Jose Mourinho claims he has been 'betrayed' by his players
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has criticised his players after their uninspiring performance against table-toppers Leicester City on Monday night. The Portuguese rued the failure of his side to ‘carry out instructions’ and also claimed that he felt like his work was ‘betrayed’.
Jamie Vardy and Riyadh Mahrez scored on either side of the halftime whistle for the Foxes before substitute Loic Remy reduced the deficit late in the match. But it was not enough to save his team from defeat as Leicester ran out 2-1 winners.
This was the ninth defeat for the London-based club in sixteen matches in the League and they lie just one point off the relegation zone. The Portuguese tactician was clearly upset after the defeat but remained hopeful that he will be allowed to stay with the club.
“The only thing I can say is that I want to be. I have no doubts and I think you know me well enough, three years this time, plus three years another time, that I am not afraid of a big challenge, and in this moment this is a real big challenge. I want to stay, I hope Mr Abramovich and the board want me to stay.”
Chelsea on same level as Watford, Sunderland: Mourinho
The outspoken manager was particularly critical about his players and went on to say that they should not think of themselves as superstars and compared his team to the likes of Sunderland and Watford. However, Watford currently lie in seventh position and have ten points more than Chelsea as of now.
“I don’t think in this moment they can feel they are top players or they can feel they are superstars. They have to look at the Leicester boys and to feel these are the stars, these are the top players.”
“They have to look to Sunderland and Watford and say: ‘We are at the same level. I am not the superstar, I am not the player of the season, I am not the world champion, I am not the Premier League champion. At this moment, I am at your level.’”
Mourinho pointed out that he instructed his players about how to counter the attacking threat of Leicester, but the players did not pay heed to his warnings and the result is another loss.
“I feel my work is betrayed,” he said.
“I worked four days in training for this match. I identified four movements where Leicester score a lot of their goals and in two of the four situations, I identified they scored their goals. I went through it all with the players, you can ask them.”
The Portuguese manager did not stop there, he added: "It’s hard because all last season I did phenomenal work and brought these players to a level they aren’t really at. This season it has been so difficult to do what we did (last season) because some of the players, and it's not all of them because that's not fair on some of my players, aren't (performing).”