After September wins over Maccabi Tel Aviv and London rivals Arsenal, many thought that Chelsea had turned a corner and were back on track after a tricky start to the season.

Those thoughts have since been dashed as the current English Premier League champions have slumped back into crisis mode and a draw away to Newcastle United was followed up with losses to FC Porto and at home to Southampton.

After the 3-1 defeat to ‘The Saints’, Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho went on Sky Sports to give a bizarre interview in which he criticised the officials and almost goaded his own board to sack him if they thought he wasn’t up to the job at Stamford Bridge,

The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ was once thought of as being untouchable for much of his time in charge at Chelsea but that time seems to have passed, even staunch Chelsea supporters have started to question the Portuguese boss and his immediate future.

I think Jose needs to stop moaning and complaining about everything.

So far this term he’s criticised his players, the referees and other teams. It has been constant and his whole sullen demeanour seems to have a negative impact on his club.

The Eva Carneiro saga has certainly affected him and his side. It has caused a wound that looks far from healed. That along with his constant jabs at his own players makes it harder for the team to come together and develop that siege mentality that Jose is famous for.

It’s almost as if Mourinho has been negatively affected by his time at Real Madrid and can no longer trust his players to be fully committed to his cause and now believes he needs to use mind games to get the best out of them. That’s worrying!

After the international break Jose Mourinho needs to return to Chelsea’s Cobham training ground with a big smile on his face and ready to trust his players again. He needs to improve squad morale and give a few of his key players a huge hug and start afresh.

The fact is Jose is right, the players haven’t been performing this term and have looked disinterested at times. The fact that they lie in sixteenth place tells you all you need to know. But instead of kicking them when they are down he needs to bring everyone back up and get them believing in themselves again. That should hopefully see players like Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard return to top consistent form.

Centre-back Gary Cahill has come out stating that the players are all behind the coach but they need to prove that on the pitch!

The manager also needs to work out his best eleven and stick with it.

Obviously injuries may hamper things on that front but his backbone has to be settled upon.

I actually agree that the defence needs to be built around youngster Kurt Zouma but I’d have him in beside club captain John Terry more often than not. I’d also give Branislav Ivanovic a bigger break from the first-team set-up and give Baba Rahman a chance in the Premier League (Ivanovic’s international injury may help that).

One or two big buys in January could help things but things need to improve vastly before then.

After the Southampton loss, Jose said:

“I am not running away from my responsibilities or my team.”

That’s all very well Mr Mourinho but the truth is that you need to get your team preforming to a standard that is expected of them.

But for those changes to happen I think Mourinho has to change back to the happy Jose that we remember from his first stint at Chelsea. Can he see that the past may be the best thing for his sides future? Only time will tell!

Posted on October 11th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article