Such is José Mourinho’s unhappiness at Chelsea’s limp start to the season that yesterday he not only insisted that none of his squad have met the required standards this campaign but also claimed that he is most disappointed in the way he himself has performed.
The Barclays Premier League champions go into tomorrow’s match away to West Bromwich Albion with one point from two games, thanks to a draw with Swansea City on the opening day, followed by a humiliating 3-0 defeat by Manchester City.
Seeing his team sit 16th in the nascent table has been enough to wipe out whatever lingering memory of Mourinho referring to himself as “the happy one” on his return to England. Instead, he responded to a question about the form of Eden Hazard by listing half a dozen players who he feels have not covered themselves in glory and then — in case anyone did not get the point — making it clear he is not excusing anyone, even himself, from blame.
“I am not happy with my form,” said the Portuguese. “I used to get better results than I am getting now. This is the start of everything. I am not happy with Ivanovic’s form, Cahill’s form, John Terry’s form, Azpilicueta’s form, Fàbregas’s form, Nemanja Matic’s form. No, there is not one [I am happy with]. We have one point from two matches. I am not happy at all with anyone. I am either happy with everybody or not happy with anyone.
“But for me, the first thing is that I am not happy with my form. I am going to the gym every day this week to get fitter. Maybe I need to be more active on the touchline, so I need to be fitter. I don’t like to lose or for the players to have a better mentality than I have. So we are not happy.”
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In the aftermath of defeat by City, of course, much of that unhappiness seemed to centre on Terry, removed at half-time as Mourinho tried to address the “fragility” of his defence. The Portuguese yesterday pointed out that Terry is far from alone in having failed to perform as expected and suggested that there is no reason his captain will not return to the side at The Hawthorns. “On Monday, like every day since 2004, in training John was top,” he said.
Mourinho’s attempts to arrest Chelsea’s poor run have been wide ranging. He has signed two new players, Pedro and Baba Rahman, for a combined £43 million, yesterday describing the former as “one of the best attacking players in the world”.
In what amounts to a considerable change of approach, he admitted that the wear and tear of the season meant that it was necessary to enlarge his squad. He is confident both will be able to cope better with being rotated than players such as Filipe Luís, Mohamed Salah, Juan Cuadrado and, in particular, Kevin de Bruyne, the Belgian expected to join City this summer who, Mourinho claimed, “cried every day” because he was not in the team.
Mourinho revealed that he and his coaching staff have been doing even more assiduous analysis on opponents and designing more intensive training exercises to keep his players sharp.
He has been impressed by the way his squad has responded, but has not ruled out a change of formation. Chelsea remained steadfastly loyal to his 4-2-3-1 last season, but Mourinho admitted yesterday that they “need alternatives”.
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“When you have strikers like we have, why not play with two?” he said. “When you have fast people like [Kurt] Zouma and Azpilicueta, why not play with three defenders? We are thinking about that. We normally train well, but this week better than ever. Why? Because we are not happy. I am not happy with results, and neither are the players. We want to do better. The only way to do that is to work well, better than ever. You need to be unhappy.”
Beware of West Brom
Six of the past 22 Premier League managers to be dismissed in mid-season faced West Bromwich Albion in their final league game.
Feb 12, 2012 Mick McCarthy (Wolves); lost 5-1 at home to WBA
Mar 3, 2012 André Villas-Boas (Chelsea); lost 1-0 away
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Nov 17, 2012 Roberto Di Matteo (Chelsea); lost 2-1 away
May 7, 2013 Robert Mancini (Man City); won 1-0 at home
Sept 21, 2013 Paolo Di Canio (Sunderland); lost 3-0 away
Apr 5, 2014 Chris Hughton (Norwich); lost 1-0 at home