Jose Mourinho Changed Chelsea FC’s Tactics To Preserve Top Four Place
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Chelsea FC manager Jose Mourinho revealed that he changed the team’s tactics at one point in the Premier League season to preserve his side’s place in the top four. Chelsea were playing a more open style earlier on in the season and it worked at times like in the 4-3 victory against Sunderland but it also backfired like the 3-2 loss against Stoke City. An open style does not fit Mourinho’s style but it appeared that he tried to change his system to adapt to his players but changed his mind around January. That change in style may have also prompted the sale of Juan Mata who is a fantastic creative player but offered very little in defense.
Mourinho had his reasons for making those changes so we will let him do the talking:
"“I knew what I was doing. We are still in a position, mathematically, to win the Premier League and in the Champions League we reached the semi-final and we had one foot in the final. There are moments when you have to go for the strategical point of view if you want to have a chance to compete for what we compete.At a certain moment, if you don’t go for a bit more stability and a bit less development of a certain philosophy, it’s a big risk. I made the decision to stop that evolution in the style and philosophy of play and I went in the direction where I felt it was the only way, that, with this team and with these players, we could get results. It’s not a cup. I don’t want to get a bonus for finishing top four, no way, no way; the moment I think like that I’m in trouble. (But) there was a moment that I felt this Premier League was so dangerous that was the big risk for every one of the big teams to be out of the top four.Don’t forget we had lots of matches, and long periods this season where we produced fantastic football, even away from home, but we weren’t the killer profile. Even our wingers and our number 10s – Eden, Oscar, Schurrle and Willian, amazing season by Willian – need to score more goals, they need to be more clinical. They need to play and produce according to the way we play. We had lots of matches where we created lots.At Everton in September we should have been 5-0 up at half-time, but we were 1-0 down. Things are not sometimes like people like to say. We build certain bases that we need to recover in the beginning of next season, especially when we have this little, little transformation and improvement in our squad that we need. Next season we will start the season, hopefully, I can have finally the feeling of ‘okay, we are going to try (to win the title) and we really feel we can. But even so the next summer I think we’re going to feel the danger of missing out on the top four. The difference between being champions and outside the top four is a small difference.”"
The past several years without Jose Mourinho has seen Chelsea brass try and build a more “attractive” football style and it worked at times but it was good old defensive football that won the Champions League in 2012. Jose Mourinho will build this team in his image and that may lead to some painful moves for the fans but they must show their trust in one of the best managers in the world.
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