Chelsea FC: Jose Mourinho Addresses Diego Costa’s Poor Finishing
Chelsea FC boss Jose Mourinho has spoken about the poor form of his star striker Diego Costa.
The Blues front man has been awful in this campaign so far and while the club comfortably played out a 2-0 victory over Porto on Wednesday night, Costa’s form failed to improve.
Speaking after the final whistle, Mourinho admitted that the Spanish international could have easily hit the back of the net, but cited his improved attitude and work-rate as positive developments.
"He could have scored two or three goals today. There is a lack of confidence, clearly, but his attitude was very good and his movement was much better, so goals are coming."
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Costa did indeed have several opportunities to stick the ball past Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas, but could not. These were chances that the Costa of last season would have finished blindfolded. His first one-on-one did indeed result in a Chelsea goal, but only because the rebound from Casillas’ save hit a recovering Porto defender and headed into the net.
In the second period, he had two further one-on-one opportunities. The first of them saw him decide to fall over in search of a penalty instead of having a shot at goal while the latter saw him take the most village of Sunday league touches.
As the boss says, his confidence is evidently in tatters at the moment. However, after the bib-throwing incident of two weeks ago, his effort and attitude against Porto were laudable.
Mourinho reportedly arranged a private meeting with Costa in order to run through his current tactical deficiencies and there was evidence that his footballing brain was on its way back. The striker was making striker-runs on Wednesday night, getting himself into the box in an attempt to provide the wingers with a target.
Previous games had seen Costa lark about outside the box, meaning that dangerous crosses were passing straight through the area with no Chelsea player in sight. Now it seems like he is rediscovering what made him one of the most prolific forwards on the continent.
However, it is still a work-in-progress and one that will need some rapid development. Despite the euphoria of progressing to the next round of the Champions League, this is by no means a corner turned. The Blues need to get back to Cobham and put in the work ahead of Monday night’s clash with Leicester City.
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The Foxes are leading the Premier League and bizarrely look like genuine title contenders. With Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy essentially guaranteeing Claudio Ranieri’s men production up front, Chelsea and Diego Costa will need to be more clinical with their finishing if they want get a result.
All quotes taken from chelseafc.com.