Boss Mourinho admits selection mistake
Jose Mourinho has admitted he may have been wrong to make only two changes for Chelsea’s hard-fought win against Aston Villa.
Mourinho replaced Fernando Torres with Demba Ba up front, while Juan Mata returned to the starting line-up.
The Blues boss opted against further changes following Sunday’s victory over Hull and felt that may have been a factor in his team’s ragged second-half display against a Villa side who caused plenty of problems.
“Maybe my decision of not making many changes – only two – was not the best,” said Mourinho.
“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.”
Romelu Lukaku was one of the players introduced in the second half as the manager looked to bring Chelsea’s forward line to life.
Torres, meanwhile, was left out of the matchday squad altogether.
Mourinho explained: “Sometimes you can have two strikers on the bench but for this game I needed a different balance on the bench.
“I thought maybe I would have to play Cesar Azpilicueta, as he is very fast, if Villa played the counter attack, and that we might need Mikel’s experience in midfield.
“I also knew I needed options in terms of wingers because Juan Mata could not play 90 minutes yet.
“So Torres was the one who stayed off, but then Lukaku can say that he’s the only striker who hasn’t started [this season].”
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23/08/2013 @ 12:44 pm
please Jose, what you should understand is that lamps can’t play 90 min when we have might mikel on bench.the other option is to use Oscar and rami in holding and mata ,hazard kelvin and lukaku up in front
23/08/2013 @ 10:53 am
Wos da yank, you just spoke my mind we Chelsea Fans should throw sentiment away and say the facts, mourinho’s Chelsea is getting boring to watch. I thought Di matteo and Benitez puts Chelsea fc on the right track, I love mourinho he is a great coach but sentiment apart using Frank lampad in place of this budding talents we have is crazy benching David Luiz for Terry is crazy as well. I believe mourinho coming may mean well if he follows the right part of continuity. Carlos the Real marid coach is benching Ike Casilla even after mourinho left because of continuity. Chelsea is not a team someone will just come to build from the scratch, Di matteo and Benitez have already laid a good foundation. A wise man without bride will follow that foundation to succeed. No sentiment.
23/08/2013 @ 10:18 am
@easy good one..in ma own perspective I strongly believe chelsea can’t win manu without good mildfielder..Mikel Is a great passer of d ball no doubt about it..Lampard Is nt growin younger again..we need Mikel against manu in order 4 Ramires to move upfront..Team chalsea goooooooooooooooo
23/08/2013 @ 10:10 am
Mou we thank u 4 realising ur mistks, pls start Lukaku 4 us and nt Ba nor Torres, pls sel Ba to Roma and go for Rooney or Martines. And pls Lampard can’t start our game he is gud a player but he nid 2 rest at old age, he misdirect our passes 2much, pls bring Essien or Mikel to play wit Ramires there very strong in midfiled, and giv Cahill warning to stop playing backward football we dnt lyk dat partern. Thank u. Up bluez 4 life.
23/08/2013 @ 7:19 am
Please sale mikel!please sale mikel!lol…u now see d important of mikel?i bet u if u don’t play mikel against us man u5:chelsea2..biased as u always cry,plastic chelsit fans if mikel don’t play overlaping Ramirez will hold my Vanpersie or ur racist captain never.then go back to ur cv and reason well.
23/08/2013 @ 6:57 am
Plzz d happy one enough of dis test running we been on d tour for preseason which is enough to know there ability pls stop usin lampard for starting eleven is just dulling d mieldfield even to d extent ramires cant gget himself we know d kind of creativity he has nothing has show just dull d attacking even van ginkel wuld av been a better option In place of lampard personally am not freak abt d goal he used to score we can see against hullcity dat he lost penalty what will av gave to torres to boost his morale and give sense of belongings pls greater match ahead do something
23/08/2013 @ 6:48 am
Am so glad that my only happy one admit his mistake, that shown’s how quality manager you are, am really wondering and worried while MOU is not introducing MIKEL into our game, presently now it really obviously that their’s no stability 4 role that can stand against MIKEL in ENGLAND also a passer, pressure has been on RAMIREZ,pls MOU kindly look into this situation so we can be able to meet up on our mission EPL CROWN
23/08/2013 @ 6:37 am
I can see that the pple dat r gud analysts are the three commenders bifor me. those who r bussy talking about lukaku being enough have entered into error. Ba & Torres r the first then lukaku. mour shld learn frm benitez technique of play and stop kidding himself in the media always. i hv not seen any sign of succes yet. mour am tired of ur old pattern it doest wrk in nowadays futbal. Pls graduate like fergie.
23/08/2013 @ 6:30 am
attackin is better dan defendin .n dats beautiful futball,mou i believe his stil sturdin his players n hw dey fit in togeda wit d tempo of epl…am ok wit d defence line..harzard,oskar n moses are very sharp frm wings,lukaku shuld b upfront al d tim he has d potencials of bn a lone striker.torres a supersub anytime,mikel,ramires n mata shuld b in midle,wen u play mikel,ur wingrs get even shaper,we nid lamp experience,but nt nintymin..shud b rotate wit lamp..d GENERAL TAKE NOTE.go chelsea
23/08/2013 @ 5:56 am
Thankgod mourinho admit his early mistakes against aston villa, is better for mourinho to give mikel chance in the midfield, lampard and ramires did not work well to maintained our possesion, i think next game mourinho will start with mikel in the midfield and cesar to play rightback lukaku to attack..
23/08/2013 @ 12:29 am
against man u
———————————————CECH—————————————————-
—–AZPILICUETA———-CAHILL——————LUIZ——————–COLE———-
—————————-RAMIRES——————————OSCAR————————–
——–DE BRUYNE———————MATA——————————–HAZARD——–
————————————————–TORRES————————————————
23/08/2013 @ 12:25 am
Didn’t Lukaku score 3 v united last season?
Play Romelu, Mou, please…
23/08/2013 @ 12:10 am
Mou’s biggest mistake was playing Lampard.
22/08/2013 @ 9:24 pm
Czech azpl-cahil-luiz-cole mikel-ginkel HAZARD-KELVIN-RAMIRES LUKAKU shld start nxt game,then bring in OSCAR-MATA-TORESS>ginkel kelvin lukaku out
22/08/2013 @ 9:17 pm
playing mikel and remires in midfield,lukaku and torres in striking, i guess is a perfect combination for us against man-u ,where remires can easily move upfront 2 return for mikel who will always b there 2 retard the tempo of there attacks as he handles d ball with more of caution, distributes his passes comfortably. our defence-line against villa made sense 2 me.
22/08/2013 @ 8:29 pm
Mour shld b sensible, using mikel is very important as well as moses. ba is good , he is a team player. more physical and very intelligent. lampard does’t worth every match first startin lineup. In serious matches i need to see mikel, oscar, ramires, de bruyne or mata, hazard , Ba, then lukaku or torres in secnd half if we’ll make succes this season. mour i will never take any excuse frm u cos u have all it takes in d midfld.
22/08/2013 @ 8:12 pm
plz jose mourinho start mikel and use mata in midle let hazard play in the wing
22/08/2013 @ 7:18 pm
AM GLAD YOU ADMITTED YOUR MISTAKES YOU SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT IN MIKEL OR ESSIEN TO STABLE THE MIDFIELD PLAYING.
22/08/2013 @ 6:57 pm
TORRES IS BETTER THAN BA AND LUKAKU SO WE ALWAYS WANT TO SEE HIM STARTING
22/08/2013 @ 6:49 pm
Its funny to me that a not single chelsea on any site I’ve read has mentioned jose tactics in the villa match. He clearly directed the plays to play quick, long balls to ba. His idea was to bypass the most talented front 3 attacking midfielders in the game to feed a forward who hasn’t done much of anything since his arrival. I wanted to be a fly on the wall near roman…he had to be furious about that. We may have had more possession…but most of it was amongst the back 6. We are a far fry from the side that dismantled spurs early last year under di matteo. Yes…we will win more games under Jose. Probably more trophies too. But under di matteo we saw the quest for beautiful, attacking football start to come good. Now we are boring as hell. I just don’t see how this works long term. How many of you would be willing to put up large amounts of cash betting jose even last the term of his contract? I know this isn’t popular to say…but the moment jose delivers titkes again…roman will remember what he really wants…beautiful football…this isn’t it.
22/08/2013 @ 6:16 pm
Is only Mourinho can identify his mistake. The general.
22/08/2013 @ 5:36 pm
would willen winger been good for chelsea the is still thinking about options why just go for rooney buy a few more players come on chelsea
22/08/2013 @ 4:35 pm
Honestly speaking mourinho should have played mikel in the midfield so that Hazard, oscar, Ramires will push villa back. And Lukaku and Torres (4-4-2). Chelsea beat united 3 times last season with this players. Jose slay man utd no mercy please. This is the time to correct every plans you have.
22/08/2013 @ 4:20 pm
Essien shld start becos he always let strikes score with this quike passes,lampand too slow and dnt like quike passes-lukaku shld play the least 35 or 30 mins.Ba shld go OR loan,bring in J martinez/Rooney/Eto–mikel go,fellane in.Thn we have perfect team.
22/08/2013 @ 4:10 pm
Am wondering what jose is doing without mikel.
22/08/2013 @ 3:45 pm
Striker na striker
22/08/2013 @ 3:40 pm
The special one should be careful, in other not to make mistakes, lampard does not deserve to play two games in a role and we have mikel on the bench, why? Chelsea midfield should be remires and mikel, then lukaku up front
22/08/2013 @ 3:37 pm
Jose made a mistake by starting ba ahead of lukaku. Look within that short period that lukaku entered he create many chances than ba. Pls special one start this guy against man utd n you wil see what wil happen.
22/08/2013 @ 3:29 pm
It will interest all of u to know that mou is trying to figure out his 1st 11,so starting ba was neva a mistake.the role of a coach is to correct u for a beta tomorrow if u make mistake today n mou will do that for ba.PRE SEASON IS PRE SEASON AND EPL IS EPL.
22/08/2013 @ 2:10 pm
Morinhou must know, that is only lukaku wil have upfront and others like ba n toress are waist and so, he should buy rooney or jackson martinez with £40m or £45m before the week run off.
To sharpen the attack
22/08/2013 @ 12:26 pm
Lukaku is more reliable upfront than Torres and Ba, kudos to Villa defenders to help stop him scoring within the few minutes he had yestaday. In addition, like I have said before, I only hope Mourinho will not allow sentiment to cost chelsea some important matches. Lampard was not energetic enough to deal with Villa players yestaday and yet he played another 90mins of game again. By Lampard’s age he need to player at least a week intervals. He is not a young Lampard we know before and no wonder he keep wasting many passes and Hazard efforts.
22/08/2013 @ 10:27 am
Jose’s MAIN mistake was to start the game with Ba and not Lukaku. The Belgian youngster did more in his cameo appearance than Ba did for his entire two thirds of the game. This has been a surprise to Chelsea fans as Lukaku has been Chelsea’s best striker in pre season yet not given a start in either Premiership game so far. It has not gone unnoticed that Chelsea have played two games and scored 4 goals without one of those goals being scored by a striker. C’mon Jose and give Lukaku the shirt against United as the other two don’t even look like scoring!