Global Football Today » Chelsea https://globalfootballtoday.com Sat, 06 Dec 2014 04:19:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1 A Thriller! https://globalfootballtoday.com/a-thriller/ https://globalfootballtoday.com/a-thriller/#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2014 20:05:26 +0000 https://globalfootballtoday.com/?p=8359 https://globalfootballtoday.com/a-thriller/feed/ 0 Chelsea vs Arsenal – London Derby at Stamford Bridge https://globalfootballtoday.com/chelsea-vs-arsenal-london-derby-at-stamford-bridge/ https://globalfootballtoday.com/chelsea-vs-arsenal-london-derby-at-stamford-bridge/#comments Sat, 04 Oct 2014 23:15:24 +0000 https://globalfootballtoday.com/?p=8318 https://globalfootballtoday.com/chelsea-vs-arsenal-london-derby-at-stamford-bridge/feed/ 0 JULY TRANSFER TALK AND TEAM NEWS – CHELSEA FC https://globalfootballtoday.com/july-transfer-talk-and-team-news-chelsea-fc/ https://globalfootballtoday.com/july-transfer-talk-and-team-news-chelsea-fc/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2014 22:22:22 +0000 https://globalfootballtoday.com/?p=8046 https://globalfootballtoday.com/july-transfer-talk-and-team-news-chelsea-fc/feed/ 0 Chelsea Drawing Norwich at Home Epitomizes Their Season https://globalfootballtoday.com/chelsea-drawing-norwich-at-home-epitomizes-season/ https://globalfootballtoday.com/chelsea-drawing-norwich-at-home-epitomizes-season/#comments Mon, 05 May 2014 04:33:37 +0000 https://globalfootballtoday.com/?p=7722 https://globalfootballtoday.com/chelsea-drawing-norwich-at-home-epitomizes-season/feed/ 0 Chelsea Pay The Price of Looking Too Far Ahead https://globalfootballtoday.com/chelsea-pay-the-price-of-looking-too-far-ahead/ https://globalfootballtoday.com/chelsea-pay-the-price-of-looking-too-far-ahead/#comments Wed, 23 Apr 2014 02:12:50 +0000 https://globalfootballtoday.com/?p=7607 https://globalfootballtoday.com/chelsea-pay-the-price-of-looking-too-far-ahead/feed/ 1 So Right, but So Wrong! https://globalfootballtoday.com/so-right-but-so-wrong/ https://globalfootballtoday.com/so-right-but-so-wrong/#comments Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:51:11 +0000 https://globalfootballtoday.com/?p=7123 https://globalfootballtoday.com/so-right-but-so-wrong/feed/ 0 A Mourinho Minute: Diving Un-necessary? https://globalfootballtoday.com/a-mourinho-minute-diving-un-necessary/ https://globalfootballtoday.com/a-mourinho-minute-diving-un-necessary/#comments Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:44:17 +0000 https://globalfootballtoday.com/?guid=ffe33741efbf7bc1e2adfa10d563e7e9

José opened his mouth and out popped sparkly gems and koo-koo nuggets again. What will we ever do without the Portugeyser? Cue the fun-fair music.  "There are no divers at Chelsea," claimed Jose Mourinho in The Telegraph this week despite all points leading back to the fact that his players are being booked for simulation, two in successive matches this past week. The question really isn´t that his players at Chelsea are prone to dive to catch an unwarranted penalty, to get a needed free-kick or to get a trouble-some opponent sent-off, but that we still have people that believe what Mourinho says and not what he really means. There are no divers at Chelsea, but there is certainly diving.

Go back during his infamous Champions League win with FC Porto 10 years ago. Ask some of the opponent´s managers at the time, Javier Irureta of Deportivo La Coruña especially, and see what they have to say about the Speculum One and his player´s tendencies to simulate. It was obvious then, completely understandable at Inter Milan considering it´s Serie A, and anyone who watched any bit of his tenure at Real Madrid with carpet monkeys like Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel di María, couldn´t possibly agree with the man that says his players don´t dive.

They do. They all do. It´s not news. When all you care about is the final score and how many victories or trophies you earn at the end, as Mourinho himself has said about himself, the real surprise is when you hear people feign interest in fair-play and the romance of the game. It is and has always been part of the game. It´s not a foreign import, people dove in the days of Stanley Matthews, just people who have selective memories about ¨good-old-days¨ that never happened.
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José opened his mouth and out popped sparkly gems and koo-koo nuggets again. What will we ever do without the Portugeyser? Cue the fun-fair music.  "There are no divers at Chelsea," claimed Jose Mourinho in The Telegraph this week despite all points leading back to the fact that his players are being booked for simulation, two in successive matches this past week. The question really isn´t that his players at Chelsea are prone to dive to catch an unwarranted penalty, to get a needed free-kick or to get a trouble-some opponent sent-off, but that we still have people that believe what Mourinho says and not what he really means. There are no divers at Chelsea, but there is certainly diving.

Go back during his infamous Champions League win with FC Porto 10 years ago. Ask some of the opponent´s managers at the time, Javier Irureta of Deportivo La Coruña especially, and see what they have to say about the Speculum One and his player´s tendencies to simulate. It was obvious then, completely understandable at Inter Milan considering it´s Serie A, and anyone who watched any bit of his tenure at Real Madrid with carpet monkeys like Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel di María, couldn´t possibly agree with the man that says his players don´t dive.

They do. They all do. It´s not news. When all you care about is the final score and how many victories or trophies you earn at the end, as Mourinho himself has said about himself, the real surprise is when you hear people feign interest in fair-play and the romance of the game. It is and has always been part of the game. It´s not a foreign import, people dove in the days of Stanley Matthews, just people who have selective memories about ¨good-old-days¨ that never happened.
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]]> https://globalfootballtoday.com/a-mourinho-minute-diving-un-necessary/feed/ 0 A Mourinho Minute: There´s Nothing the Mata https://globalfootballtoday.com/a-mourinho-minute-theres-nothing-the-mata/ https://globalfootballtoday.com/a-mourinho-minute-theres-nothing-the-mata/#comments Mon, 23 Sep 2013 21:30:01 +0000 https://globalfootballtoday.com/?guid=1b7fd7538f9a0c2bdfa6ed184f7c3da2
Last week´s Champions League game at Stamford Bridge was a rare moment for the club and the man who has coached them. The home loss to FC Basel was an embarrassment surely, but considered with a lackluster loss to Everton last weekend, this is looking very much like how Mourinho´s first term at the helm ended: tactical errrors, mistakes in squad selection and an overly cautious managerial style.

In light of that disappointment José threw out his template before this weekend´s match against Fulham. Instead of the usual tactics session and set-pieces he relieved the pressure with some informal handball and basketball games to build team-work and cooperation. Mourinho was happy with the results, but he is well aware of the pressure that any coach who works for Roman Abramamovich is under. It´s why he´s been so defensive in interviews this week.
¨I didn´t like the way Chelsea were playing in the last couple of years. The club doesn´t like it. We want to change. We have players with profile to change. We want a different style. The past is history...The easiest thing for a new manager is to arrive and not to change, to go in the same direction, or keep something and buy a couple of players better than you had previously...If someone expects me to play with nine behind the ball waiting for Fulham to make a mistake, to score on the counter and go home happy with three points I´m not going in that direction...I don´t want a low block with long ball to a only striker. I don´t want central defenders in midfield. We must have better results. We are not the kind of club to wait years for a team. Football is not magic. Tomorrow maybe we win 3-0 and it becomes perfect. Maybe we lose and it becomes a big story.¨
If you read between the lines you can see what his impression is of his new/old club. He wants well rounded players who can defend certainly, but that are comfortable on the ball and are tactically sound. With Mourinho it isn´t about style (no matter what he says in interviews) rather it´s more about effectiveness. His template is what it is and has been all along, not just since the Porto days or his time as Sir Bobby Robson´s number two, but since the days helping his manager father set up cones in Portugal.

It´s why his so-called ¨treatment¨ of Juan Mata is nothing spectacularly out of the ordinary despite what the press are making it out to be. It isn´t even personal. In Mourinho´s football there is no room for fantasistas, players like Mata who can´t or won´t contribute to playing that high-line of pressure and transitioning quickly in attack. Mata works best in space and with time on the ball, and there´s no time for that at the pace that José wants to play the game. It´s why Oscar is his ¨number 10.¨ Oscar puts more pressure quickly on opposing defenders in that space between them than Mata does.

Sure, Juan Mata has been their most outstanding player over the last two years but people called me crazy when I mentioned in an earlier post after Mourinho was re-hired at Chelsea that Mata would be shipped out sooner rather than later. I reminded them that José could have had Mata at Madrid years ago. Valencia CF were keen on capitalizing on Florentino Perez´s open checkbook, but José preferred others. It wasn´t bias or an anti-Spanish bent as the press liked to characterize it. Neither he, David Silva, nor David Villa were ever the sort of player, the muscular, athletic and physical sort, that Mourinho prefers for his brand of football.

It doesn´t mean that Mata doesn´t have a place in England, nor even on the squad really, but to expect a full Spanish International to change his game to suit Mourinho´s wishes at this point in his career just isn´t feasible. Mata will go to another club that suits his needs, probably in January and probably in Spain whether on loan or sold outright. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are always an option, but Atletico Madrid seem the likelier destination; they wanted Diego Ribas back from Wolfsburg but Mata is younger and far more talented a player in that same mold. Chelsea on the other hand can buy a player to hold the line up front and they have plenty of creativity on the wing to make up for Mata.
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Last week´s Champions League game at Stamford Bridge was a rare moment for the club and the man who has coached them. The home loss to FC Basel was an embarrassment surely, but considered with a lackluster loss to Everton last weekend, this is looking very much like how Mourinho´s first term at the helm ended: tactical errrors, mistakes in squad selection and an overly cautious managerial style.

In light of that disappointment José threw out his template before this weekend´s match against Fulham. Instead of the usual tactics session and set-pieces he relieved the pressure with some informal handball and basketball games to build team-work and cooperation. Mourinho was happy with the results, but he is well aware of the pressure that any coach who works for Roman Abramamovich is under. It´s why he´s been so defensive in interviews this week.
¨I didn´t like the way Chelsea were playing in the last couple of years. The club doesn´t like it. We want to change. We have players with profile to change. We want a different style. The past is history...The easiest thing for a new manager is to arrive and not to change, to go in the same direction, or keep something and buy a couple of players better than you had previously...If someone expects me to play with nine behind the ball waiting for Fulham to make a mistake, to score on the counter and go home happy with three points I´m not going in that direction...I don´t want a low block with long ball to a only striker. I don´t want central defenders in midfield. We must have better results. We are not the kind of club to wait years for a team. Football is not magic. Tomorrow maybe we win 3-0 and it becomes perfect. Maybe we lose and it becomes a big story.¨
If you read between the lines you can see what his impression is of his new/old club. He wants well rounded players who can defend certainly, but that are comfortable on the ball and are tactically sound. With Mourinho it isn´t about style (no matter what he says in interviews) rather it´s more about effectiveness. His template is what it is and has been all along, not just since the Porto days or his time as Sir Bobby Robson´s number two, but since the days helping his manager father set up cones in Portugal.

It´s why his so-called ¨treatment¨ of Juan Mata is nothing spectacularly out of the ordinary despite what the press are making it out to be. It isn´t even personal. In Mourinho´s football there is no room for fantasistas, players like Mata who can´t or won´t contribute to playing that high-line of pressure and transitioning quickly in attack. Mata works best in space and with time on the ball, and there´s no time for that at the pace that José wants to play the game. It´s why Oscar is his ¨number 10.¨ Oscar puts more pressure quickly on opposing defenders in that space between them than Mata does.

Sure, Juan Mata has been their most outstanding player over the last two years but people called me crazy when I mentioned in an earlier post after Mourinho was re-hired at Chelsea that Mata would be shipped out sooner rather than later. I reminded them that José could have had Mata at Madrid years ago. Valencia CF were keen on capitalizing on Florentino Perez´s open checkbook, but José preferred others. It wasn´t bias or an anti-Spanish bent as the press liked to characterize it. Neither he, David Silva, nor David Villa were ever the sort of player, the muscular, athletic and physical sort, that Mourinho prefers for his brand of football.

It doesn´t mean that Mata doesn´t have a place in England, nor even on the squad really, but to expect a full Spanish International to change his game to suit Mourinho´s wishes at this point in his career just isn´t feasible. Mata will go to another club that suits his needs, probably in January and probably in Spain whether on loan or sold outright. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are always an option, but Atletico Madrid seem the likelier destination; they wanted Diego Ribas back from Wolfsburg but Mata is younger and far more talented a player in that same mold. Chelsea on the other hand can buy a player to hold the line up front and they have plenty of creativity on the wing to make up for Mata.
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]]> https://globalfootballtoday.com/a-mourinho-minute-theres-nothing-the-mata/feed/ 0 #20 https://globalfootballtoday.com/20/ https://globalfootballtoday.com/20/#comments Mon, 26 Aug 2013 01:06:20 +0000 https://globalfootballtoday.com/?p=6453 https://globalfootballtoday.com/20/feed/ 0 Shameless on the field of Our Dreams! https://globalfootballtoday.com/shameless-on-the-field-of-our-dreams/ https://globalfootballtoday.com/shameless-on-the-field-of-our-dreams/#comments Wed, 08 May 2013 18:55:03 +0000 https://globalfootballtoday.com/?p=5787 https://globalfootballtoday.com/shameless-on-the-field-of-our-dreams/feed/ 1