The Mourinho Thread

[Fernando 6,585]

That's a bit nonsensical. What does our lack of killer instinct gotta do with whether the league has poorer or not? This team may not be as good as the one from 2004 but it is still a good team and one that boast a reasonably solid defence. We are still unbeaten because of the good/great performances we have been putting in this season, not because the others have been poorer than before. The other teams arguably have better a team than they did back then and the only issue now is they aren't firing on all cylinders, with some of them still finding their feet and trying to get their season going on an upward trajectory, like City for instance.

This:

The league is probably stronger because more teams can fight for the trophy, but a few years ago the better teams were better," he said.

"You think Manchester United won the Premier League last year because they were an unbelievable team? I don't think so. The other contenders didn't have a very good season. It was the same the year before when City won the title. Were they an extraordinary team? I don't think so. Others made so many mistakes that City eventually won the competition.

"In previous years you've had a fantastic Arsenal who were champions without a single defeat [in 2004]. You had a Chelsea with a points record in the Premier League [of 95 in 2005]. You had a United side who won the title after our two wins and had an unbelievable season [in 2007]. I think the champions, in other seasons, were magnificent. And especially in the last two seasons, I've felt they weren't.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/16/jose-mourinho-chelsea-premier-league

Reading that, I concur with Mourinho. We are good but our team ain't nowhere near as good as it used to be.

Back then teams were really good.

That Chelsea of 04 would clearly spank this Chelsea of 14.

[chelseafc9010 224]

Back track 10 years ago and we had our strongest team ever and probably the strongest premier league team ever, Arsenal still had their invincibles, United were a top team as always, and Liverpool were a top team who knocked us out in the semi finals of the UCL. Either the league has gone worse or the other leagues have gotten better, I personally believe our league has just gotten worse, especially if you compare the teams of liverpool and arsenal of then to todays, big difference.

[tiby2979 175]

Yes you're right, you are boring the fuck out of me now, basing your argument on players getting tired and yellow cards is bollocks, we ended with a fucking RED anyway Sherlock, because because because we sat back and invited them to score putting unnecessary pressure on our defence, when we were in the ascendency and completely controlling the game BEFORE the Mikel change, you can see for yourself the possession stats before and after meaning that we are NOW chasing the ball therefore players are getting fatigued instead of keeping possesion and making the opposition run after it - IN THEIR HALF, meaning we making the ball do the work. Hazard was destroying Raphael and its pretty sure he would of gone if we would of continued attacking but but but we lost our momentum with a completely needless change.

Thanks for the tutorial it was riveting.

Is funny you say that when United had more shots and created chances in the first half than in the second half after the Mikel change.

[Madmax 9,219]

The quality of the top teams in the league doesn't decide the overall quality of the league. Otherwise Bundesliga was the greatest league around in 13-14, seeing as Munich won in record time and La Liga is the default best league ever since Ronaldo moved there. Create a competition with the bottom 5 teams of England, Spain, Italy, Germany. Who'll win? Do it for the ones finishing 8-15. Who'll win?

Chelsea's record points total and Arsenal's unbeaten season are unlikely to be replicated not because Chelsea and Arsenal's current sides are poorer than before, but because back then you didn't have such quality in the middle and lower-middle reaches of the table. Would you ever have seen Sigurdsson playing for Blackburn, Bolton or Middlesbrough in 2004 to 2008? The clubs are wealthier, the wealth is distributed somewhat evenly and that has raised competitive levels.

P.S. Fernando, we'll see if Mourinho extends his logic to us this season if we do end up winning at a canter. I thought even Chelsea fans would've started to take his words with a pinch of salt by now, but apparently not.

[Chelsea? 892]

"People aren't interested in personal matters, but Pep got it wrong and I'm surprised by his comments," Vilanova told AS. "No one on the board used my illness to attack him. The club tried to help me as much as possible.

"He visited me once in New York when I'd just arrived, but during my recovery from the operation I was there for two months and I didn't see him. He's my friend and I needed him, but he wasn't there for me. I would have done things differently. I won't say anything else about this."

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/jul/16/barcelona-tito-vilanova-pep-guardiola

Maybe Jose0711 used some harsh words to describe what Pep did, but it's true what he said. He abandoned Tito while he needed him.

Pep is a manager I never want to see at Chelsea, the guy is such a fake gentlemen and control freak.

wow if that quote is true then i'm lost for words. Pep was actually my preferred candidate for the job over Jose 2 years ago but wow.

i don't wanna get into someone's personal life though

[Styles 9,790]

Good analysis by Neville and Carragher on MNF:

After we take the lead we completely abandon the tactics that allowed us to go ahead in the game. Neville is being way too kind to Mourinho when he says it's the players making those decisions themselves. It's almost certainly instructions from the coach; there's no way you go from 55% possession to 25% against a 10-man team without instruction or what happened on Sunday (was it the players who bought on Mikel and took off Hazard etc? No. It was Mourinho.)

[iseah100 5,612]

The quality of the top teams in the league doesn't decide the overall quality of the league. Otherwise Bundesliga was the greatest league around in 13-14, seeing as Munich won in record time and La Liga is the default best league ever since Ronaldo moved there. Create a competition with the bottom 5 teams of England, Spain, Italy, Germany. Who'll win? Do it for the ones finishing 8-15. Who'll win?

Chelsea's record points total and Arsenal's unbeaten season are unlikely to be replicated not because Chelsea and Arsenal's current sides are poorer than before, but because back then you didn't have such quality in the middle and lower-middle reaches of the table. Would you ever have seen Sigurdsson playing for Blackburn, Bolton or Middlesbrough in 2004 to 2008? The clubs are wealthier, the wealth is distributed somewhat evenly and that has raised competitive levels.

P.S. Fernando, we'll see if Mourinho extends his logic to us this season if we do end up winning at a canter. I thought even Chelsea fans would've started to take his words with a pinch of salt by now, but apparently not.

This. Yes, Bundesliga and La liga have 3 of the best, strongest, and richest clubs in the world, but that doesn't make them the best leagues. From top to bottom EPL is stronger, Swansea would beat more than half the teams in La Liga and Bundesliga. It probably has to do with that tv deal that gives those lower table teams more cash.

[the wes 7,212]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDEFneze8VY#t=40 hahahaha

[Fernando 6,585]

Good analysis by Neville and Carragher on MNF:

After we take the lead we completely abandon the tactics that allowed us to go ahead in the game. Neville is being way too kind to Mourinho when he says it's the players making those decisions themselves. It's almost certainly instructions from the coach; there's no way you go from 55% possession to 25% against a 10-man team without instruction or what happened on Sunday (was it the players who bought on Mikel and took off Hazard etc? No. It was Mourinho.)

Like said before we don't have the players yet to set up shop easily like in the past.

If anything instead of being all attack or all defense, wouldn't it be better if we have more possession of the ball?

Since that seems to cater to the players we have in the mid?

So this is the little mistake that Mourinho is making now and more then likely it will give further pain later down the road like semis in CL or what not.

Yes we are in first place and what not, but you also look at the "red flags" so that they don't become a major pain later down the road.

When you winning you want to improve not rest on your laurels.

[Melanicus 5,208]

Shrewsbury fan Lloyd Burton, who's been fighting cancer, poses with his painting of Mourinho next to the man himself.

[Madmax 9,219]

"If Baker and Izzy Brown aren't playing for England in 3 or 4 years, I will consider myself a failure"

Gives them a combined total of 0 minutes against 4th tier opposition while half the squad is injured or completely exhausted. It's okay though, because with our great experienced players we forced the said fourth tier opposition to score an own goal.

[Ainsley Harriott 2,732]

"If Baker and Izzy Brown aren't playing for England in 3 or 4 years, I will consider myself a failure"

Gives them a combined total of 0 minutes against 4th tier opposition while half the squad is injured or completely exhausted. It's okay though, because with our great experienced players we forced the said fourth tier opposition to score an own goal.

Mind games.

Tricking other managers into thinking they'll play.

GOAT.

[Viper22 2,418]

"If Baker and Izzy Brown aren't playing for England in 3 or 4 years, I will consider myself a failure"

Gives them a combined total of 0 minutes against 4th tier opposition while half the squad is injured or completely exhausted. It's okay though, because with our great experienced players we forced the said fourth tier opposition to score an own goal.

Usually a staunch defender of Mou, but can't argue with what you said about today....

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

After we take the lead we completely abandon the tactics that allowed us to go ahead in the game. Neville is being way too kind to Mourinho when he says it's the players making those decisions themselves. It's almost certainly instructions from the coach; there's no way you go from 55% possession to 25% against a 10-man team without instruction or what happened on Sunday (was it the players who bought on Mikel and took off Hazard etc? No. It was Mourinho.)

This is interesting. I've thought about it and I don't think you can blame this just on one side (Jose or players). Its a combination of the two. We began to be defensive even before Mikel came on.

The reason why Jose is very cautious is because he doesn't believe some of these players and their ability to kill the game. Plenty of our current attacking players tend to keep possesion and keep the ball after taking the lead without even looking at opponent's goal. It is the mentality of a person on the pitch. They're not as brutal as the group we had in Didier, Lamps, Ballack, Essien... You look at Oscar and Willian, especially those two Brazilians, but Hazard sometimes aswell, and they never strike me as true warriors, hungry and determined to kill other big teams. That cannot be coached, you can't go into person's mind while the game is on even if your name is Jose Mourinho, and also its impossible to simulate this kind of situation in training. Hazard actually is getting better at it, that is positive indeed, but others I'm afraid will never make it. I do not think Jose wants to be defending deeply every single time we play a difficult team, I don't think he is happy with it, especially when we concede a goal.

This is why IMO Jose brings on Mikel for Oscar and tries to do it the other way.

[stroey 2,525]

http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/9539224/professional-performance-pleases-mourinho-

Post match shrewsbury

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

This is interesting. I've thought about it and I don't think you can blame this just on one side (Jose or players). Its a combination of the two. We began to be defensive even before Mikel came on.

The reason why Jose is very cautious is because he doesn't believe some of these players and their ability to kill the game. Plenty of our current attacking players tend to keep possesion and keep the ball after taking the lead without even looking at opponent's goal. It is the mentality of a person on the pitch. They're not as brutal as the group we had in Didier, Lamps, Ballack, Essien... You look at Oscar and Willian, especially those two Brazilians, but Hazard sometimes aswell, and they never strike me as true warriors, hungry and determined to kill other big teams. That cannot be coached, you can't go into person's mind while the game is on even if your name is Jose Mourinho, and also its impossible to simulate this kind of situation in training. Hazard actually is getting better at it, that is positive indeed, but others I'm afraid will never make it. I do not think Jose wants to be defending deeply every single time we play a difficult team, I don't think he is happy with it, especially when we concede a goal.

This is why IMO Jose brings on Mikel for Oscar and tries to do it the other way.

It's incredibly naive to believe these aren't orders from the manager or this isn't what we practice on the training ground. The team isn't "brutal" yet we've scored over 30+ goals this season. This team has already shown it has more than enough attacking quality to put the opposition to the sword.

Mourinho has always been a ridiculously cautious manager in any club he's managed. Anyone who's followed his career knows that. Look at the way we played against Man City away. You think those weren't tactical orders? Phase 1 was to sit back, drop deep and defend in numbers, Phase 2 was to counter attack with pace and exploit gaps Man City leave behind.

Unfortunately for us, Phase 2 didn't work effectively enough because Pellegrini learnt his lesson from last season's defeat in the league (he actually already learnt it in our 2-0 FA cup loss to them the following week) and had Mangala/Kompany press very high up the pitch in high block, together with the two fullbacks with very tight marking on Costa and our two wingers. The referee was also very lenient and allowed Man City to do a lot of "tactical fouling". We couldn't even come out of half in that game and had to endure wave after wave of City attack.

The average layman thought we "parked" the bus, but we didn't, it was just failed execution of the same plan that worked in our 1-0 win last season at the Etihad, but Pellegrini made adjustments. Some how we scored from a very poor corner by them, but even after that we continued to play the same way vs 10 men! We clearly lacked a plan B.

Neville was just guarding his words so as not to outright blame Mourinho's tactics. Afterall, he just granted him and the paper he writes for (the Telegraph) an hour long interview at The Bridge the other day. The substitution of Oscar for Mikel was meant to communicate a message to the team; To drop back and hold on to what we had.

[Tomo 21,751]

"If Baker and Izzy Brown aren't playing for England in 3 or 4 years, I will consider myself a failure"

Gives them a combined total of 0 minutes against 4th tier opposition while half the squad is injured or completely exhausted. It's okay though, because with our great experienced players we forced the said fourth tier opposition to score an own goal.

A cup tie away from home against a lower league side is always a banana skin.

We had Ake, Zouma and Christensen on, this is Shrewsburys biggest game since probably we faced them last time, that slone makes it tricky, you only need to look at Arsenal at Valley Parade two years ago, or few years back Crewe took United to extra time then Southend did them the round after or even our own experiences at Brentford and Barnsley.

Yes it would have been nice and romantic for us to play all the under 21s and won 4-0, but in reality if we played those 3 to go with the 3 teenagers already on, we could quite well have lost.

[The Chels 2,502]

Mourinho has always been a ridiculously cautious manager in any club he's managed. Anyone who's followed his career knows that.

Particularly in the semifinals of the CL. If he went for it a bit more I think it's very likely he'd have at least 3 CLs by now, if not more.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To butress the points I was making. Caution was evident in the Arsenal game with the Mikel sub for Schurrle around the 60 min mark. We were playing on the counter throughout the 2nd half. Same in the United games we're still banging on about.

The difference between Jose first time and now is that his caution is so far only restricted to the really big games unlike before when it was 1-0 and shut up shop. It's no surprise we've been really drab attack wise vs Arsenal, Man United and Man City apart from some moments of individual brilliance. The players seem afraid to express themselves and that's not all down to the players alone.

Against the smaller teams, we're really playing with total freedom and laying down the gauntlet, attacking with numbers and being ruthless.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Particularly in the semifinals of the CL. If he went for it a bit more I think it's very likely he'd have at least 3 CLs by now, if not more.

I was literally about to include the exact same thing in my post but left it out. There's no reason why those Liverpool vs Chelsea battles should have been so closely contested. We just had comfortably more quality and talent than they did. But Benitez was happy to play Mourinho at his own game. Sit back, defend and play on the counter.

When Hiddink came and went for it more against them, we smashed them.