Jose Mourinho - The Special One?

Chelsea’s Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho waits for the start of the UEFA Champions League Group E football match against FC Basel at Stamford Bridge in London last night (GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images)

The much hyped and self proclaimed ‘Special One’, Jose Mourinho, has not had the start he would have liked. With his tactics constantly backfiring, he needs to turn things around quickly or he might be in danger of being sacked. It would not be a shock if he gets sacked soon by Roman Abramovich. The Russian billionaire is one of those owners who has never allowed Chelsea managers much breathing space.

Is he still the ‘Special One’?

Getting back to Jose and his tactics, he has not been impressive with his choice of starting 11. Constantly dropping Juan Mata, who has been the best Chelsea player for the last two years, is not what the fans would like, and a Mata-less team is looking cramped in the attacking half of the pitch.

He has been the creator and at the heart of most goals for Chelsea which led to Chelsea winning the UEFA Champions League and Europa League in back-to-back seasons. The style of play that Chelsea have adopted under Jose appears to be a bit more attacking, but it actually only appears so.

It is in fact not attacking football because of the lack of final chances created. To adapt to Jose’s style of play would be difficult for most of Chelsea’s players, who have been playing defensive football for about two years now. Also, Jose has one of the best midfield squads available in Europe and he is not using them properly. This makes the things worse for Chelsea.

Coming to defensive duties, the worst part of the Chelsea defence is David Luiz, who has been picked constantly by Jose Mourinho. Luiz tends to run forward leaving blank spaces in the defensive areas and giving the opponents a chance to counter attack. In the game against Everton, it was a counter attack that cost Chelsea a goal exactly on the stroke of half-time. No doubt it was a brilliant counter from Everton with Steven Naismith grabbing the opportunity with a header from 3 yards. Same goes for the defeat at the hands of FC basel, where a forward run from Luiz and misjudgment from Cahill, led to a brilliant one touch curling effort from Mohammed Salah into the back of the net for an equaliser.

Another tactical disaster was bringing in Demba Ba for Lampard. Lampard could have given Chelsea some hope, but with two goal poachers (Eto’o and Ba) together, it was a difficult task as the player who could have created a goal was off the field.

Now comes The attacking part where he is spoilt for choice. Samuel Eto’o has been a major signing, but that does not mean that Fernando Torres is out of the team. Eto’o was tried against Everton. He was not successful and so Jose could have tried starting the game against FC Basel with Torres or maybe Ba.

Squad rotation needs to be done with the heart and mind; use of the heart will lead to an all-star team which would affect the game because of the personal pride of the players, use of only the mind means you try to play your in-form players with youngsters to give them a chance to grow, which is the case with Jose and it is one that is backfiring badly right now.

A mixture of both means he could have brought the experience of  John Terry with Gary Cahill to strengthen the defence and playing Mata in place of Eden Hazard, because even Hazard needs rest and cannot play every single game. In attack as mentioned, Ba or Torres instead of Eto’o, would have led to a perfect mixture of defence, attack and creative midfield.

Nevertheless, all in all Jose has not sufficed the demands of the fans or the owner of Chelsea. He has not stood up to the tagline of ‘The Special One’ and needs to find the results in the coming games for his team and for the fans.