EPL: Mourinho needs a new Chelsea

Friday 02 May 2014
Chelsea’s Brazilian David Luiz does not
have complete command of the English
language but it did not take him long to
identify the word he needed on
Wednesday night to describe what it
means for his club not to win a trophy
this season.
“We are a big club and we want to win
trophies,” Luiz said. “But the most
important thing is the personalities. We
need to fight in many situations. This is
sport, this is football. Everyone speaks
about results. You can say it is a shit
season if you don’t have trophies in a
season at a big club, that is true.
“But in the end you need to remember
everyone here is human. Everyone gave
their best all season, everyone can make
mistakes – that is normal. But you cannot
hide yourself from any situations.”
The situation that faces Chelsea for the
first time since the 2010-11 season, Luiz’s
first at the club, is going without a
trophy unless they manage to wrest the
league title away from Manchester City
and Liverpool. It is an unlikely scenario
but not implausible, although Chelsea
need others to drop points.
A summer without a trophy at Stamford
Bridge always feels dangerous for the
manager, and in his three years there
Luiz has seen Carlo Ancelotti, Andre
Villas-Boas and Roberto Di Matteo leave –
not to mention Rafa Benitez – having won
four major trophies between them. For
Jose Mourinho, though, there will be
more patience from the ever-so-slightly
demanding Roman Abramovich.
In the 3-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid on
Wednesday night, Chelsea performed like
a side who had played three big games in
nine days and had very little left to give,
although Mourinho’s strange insistence
that the game was over after Atletico’s
second goal rang a little hollow given
there were 32 minutes remaining to score
two goals at home.
Yet if this is to be a season in which
Mourinho does not win a trophy then at
least his predictions at the start of the
season – of a young team that needed to
be coached and would be ready to
challenge in the following campaign – will
be proven true.
He has said all along that he expects to be
judged on his second season at the club,
when the squad will be built more to his
requirements than the one he inherited.
Mats Daehli is the kind of hardworking player
Mourinho likes and would qualify as home-
grown (Getty Images)
It is instructive that Chelsea are looking
at the Cardiff City midfielder Mats Daehli,
signed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from his
former club Molde in January, as a
potential signing. The Norwegian teenager
is the kind of hard-working midfielder
Mourinho rates highly and the club
believes his time spent previously at the
Manchester United academy would mean
he qualifies as home-grown.
The home-grown issue is a key one for
Chelsea as they assess the profile of the
squad this summer with the futures of
Frank Lampard, John Terry and Ashley
Cole in the balance. While one or even all
could be retained, Chelsea need to
increase their home-grown quotient
having been forced to name 23 rather
than 25 in their Premier League squad
because of a shortfall in home-grown
players.
Otherwise, it is obvious which direction
Mourinho is going. Willian, Eden Hazard,
Oscar, Marco van Ginkel, André Schürrle,
Tomas Kalas, Mohamed Salah, Thibaut
Courtois and Kurt Zouma, the signing
from St Etienne, are a new core of
hardworking Mourinho-istas who will
execute their coach’s instructions to the
letter. Romelu Lukaku was in the crowd
at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night
but it is by no means clear whether he
will return next season.
As for the more senior players, Gary
Cahill has had another fine season and
the likes of Ramires, Branislav Ivanovic,
Nemanja Matic and Cesar Azpilicueta are
all well-established with extensive
Premier League experience. The signing of
a striker, most likely Diego Costa from
Atletico, will give this squad Mourinho’s
imprint.
“It is football,” Luiz said after defeat to
Atletico. “We need to be men [about it],
it is not always possible to win. The
season we won it [the Champions League
in 2012] was a shit season until the end
and then we won two titles. We keep
fighting in the league. We cannot win
automatically, it will be difficult.”
It will be intriguing to see this summer
what the future holds for Luiz, after
another unconvincing performance
against Atletico. Mourinho is gradually
getting rid of all those he feels are not
compatible with his master plan.