel cost us the game.... Interesting theory here.

hahahhaha

Perhaps if you took some time to read & digest my post then you would understand that I didn't blame Mikel I actually put that at José door - comprehend? Good grief!

As for the other comments on here that José can't do right for wrong, well we were in total control of that game until he went negative again & brought on a DM, we weren't playing open expansive football & going gung ho leaving spaces in behind for them to exploit, chances are we would of scored a second if he had not decided to make a change, Utd like City & Shalke before them took the initiative, we were then playing infront of our own 18 yard box as opposed to theirs, just a matter of time before they scored.

[Heisenberg 1,824]

The conclusion of the United game should only be this one : We are the next PL winners, and we have our winning mentality back with the consistency that made us what we are today.

[Rom2013 446]

You know, if you lead and then close down, you have to keep the lead to win. Simple as that. We couldnt do it twice now and I actualy wonder how many times will Mou try this.

If we kept those leads, we would have 4 more points and it would be tactical masterpiece. But we didnt and Mou is on fault to go this way, but also players because they didnt hold on.

To get such tactics, you need such team. We had such team in 2005. But now we have a team that can attack much better and I dont understand why Mou still relies on defensive tactics after leading. That got us last year several times and already got us twice against manchesters this year. Sure Mou can understand that, no?

But I have feeling he would never try to destroy United, even if given such chance. He would keep it down because of respect or whatever...

And we did it against Arsenal this season, Liverpool last season, 2 times against Manchester City last season... and many others. The thing here is... we ddn't win. Because we played worst against Liverpool in Anfield but we won and because of that it was increadible. Yesterday we played better and had a draw in the last minute and it was a disgrace. Last season Chelsea was the better team in the games between title contenders... I don't understand what are you saying about last season.

[iseah100 5,612]

Drogba was on his last legs, Oscar wasn't having his best game and Willian was doing his usual thing, I wasn't confident that another goal was coming tbh.. We should have won the match as well, Ivan shouldn't have fouled ADM and we most definitely should have defended the FK better... oh well, a possible 23 points out of 27 isn't bad at all especially when you consider we have already played United, City and Everton away and Arsenal at home. We're now six points clear of City, so let's be a bit more positive around here.

THIS. And the way we are handling the smaller clubs; Palace, Swansea, Leicester, Burnley, etc I'm okay with it.

It'll be interesting to see how we play Liverpool . Will Mou show them the same respect?

[Jase 43,479]

Imagine the furore if Mourinho did this...

https://vine.co/v/OhLYiq6eKLF

https://vine.co/v/OhLVjZYVIv2

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Perhaps if you took some time to read & digest my post then you would understand that I didn't blame Mikel I actually put that at José door - comprehend? Good grief!

As for the other comments on here that José can't do right for wrong, well we were in total control of that game until he went negative again & brought on a DM, we weren't playing open expansive football & going gung ho leaving spaces in behind for them to exploit, chances are we would of scored a second if he had not decided to make a change, Utd like City & Shalke before them took the initiative, we were then playing infront of our own 18 yard box as opposed to theirs, just a matter of time before they scored.

So what would you have done, genius? We had the youngest bench we've had in years, all three of our DM's were on yellows and our only options off the bench were schurrle(who came on) and salah(who wouldn't offer anything in defending) guys were clearly tired and we lacked the presence on the bench to change them and keep the same approach.

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

I would agree with everyone saying to continue attacking and kill the game off, but I don't agree with that at all in this case.

We were better than them in the second half but it's not like we were opening them up continuously and creating lots of chances. Even before any defensive subs, we had good control but we didn't really look like scoring. So to try and attack more when we didn't really look like scoring is just asking for trouble. Furthermore, this is the first time in a long time United were actually playing on the counter at home, so attacking them would be playing right in their hands.

I think it was a good idea to play cautious towards the end because it seemed like we weren't really going to get a second and United didn't like they would even manufacture a chance (they didn't do shit in the 2nd half). What I didn't like was the substitutions, not the tactics. Substituting Willian and Hazard considering they both are probably top 3 (along with Matic) at actually holding onto the ball in our entire team was the mistake imo.

[chelseafc9010 224]

So what would you have done, genius? We had the youngest bench we've had in years, all three of our DM's were on yellows and our only options off the bench were schurrle(who came on) and salah(who wouldn't offer anything in defending) guys were clearly tired and we lacked the presence on the bench to change them and keep the same approach.

We had basically a full squad against Shalke and City and did the same genius.

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

Off topic from the current discussion:

I think to go the next level we need to prioritize buying or bringing through CBs who are reasonably quick and good on the ball. This is a controversial opinion but I think our CBs are holding back the full potential of this team.

I'm not saying they are bad, Terry and Cahill have been fantastic and Zouma is a great talent but I don't think they fit the playing style Jose really wants. Our CBs don't complement our defensive philosophy of high pressing. It's honestly a huge testament to the players and the coaching staff how good they've made it work. A more competent CB pairing will help considerably in controlling games and further improve our pressing because it's almost stupid to be pressing high with a medium to low defensive block. You're forced to ask the midfielders to cover a lot of ground.

A quicker and CB pairing better on the ball will improve our pressing considerably considering we'd be able to play a high line and it would improve our ball possession considerably as well. We severely lack a CB that could bring the ball out of defence, especially when teams try to congest the midfield and man mark Cesc.

[Chelsea? 892]

It's one of the best moments every game imo.

also enjoyed the 'is there a fire drill' chant when some united fans started exiting.. unfortunately we didn't win but it was still a funny chant

[chelseafc9010 224]

Off topic from the current discussion:

I think to go the next level we need to prioritize buying or bringing through CBs who are reasonably quick and good on the ball. This is a controversial opinion but I think our CBs are holding back the full potential of this team.

I'm not saying they are bad, Terry and Cahill have been fantastic and Zouma is a great talent but I don't think they fit the playing style Jose really wants. Our CBs don't complement our defensive philosophy of high pressing. It's honestly a huge testament to the players and the coaching staff how good they've made it work. A more competent CB pairing will help considerably in controlling games and further improve our pressing because it's almost stupid to be pressing high with a medium to low defensive block. You're forced to ask the midfielders to cover a lot of ground.

A quicker and CB pairing better on the ball will improve our pressing considerably considering we'd be able to play a high line and it would improve our ball possession considerably as well. We severely lack a CB that could bring the ball out of defence, especially when teams try to congest the midfield and man mark Cesc.

Completely agree.

Kalas is a big favourite of mine, he is young, fast, powerful, great on the ball and knows when to tackle, and he has guts. But I'm not sure about him because you know how we are with youngsters.. we never give them a chance and Kalas is on a horrible loan deal at the moment.

The deal with our centre backs at the moment, is like already been said; they are rather slow on and off the ball. This means we can't play a traditional back 3 or 2 like most top teams do these days on the attack. For example, the fulbacks push up, the defensive mid sits deeper between two centre backs who push wide. This enables more width and numbers in attack, I'm sure an attacking left back would improve Eden as well. With Terry and Cahill, they aren't that type of covering defender, more of sitting defenders, old school defenders.

Kalas is a no brainer but I doubt he will be given the chance, Zouma is more of a Terry type of defender it seems.

[Chelsea? 892]

Imagine the furore if Mourinho did this...

https://vine.co/v/OhLYiq6eKLF

https://vine.co/v/OhLVjZYVIv2

Pep is one stressed out Mofo

[The Chels 2,502]

Off topic from the current discussion:

I think to go the next level we need to prioritize buying or bringing through CBs who are reasonably quick and good on the ball. This is a controversial opinion but I think our CBs are holding back the full potential of this team.

I'm not saying they are bad, Terry and Cahill have been fantastic and Zouma is a great talent but I don't think they fit the playing style Jose really wants. Our CBs don't complement our defensive philosophy of high pressing. It's honestly a huge testament to the players and the coaching staff how good they've made it work. A more competent CB pairing will help considerably in controlling games and further improve our pressing because it's almost stupid to be pressing high with a medium to low defensive block. You're forced to ask the midfielders to cover a lot of ground.

A quicker and CB pairing better on the ball will improve our pressing considerably considering we'd be able to play a high line and it would improve our ball possession considerably as well. We severely lack a CB that could bring the ball out of defence, especially when teams try to congest the midfield and man mark Cesc.

I agree. The first one-on-one chance RVP had against Courtois was because Terry didn't push up quickly enough and the second time was Mikel not pushing up quickly enough. City play the high-line offside trap really well whereas we can't because of the lack of pace at the back (mostly Terry, as good as he is).

Completely agree.

Kalas is a big favourite of mine, he is young, fast, powerful, great on the ball and knows when to tackle, and he has guts. But I'm not sure about him because you know how we are with youngsters.. we never give them a chance and Kalas is on a horrible loan deal at the moment.

The deal with our centre backs at the moment, is like already been said; they are rather slow on and off the ball. This means we can't play a traditional back 3 or 2 like most top teams do these days on the attack. For example, the fulbacks push up, the defensive mid sits deeper between two centre backs who push wide. This enables more width and numbers in attack, I'm sure an attacking left back would improve Eden as well. With Terry and Cahill, they aren't that type of covering defender, more of sitting defenders, old school defenders.

Kalas is a no brainer but I doubt he will be given the chance, Zouma is more of a Terry type of defender it seems.

I said something similar in the Zouma thread. I think Kalas/Christensen have higher ceilings because they're technically very good and would be able to play themselves out of danger/build from the back (unlike Zouma) but Jose's already chosen Zouma as the one he wants to develop.

[Fernando 6,743]

Off topic from the current discussion:

I think to go the next level we need to prioritize buying or bringing through CBs who are reasonably quick and good on the ball. This is a controversial opinion but I think our CBs are holding back the full potential of this team.

I'm not saying they are bad, Terry and Cahill have been fantastic and Zouma is a great talent but I don't think they fit the playing style Jose really wants. Our CBs don't complement our defensive philosophy of high pressing. It's honestly a huge testament to the players and the coaching staff how good they've made it work. A more competent CB pairing will help considerably in controlling games and further improve our pressing because it's almost stupid to be pressing high with a medium to low defensive block. You're forced to ask the midfielders to cover a lot of ground.

A quicker and CB pairing better on the ball will improve our pressing considerably considering we'd be able to play a high line and it would improve our ball possession considerably as well. We severely lack a CB that could bring the ball out of defence, especially when teams try to congest the midfield and man mark Cesc.

This has also been costing us and why we can't set up shop.

We need defenders like Ramos.

I for one would like to try the experiment of moving azpi to cb.

Mourinho did it with Ramos at Madrid and that was amazing why not here?