Chelsea: Of course former manager Jose Mourinho would blame youth

Jose Mourinho was a pundit on Sky Sports this weekend and he used his time to blame Chelsea’s loss (in part) on youth. Because of course he would.

Since being fired from Manchester United, studios of been tripping over themselves to bring Jose Mourinho in as a pundit. Sky Sports won out as Mourinho’s two latest clubs faced off against one another. For the most part, Mourinho was as insightful and intelligent as ever. But when talking about the youth, he was downright wrong and that should not be all that surprising.

The main thrust of Mourinho’s argument was that in a big game away to United, experience counts for a lot. He specifically questioned why Marcos Alonso, Olivier Giroud, and N’Golo Kante were not playing instead of Emerson, Tammy Abraham, and Mateo Kovacic or Jorginho. He even singled out Abraham and Mason Mount’s performances, something that would later surprise Frank Lampard (and really anyone that viewed the game without agenda).

Most of those are answered quite easily. Kante was not match fit and it is not worth rushing him back from an injury caused by rushing him back from an injury only to risk injuring him again. Alonso and Giroud have simply not shown up well enough in preseason compared to their counterparts to justify starting. But if there was any former Chelsea manager that would bang the drum for experience over youth, it would of course be Mourinho.

Mourinho will always be a Chelsea legend, but that does not mean he has not been chipping away at parts of his legacy since joining Manchester United. For all the success he brought Chelsea, there were still flaws and undeniably one of those is with the youth.

Mourinho always favored experience over youth. That is not to say he will not latch on to certain young players but others he seemingly dismisses all together. To see him undercut Abraham (who did fine, all things considered) and Mount (who was much better than Barkley and Pedro in similar roles) shows the dismissive side of Mourinho.

It is that dismissive side that saw Chelsea lose Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne. It also saw Ruben Loftus-Cheek spend many years on the side line because he sat in a gray area for Mourinho. Loftus-Cheek was good enough to keep around, but not good enough to really play as much as needed.

Lampard’s surprise at Mourinho’s statements is genuine because the youth were very much not the issue for Chelsea.  It was the experienced players that really let the side down, many of whom played under Mourinho (Kurt Zouma, Cesar Azpilicueta, Pedro).

There is plenty Lampard can learn from his former coach. For instance, Mourinho was spot on with his compactness argument and it was something similar that won United the game against Chelsea. But on the youth? He is projecting his own wishes and desires on to the side rather than analyzing the reality of the situation.

Mourinho will remain a mentor for Lampard even though the media will surely try to spin this as a wedge between the two. But mentors do not need to be perfect or right all the time. Lampard’s lineup selection favored the players who had earned the chance in preseason while taking care of those who were not yet fit enough to play. Mourinho will do as Mourinho does when he talks about youth, but Lampard knows who he is working with in 2019 is not who Mourinho had in 2015.