Jose Mourinho has admitted that it may have been a mistake to only make two changes for last night’s match against Aston Villa.
Chelsea claimed all three points and are currently sitting at the top of the Premier League table but the win was hardly convincing.
Without going into the grievances of Villains boss Paul Lambert over the referee’s failure to send Branislav Ivanovic or award a penalty for John Terry’s handball, the Blues looked a little leggy.
The season has only just begun and no matter what you do over the pre season there’s nothing like competitive football to get you back to match sharpness, so everyone’s squads are still getting back into the swing of things.
Mourinho made only two changes to the side that played Hull as Demba Ba replaced Fernando Torres and Juan Mata came in for Kevin De Bruyne.
The Portuguese manager said:
“Maybe my decision of not making many changes – only two – was not the best.
“Maybe it would have been better to put more fresh players in from the beginning.
“I felt my players from the midfield to the attacking areas were not very sharp and that was understandable.”
He also went onto explain that Torres was left out of the squad because he didn’t need two forwards on the bench as he may have needed Cesar Azpilicueta or the experience of John Obi Mikel during the match.
The selection of Ba surprised most and I don’t think many would have predicted that he would make the starting line-up. As it was, his performance was dreadful as he spent most of the time offside and when he was onside he didn’t know what to do with himself.
I did not expect to see Frank Lampard start back-to-back games in four days either, especially considering Mourinho’s words ahead of the match, and this game passed him by. Villa played with a high line forcing the attacking midfielders into deeper areas and Lamps was looking to make his forward runs, but it just wasn’t the right game for that and Fabian Delph did not give him a moments peace.
It’s nice to see that Mourinho is humble enough to admit that he ought to have selected a fresher outfit though and the main positives are the points as well as the match saving performance of Petr Cech.
Chelsea know that they’ll have to play a lot better against Manchester United otherwise they’ll come unstuck but I expect them to raise their game for the big stage and don’t think these early season teething problems will be anything to worry about long-term.
I see no reason why BA should still remain in Chelsea talk more of starting a match,please he he should just fuck out because he don’t deserve that shirt
It happen like dat some time bcus nobody above mistake, about d penalty claime, d foul was not intentnal even it happen 2 Aston Villa nd d ref over luk it so de suld stop conplaine bcus no goal was denield. Keep it up Jos
Eh?
How about his poor tactics…why on earth would you put hazard, mata and oscar on the pitch and direct you back 6 to try quick long balls to ba over and over. Boring. Ok…it could have worked. I see the point of saying they wouldn’t expect it…but it didn’t work. It was boring to watch. If rafa did that everyone would be up in arms. Funny how that works. We look oridnary and boring. Moreover…I wish he would shut up about hazard. Hes putting so much pressure on a 22 year old to be this goal scoring machine and to be great every game. Let him play. He’s not ronaldo or messi. You can see him thinking too much…trying to hard. The game must flow from him…not be forcing everything.
He should be putting pressure on Hazard to be the best because he can be and he needs it.
What I would only like to apply to this is Jose should Understand that premeir leauge is getting hard every match and every team want to play hard with Chelsea,I was expecting to see John mikel to start up and add some experience to the game,Lampard is good but we should consider Age is on his side,so he can’t be playing a full time match..Had been mike is on the pitch it could have been easy for Hazard to be on a free role than forcing hiself to assist the striker..we want a better change against Manchester United
Boring to watch! Boring to watch!! And you keep lamenting. But on that same day Arsenal was beating Fernabache 3-0, you should have gone there to intertain yourself. We are not Arsenal, so we don’t intertain haters. We are Chelsea and we know that to win a championship, you sometimes have to grind out results.
Again let me remind you that next time you talk of Chelsea, never mention Benitez, because he is not a good standard, we have coaches that have won doubles and were not just mere conductors!
But you are right about one thing; Hazard is not Messi, he is not Ronaldo, but if Messi said he is not Pele or Zidane, and Ronaldo said he is not Maradona or Ronaldinho, would they be here today?
Hazard is too young to be a super star, so how about Lampard? He is 35.
There’s a huge difference between a pragmatic style and just playing poorly. Aston Villa had enough chances to get points and that’s the worry, not whether it was boring or not.
I think Lampard has to rest in the next match, we have to see Mikel in d holding wt Ramires doing d moving and Mata behind the striker. De brung and Hazard on the flanks. Up chelsea!!!
The midfield ysday lack solidity and the goal came from inability of the midfield deal with the cross from Gab Agbonlahor.
Ramires and van Ginkel or Ramires and Mikel in the midfield at Old Trafford for me.
Pair mikel and ramires or essien in the middle, and u will the midfield ballance that u need… Then u see ur front attack do there job without looking back. That was the secret behind RDM, RAFA borrowed it wen necessary, and its only a mata of time for Jose to figure it out which I know he will.
God bless chelseafc
This is the worst combo. it should be either essien or Mikel + Van gikel or oscar.