Was thinking this morning and regardless of what happens I want mourinho to stay on for the season. Only exception to that is if relegation becomes a possibility which I seriously doubt. We still haven't played any of the newly promoted sides and this team is starting to play better (not well but better) I really don't want a club where the players control everything and choose when to play which in turn gets a coach fired and then they start playing again If it was anyone but mourinho I might feel differently but he's a great manager and I want some stability for once. I understand that abramovich has shown great restraint for his standards but I think if mourinho is kept through the year and FULLY backed this summer we will be back to where we were last year With FFP rolled back and the Manchester clubs spending at will that might be £200m plus but Roman can afford it and we clearly have some people who need to be sold to help offset that
I'm in agreement. I just don't know what getting rid of him now does to help the situation moving forward, let the team and him work through this and re-group next summer.
If you asked me who would be our best player this year Ramires wouldn't have cracked the top 15. He's been great though.
Just odd/depressing that we are in a situation where our 3 subs to try and influence then come back in the game are Kennedy, shit cesc and falcao. Think the announcers were right to questions Mourinho's tactics
Yeah you can't sit back for 80 minutes to try and hold onto a slim 1 goal lead, especially with how leaky the defense has been.
Would prefer to see RLC/Kenedy/Traore all start vs Kiev. Also want baba/azpi/zouma/Terry defense. I have gotten to the point where losing doesn't both me as much as the lack of effort GK begovic RB azpi CB terry CB zouma LB baba DM mikel CM RLC CM Ramires RW Kenedy LW Willian ST Traore Bench: Amelia, aina, matic, hazard, remy, falcao Young, fast lineup without any of the usual suspects when it comes to lack of effort. Costa has been trying but it's not clicking. Give the kids a chance to play with the high effort guys Ramires and Willian and see what Happens. He has tried literally everything else. Going with youth and pulling out a few games with different players might be the only way to save his job. One play that pissed me off the most was a counter attack for Liverpool that saw Ramires sprint past cesc to get back when cesc had been on the pitch for 10 min. That shit just can't happen
id be ok with that line up Cant believe Levene says it will happen Sunday. Have to think if we go 2-0 it wont
I figured it would happen right before the international break. Just wonder who the caretaker manager will be. I'd ride it out with him, he's the best manager in the premier league, but that isn't the way Chelsea does business.
Mourinho picked up a stadium ban for the Stoke match so Saturday was likely his last premier league match on the sideline.
I really don't want Mourinho sacked but don't see what other options there are. It's truly amazing how much has changed in the past 6 months. Glad we at least got a championship out of it.
In other sports and with other teams in this sport the manager comes first. You don't want to play for the coach/manager then you don't play for that team. I was hoping Chelsea would finally have that set up. Arsenal fans are fed up with wenger (and rightfully so) but he had a great 10-12 year run. That is what I would have liked here. Chelsea has a lot going for it. they play in one of the top cities in Europe and are one of only two teams in that city that compete in the upper echelon of Europe with any consistency. They pay top salaries to players. If players don't want to give effort and play here then ship them off I am just tired of a lack of effort from someone making $15 million a year and if you can't work your tail off at that price find someone who will. If hazard/Oscar/cesc/matic played like Willian/Ramires or the young guys when they are given a shot we would probably be in a champions league spot. Our defensive troubles would still be there (and mourinho knew this and went after stones so hard for a reason) and I don't see us competing with city this year but the team would not be in shambles
Would have liked to see Kenedy start over Oscar and Willian at 10 with Traore or Pedro on the other wong and cesc on the bench but love seeing baba get the start let's see what he can do
@RobHarris "Stand up for the Special One" sing Chelsea fans .. and the ground applauds the embattled Mourinho
Defense is still shaky as hell but a win is a win. Matic probably played his best match of the year today
Hazard looked very lively last 10 min and the team after that goal actually looked like they would win for the first time all year. Had the confidence and effort. I don't think it is a coincidence that cesc was not on the pitch at that point. He just doesn't fit into this side at this point My lineup for stoke GK begovic RB azpi CB zouma CB terry LB Baba DM matic DM Ramires LW hazard CAM Willian RW Kenedy ST remy Costa just isn't gelling right now. I sort of wish Traore would play as remy hasn't looked good either but I know Jose won't do that
Thought this was far and away the performance of the season, should have had 5 or 6. I've given a lot of shit to Ramires over the years but he (and Willian) have basically held the team together. Hopefully a nice 3-0 against Stoke and go into the break w/ momentum.
Kenedy needs minutes but thought Oscar played well today. Would like to send Cesc on an extended holiday... Will be nice to get Thibault back too, Bego has been a bit shaky the last four or five matches IMO.
Oscar had some good holdup play which has been missing down the left wing. Neil Barnett made a good point on the football show this morning about hazard going for it every time he gets the ball and losing it a lot causing players trying to join the attack to have to flip back to defense and we get caught out while Oscar with his lack of pace controlled the game better for the team as a whole. Would prefer Oscar over cesc but whoever is playing in the attacking band (Oscar, Willian, hazard and cesc at #10) all seem to play worse when played at #10. I would expect it to be Oscar/Willian/hazard on Saturday in some order as the attacking 3 but I really want Kenedy to get a chance because he is the one player other than Willian that really seems to want it and consistently fight when on the pitch
Looks his old self again. Need to bury a couple of these chances before we give up the stupid goal that were bound to give up.
Levene backed off his report that he was gone regardless today after the show of support on Wednesday but he's probably getting sacked in the morning.
Good night sweet Jose. Amazing how we can be this bad with the same squad that was so historically great last year. Would love to see a behind the scenes longread about this someday.
Mourinho seems to be angling to get to January, axe who he feels are the problems, maybe add 1 to 2 more players and battle for 4th in the second half. I believe we play Tottenham right after the international break but after that game we have a good run of very winnable games. He needs to close the gap to champions league spots during that run if he is going to have a chance to do that Roman seems to be VERY patient this time around but only time will tell. If Roman wants to really get the youth integrated he needs to stick to one manager for a few years to allow that to happen. Chelsea youth teams are stockpiled with talent right now. If he keeps mourinho he needs to give mourinho an ultimatum that he needs to start winning with sides that include youngsters like solanke, RLC and baker. I read an interesting article the other day that basically said if RLC and solanke were Dutch or Belgian they would be playing in holland or France and be worth £30m
so does anyone have any ideas on who the problem players are Mou wants to get rid of? kind of at a loss on that one since the squad is basically unchanged from winning the premier league
no we all stopped watching games because we're just bandwagon fans that's what you want to hear right?
Not at all this board is better when you guys are being active participants. Regardless of the disdain I feel for your club and the level of satisfaction I'm getting from this patch of unthinkably bad form.
To be completely honest I posted itt on accident as I thought I was in the pool thread making an ice burn. I decided the best maneuver was to quickly cover my tracks and that was the best I could come up with in a couple seconds time.
I didn't take it as a slight, there isn't a lot of posting in this thread in general though which kind of sucks. jkun just talks to himself and he's the least knowledgable soccer fan on the board
If I were to venture a guess I would say the problem players are cesc, Oscar, falcao, matic and hazard Out of those he knows he needs to make things work with hazard unless he can somehow convince Real Madrid to flip him for bale. That's the only way he can sell losing hazard to the fans. I also think he looks at matic as someone who he can turn around in time. Midfield has been even worse than the defense this year. Matic has flashed in 1-2 games but it is telling that after Willian, Ramires has been far and away our best midfielder. I have shit on him numerous times and he cannot necessarily tackle well or shoot well and would work better in a 5 man midfield in a league like Italy. That said, we can't lose him now because matic/Ramires seems to be the new pivot and if matic plays well that's our best option. Still need a CB, RB, number 10 if cesc and/or Oscar leave and another striker to replace falcao and remy I know mourinho watched our u21 team play Sunday and RLC starred as a #10. Would think that he would play where we would play him at Chelsea and I wonder if mourinho does play him between hazard and Willian with a Ramires/matic pivot in the next run of games. Also got to think remy or even Traore/Kenedy/anyone deserves a shot at striker. Costa just is not cutting it. He ruins our ability to truly counter with the speed Willian/Pedro/hazard have and if he isn't bagging in goals then we need someone who can break with our fast guys
falcao is whatever, that was a mistake. Cesc I could see him talking about, especially since we can't hide his defensive deficiencies anymore. But if it's both Cesc and Matic? who is out there that we are going to replace them with? We've said the same thing on RLC like 5 times, I've given up on him actually making that change even though it seems to make sense.