Chelsea FC: Diego Costa Given One-On-One Sessions With Jose Mourinho
Chelsea FC boss Jose Mourinho has afforded Diego Costa one-on-one tactics sessions as they seek an end to the striker’s poor form.
Costa has been truly awful so far in this campaign. After scoring 20 Premier League goals in 26 appearances last season, he has only hit the back of the net three times to this point.
With the Spanish international certainly not deserving any more, Mourinho has reportedly held one-on-one sessions with Costa in a bid to discover a remedy to this seemingly incurable illness. The Telegraph claims that the private meeting was strictly limited to football matters, rather than his questionable off-the-field antics.
"It is understood that the discussion was purely about football and tactics, rather than Costa’s attitude on or off the pitch, which has been called into question in recent weeks."
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While injuries have kept him on the sidelines for a small number of games, Costa was eventually relegated to bench warming on merit for the Tottenham Hotspur clash. His performances had been so poor that very few Chelsea fans argued with Mourinho’s decision, despite absences meaning that Eden Hazard had to play in the number nine role.
The most concerning incident, though, was the dissent that he displayed towards Mourinho towards the end of the contest. Upon returning from what can only be described as a lethargic warmup, Costa flung his bib in the manager’s direction before sinking back into his chair. Pathetic really.
Unsurprisingly, Costa started the Bournemouth game on the bench as well. He was called into action at half-time, coming on for Oscar, but he did little to improve upon previous performances as he continued to lark about the field aimlessly.
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The lack of production from Chelsea’s primary goalscorer has undoubtedly hurt the club’s prospects of seeing out this storm. Hence, it is not shocking that Mourinho would seek to iron out Costa’s deficiencies in a one-on-one meeting. Some will wonder why it had not happened sooner.
To be fair, we cannot be sure that the boss has not already tried to talk some footballing sense into the former Atletico Madrid man given that it all takes place behind closed doors. Having said that, there has been no evidence that such an intervention has occurred.
Especially after the last international break, the majority of the Chelsea attack have been on the upslope. The wingers (including Eden Hazard) have been more expressive and have found themselves in better positions on a more frequent basis. The issue has been that any cross delivered from such areas have been met with an empty box. Players like Costa have not been making the right runs to get onto the end of them.
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As Chelsea prepare for a crucial clash with Porto on Wednesday evening, everyone associated with the club will hope that Mourinho’s man management skills pay off.