As a Chelsea fan, loving a manager is rare occurrence, purely because we chop and change them so much. Jose Mourinho is one of the few exceptions though. Fellow Chelsea fans adore him, mainly down to witnessing huge success under him previously and his, shall we say, ‘original’ approach with the media. It is entertaining.
He’s not immune to criticism though, especially after a disappointing season like this one has been.
The football served up has been dull, unimaginative and, frankly, considering our resources, appalling. I’m a Chelsea season ticket holder and have been for twenty-three years and this is without doubt one of the worst Chelsea teams, in terms of attacking intent, I’ve seen for a long time.
Obviously Mourinho’s defensive approach was expected, he’s the master of it, and I can’t fault it away from home on certain occasions against the bigger sides as it’s designed to frustrate and counter, which is a perfect away tactic. At home though, and most away games, a more open, attacking approach like the Liverpool’s, Arsenal’s and Manchester City’s of the league is how we should set-up and use the array of attacking talent we’ve splashed out on to their full capabilities. The likes of Schurrle, Salah and Oscar haven’t really had a fair crack of the whip and should’ve been used more throughout the season. Usually a defensive/central midfielder is taking their place instead.
Chelsea have a vast array of attacking talent and with the money we have, will undoubtedly strengthen in the summer, with a striker being top of the list, understandably. This striker should help things, it’s been well documented, but it’s vital Mourinho gets the right man for the job. Didier Drogba practically carried us with his important goals and huge contribution over the years. He had everything and enabled players to feed off his knock downs and was a constant out ball if we were in tricky situations. Is there another Didier Drogba out there, who we can realistically get? I’m not so sure.
With a successful striker added, Mourinho has to adjust the tactics slightly and be more positive anyway. We have the talent to do so and positive, free flowing football is what most football fans, not just Chelsea fans, prefer. I’m sure if you asked the likes of Eden Hazard, Willian and Oscar what approach they’d feel they could flourish under they’d go for the more attack minded one. With Mourinho being such a staunch defender of defensive dealings it’s hard to see him budging from that approach though, sadly.
Gone are the days of Drogba, Lampard in his prime, Makelele and the likes of Robben or Duff who were perfect for that approach and style. We simply don’t have the right ingredients this time around. it just isn’t the same team and it just isn’t suited to such plans. We have more flair and less steel, so why not play to our strengths?
We mustn’t forget the obvious – it’s looking like we’ll be having a trophy less season. Of course it takes times to implement change and patience is certainly required, but not much progress has been made this campaign and that, accompanied with largely dour football, has made for a rather forgetful season. Ultimately, we were expecting a lot when Mourinho was appointed and so far, despite a good Champions League campaign in terms of reaching the semi-finals, it’s been a bit of an anti-climax.
Jose Mourinho isn’t Rafa Benitez, but if he was, he’d have got an absolute battering for Chelsea’s lacklustre season. Not only is there a huge summer ahead recruitment wise, but Mourinho needs to reconsider his approach and play to the strengths of the players he has at his disposal. This is a new Chelsea and it’s time for a new Jose Mourinho.
By Mark Leonard – Chelsea fan
great article. however, i can’t understand for the life of me why most of my fellow chelsea fans can’t understand that jose isn’t going to change. he’s been the same way his whole career (the petulant, childish behavior is getting worse). i called this season almost perfectly back in the summer before a ball was kicked in a competitive game. i called juan mata being marginalized and not playing in big games (called him not playing vs utd at OT on August 4th and was banned from a chelsea supporter site for daring to suggest it). I didn’t think we would be dumb enough to sell him to utd. i called jose doing everything he could to prove we can’t play attacking football and win (although i don’t call the way we started this season attacking…i call it less defensive than what we ultimately played). i said he would divide the locker room and bring all kinds of negative press. the big part that i failed on…is that i also said i would be in a huge minority with my opinion because jose would win the league and a domestic cup while having a good run in europe…on that, i was entirely wrong. i warned people when he was being linked with a return that he was the wrong man for this squad. that he would drive out most of best players so that he could do two things. one, build a team that can play the way he wants. two, avoid the claims that he won with “someone elses” team (something he repeatedly says about other managers who follow him). jose’s ego is priority number 1 to him. i love him for what he did in the past, but returning was a horrible mistake. the game has changed in england. our squad has changed. he’s now alienated a huge portion of our squad. the fans are now extremely divided (there a lot of calls for him to be sacked around the web from chelsea fans). the press hates us (more so than before, which i admit…they kind of always have since roman took over). most importantly, we are god awfully boring to watch. we need change…that change must come with a new manager. otherwise, as i predicted last summer. we will be right back to where we were 3 seasons ago. a team thats built to play jose’s way with an owner who is demanding attacking football. we will see mata, luiz, hazard, de bruyne, lukaku, etc doing well at other clubs while we shop for guys who play just like them. we will go through manager after manager in order to find the right one. we should have kept di matteo until we found the right one (the squad he had was nothign like what jose has this year).
Mourinho must change but he probably won’t! I think he’ll win a trophy next season despite his boring football.
Do you really believe that – then you must either be too old to count or you really don’t follow football as closely as you say !
Jose Mourinho is subject to Financial fair play rules this time around which means what you buy in must equal what you sell or you will eventually risk being chucked out of european competitions. Of course you could just ignore them for the moment as they wont ban you straight away, you get a 50 Million Fine like MAN City But that is only strike One ! That is roughly the cost of a world class striker.
He has to stick by the FFP rules as Chelsea came out publicly in support of them before Mourinho was signed, so of course the club will tighten the purse strings.
Just to get two World class strikers this summer, he will have to sell Ba, Torres, Lukaku plus another Marque star maybe even Hazard or Oscar But who cares who we sell as long as we have two world class strikers ? Don’t forget that Torres , Ba and Eto’o and even Lukaku have been world class stars – But for other teams not us. It will take even One season for a striker to bed into the team or have you forgotten how Drogba was booed for diving in his first season he was not much use in that season, but from his second season on, he was pure magic.
I am sure that if you give Mourinho a list of Players we don’t need now or in the future which will match the 200 or so million he would have to spend, then he would be very interested.
But just like any company it is brilliant when people who have a love for it are running it, but once the accountants start running it then beware as they have no interest in anything but money.
SO don’t forget that Abramovich cannot just dip into his pockets anymore and anyway he has spent £600 million on players and infrastructure since taking over CFC so we should be grateful as we have received 11 years of top class football through him, But maybe you are too young to remember the Chelsea Team before ? In the latter years before Abramovich it was quite good with money from Matthew Harding but still not enough to mount a decent challenge for the Title or in Europe.
SO thank your lucky stars that we do have mourinho to balance the books, he will do it but he inherited the majority of this team and he now has to do it the long way by balancing Transfers out plus TV money and Merchandising and sponsorship against his transfers in and No you dont get to add to that in any way.
Think its easy, try making a simple list of Transfers out against transfers in and you will soon see who you will have to lose to get “Your Chelsea”