Chelsea FC v New York Red Bulls: Jose Mourinho Post-Match Quotes
Chelsea FC last night fell to the New York Red Bulls in a six goal shoot-out that ended 4-2 to the Americans. Despite the disappointing result, Jose Mourinho shrugged off any criticism in his post-match press conference.
“They gave us a good training session. If we came here and won 10-0 I would not be happy because it would mean it was too easy. We needed the game they gave us,” said Mourinho.
This was Chelsea’s first pre-season game and the boss makes a good point. There’s no better way to kick-start a team and get rid of any potential complacency that might be lingering around on the back of a double-winning season then a loss to a sub-standard side. You only have to look at Manchester United’s 2014/15 pre-season to realise that an unbeaten warm-up campaign means very little.
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However, the boss did acknowledge that the players weren’t up to the speed expected: “Obviously we needed to play better than we did in the second half defensively, and there were also too many missed chances.”
Mourinho also discussed a pair of players in Victor Moses and Bertrand Traore who are surrounded by loan speculation and while he was quite clear of the latter’s future, for the former he was not too sure yet.
“He’s not going on loan. We want to keep him and improve him. With the ball he has a lot of talent. Sometimes he didn’t always make the best decisions, but this is absolutely normal. He’s a good kid, a good talent, and I repeat he’s not going on loan,” said Mourinho about Traore.
This is interesting as Traore was just recently granted his work permit for the UK, an issue that forced him to spend previous seasons on loan at Vitesse. However, it’s difficult to see the 19-year-old getting much playing time at Stamford Bridge. Nevertheless, Mourinho wants to keep him so it will be intriguing to see how this develops.
Moses, on the other hand, will be subjected to further transfer speculation after the boss failed to confirm his role in next season’s senior squad.
“Let’s see what happens but Victor had an evolution in the last couple of years.”
That’s code for “if someone offers decent money, I’ll sell him”.
Meanwhile, criticism was heaped on new recruit Asmir Begovic after he conceded four goals in the 2nd half, but the boss defended the goalkeeper and blamed his performance on fatigue. He also said that Begovic will start the next fixture in a couple of days’ time.
“It’s a consequence of being tired from training. I’m so happy to have him and in the next game against PSG he will start. He will play the first half.”
The Blues return to Montreal before flying out to Charlotte, NC for Saturday’s fixture against the French team. In the meantime heck in with all our pre-season coverage here:
Chelsea FC Pre-Season Squad
Chelsea FC’s US Pre-Season Schedule And Guide
Chelsea FC: 5 Players To Watch This Pre-Season
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Next: Jose Callejon, Axel Witsel, John Stones: Chelsea FC Transfer Rumours July 23rd