Jose Mourinho showed some frustration with the Chelsea FC board in the aftermath of the 2-1 Crystal Palace loss
Chelsea FC suffered a shock defeat at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon, falling 2-1 to Alan Pardew’s side. The result leaves them in 14th position with just four points from four games. Jose Mourinho addressed a range of issues in his post-match media commitments.
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Chelsea had been relatively quiet in the transfer window until the signings of Abdul Baba Rahman, Kenedy, and more importantly Pedro were announced in the week following the Manchester City humiliation. The club then won their next game against West Brom. However, Saturday’s loss highlighted issues in both defence and midfield, the blame for which Mourinho seemed to subtly pin on the board.
"I gave my club the report of the season projection on April 21. I don’t think it’s now on the 29 or 30 of August that I am going to say ‘I want this’ or ‘I want that’."
The boss seems to indicate that he intimated his requirements as far back as April, and yet the Chelsea brass have been unable to successfully fulfill them. Now, some may point out the fact that I don’t know exactly what Mourinho wanted, and thus the club may have indeed purchased what he had requested.
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However, it seems bizarre to think that the Portuguese did not want to address the alarmingly thin backline. Furthermore, the centre of midfield isn’t exactly stacked stories high either. The club are lacking depth in these departments and they have paid the price with this season’s start.
It must be emphasised that he has not openly taken a dig at his superiors, and it is best that this is the case. The whole world have been pointing out a supposed gulf in quality between the squads of Chelsea and rivals like Man City. However, if the manager were to explicitly state that his squad lacks sufficient quality, that would do much to destroy morale.
Moreover, with no promising deals currently in the works, this may well be the squad that Mourinho has to squeeze the most out of. Damaging morale in such a way would undeniably prohibit him from doing so.
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The boss even stated that he does not expect any major moves from Chelsea before Tuesday evening’s deadline despite the loss, and that the onus is on both him and the players to step up their game.
"I hope this does not prompt us to the transfer market. I don’t like that…We have to do better. Me and the players have to do better."
While all the talk has been about the squad depth, this was the same issue last season and yet Chelsea came away with two trophies. Yes, there are various reasons for this but one that should be highlighted is that the starting XI performed well.
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The 2015/16 Chelsea team is not much different from last campaign’s line-up but they are playing at a significantly lower level. Eden Hazard has been terrible. Cesc Fabregas has been terrible. Diego Costa has been almost terrible as well. If these players had brought their A-game, there is no reason why Chelsea should not have three or four wins by now.
Mourinho himself must also do better. Decisions such as starting the relatively slow pair of John Terry and Gary Cahill instead of including the pacey Kurt Zouma against City was lamentable. The same could be said of his apparent insistence on employing a high defensive line given such speed deficiencies.
It remains to be seen what moves Chelsea will make in the coming two days, but the players currently at Stamford Bridge and the man in charge of them are much better than this.
Much better.
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