Things Jose Mourinho should do to improve Chelsea

Jose Mourinho’s homecoming to Stamford Bridge has set the pulses of Blues fans racing, and the start of the Barclay’s Premier League couldn’t come any sooner. But as the pre-season draws ever so near, Jose will have his hands full, and would know that his reputation will be at stake under the watchful eyes of Roman Abrahimovic. Below, we take a look at some major points Mourinho will have to tackle, as his second regime at the Bridge gathers momentum-

Compile loan report for the squad.

Considering that the players loaned out by the Blues have performed well, Jose needs to sort out which players deserve to be in the squad, which ones need more exposure and which ones need to be sold. For example, Romelu Lukaku has had a fruitful loan spell at West Bromwich Albion, while Kevin De Bruyne has been garnering attention with his showings at Werder Bremen. Josh McEachran began strongly with Middlesbrough, and young Lucas Piazon has also featured regularly (4 starts, 7 substitute appearances) for Malaga. Michael Essien is an important player marking his return from a loan spell at Real Madrid where he played under Mourinho, and Nathaniel Chalobah has also benefitted from playing under the tutelage of Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola at Watford. All these players need to be assessed in the pre-season, after which Mourinho must make his pick. For example, Lucas Piazon would greatly benefit with another loan spell at Malaga or any other first division side, so would other starlets like Thorgen Hazard, Ruben Loftus Cheek, and Nathaniel Chalobah amongst others. Josh McEachran’s role, though, remains a mystery and Jose will have to decide whether to keep him or sell him altogether.

Solve the midfield crisis.

Although, Rafa Benitez rotated Chelsea’s attacking midfield options to deal with fatigue during an exhausting 69 game season (Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Oscar, Victor Moses and Ryan Bertrand), Chelsea were found wanting in the central midfield department. With Oriol Romeu sidelined with a long term injury and Jon Obi Mikel falling out of favour, Ramires and Frank Lampard were the only recognised midfield options available to Benitez, who improvised by using David Luiz in the middle. But with Frank Lampard approaching 35 and the lack of a proper defensive midfielder, Mourinho should look to add a little steel, preferably a ball-winning midfielder to distribute to the attacking trio. Corinthians’ Paulinho and Everton’s Marouane Fellaini are both good options to look at, but with strong interest from Inter for Paulinho and with multiple suitors for Fellaini, Jose must act fast or risk losing out on strong contenders. Bringing Xabi Alonso or Sami Khedira would make sense too, provided Mourinho can lure them (how hard can that be for him?)