Jose Mourinho, the most successful manager in Chelsea’s history has been sacked by the club. The club had been underperforming for a long time now and average less than a point a game in the league with them perilously hanging just a point over the relegation zone. So what went so terribly wrong for the champions who were widely expected to win if not challenge for the title again?
1. Pre-season was a mess
Chelsea had set a couple of post season matches in Bangkok and Sydney for the team almost immediately after the season in which they performed miserably and were then given a long break halfway into the International Champions Cup. Again, Chelsea lost only one match against the NYRB second team but won against Barca and PSG on penalties but it was abundantly clear that Chelsea were underperforming with players looking sloppy in possession and heavy in general, with their movement lacking pace and the burst of power as usually expected from these players.
It was expected that this sluggishness would soon be wiped away as the season progressed but it was only a precursor to the real storm which was about to break out. Chelsea failed to turn up in any of their further matches against Fiorentina and co and Mourinho also famously lost his first match to Wenger in the Community Shield.
2. Disappointing Transfer Window
The alarm signs were there in the back end of the previous season as Chelsea struggled but huffed and puffed their way to the title solely on the brilliance of Eden Hazard. The board should’ve stood up and taken notice at the obvious lack of form of many players along with the ages of squad members and should’ve made smart decisions instead of picking up liabilities like Radamel Falcao, Papy Djilobodji and missing out on key targets like John Stones. A key area for improvement was the midfield where Chelsea were missing any sort of quality replacements for Fabregas, Matic and Ramires.
The striking position was also in dire need of refurbishment considering Diego Costa had been out of form for quite a long stretch. The most disappointing failure was to buy a right back considering Ivanovic was nearing the end of his time with Chelsea, if not retiring and except him there was only Cesar Azpilicueta who could play there. Azpi himself was the first choice left back and Baba Rahman came in as backup but 3 players for two positions was desperately understrength for an aging defence. The Stones acquisition would have been ideal but a proper replacement should have been kept in mind instead of failing as spectacularly as Chelsea did. Questions must be raised about Emenalo and co.’s performance over the summer considering the utter farcical transfer window endured by the club.
3. The Carneiro row
In the very first match of the season, Mourinho picked up a fight with Eva Carneiro and this completely rocked the dressing room as it was widely believed that she was actually performing her duties just as she should. It got even more intense after Mourinho refused to apologise and further relegated Carneiro to the backroom duties. Facing such a precedent and utter humiliation, Eva resigned and has lodged a CAS case against Chelsea and the ex-manager for mistreatment which is due for hearing the next year.
4. Cech sale and Courtois injury
In one of the most sensational transfers of all times Chelsea legend Petr Cech moved to the Emirates, a move which was against Mourinho’s wishes but was given the green light by Roman Abramovic. Chelsea in exchange bought Asmir Begovic who was a great goalkeeper in his own right but was not anywhere near the class of Courtois and Cech, especially while collecting crosses and as soon as Courtois received a red and sustained an injury later, it was clear that to hurt Chelsea, teams need to take advantage of the absence of Courtois. Crosses after crosses were drilled into the Chelsea box and with no leadership and communication at the back, it was a common sight to see Chelsea concede from them. Begovic has made some great saved but his only weakness, compounded by the fact that Chelsea’s defence has been at its worst in the past decade combined into misery for the team.
5. Loss of form of key players
As soon as Chelsea took to the pitch for the first time, it was abundantly clear that some players were spectacularly out of form. As many as 8 key players (Diego Costa, Eden Hazard, Oscar, Matic, Fabregas, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Remy, Falcao) were utter failures this season. Any club with such a massive loss of form in its key players would struggle mightily but what was appalling was that it never seemed to improve. Form is something which requires all the right conditions but what is required first is hard work, what we saw week after week in Chelsea’s matches was that players gave up easily.
Costa was pressing randomly, not making runs and often coming out to the wings leaving the tiny attacking 3 of Chelsea in a quandary.
Eden was completely out of shape and was extremely sluggish, losing that quick turn, those twinkle feet which left defenders confounded. Combined with his less than half-hearted tracking back, it was infuriating to watch for a Chelsea fan. Oscar was playing well as the link up man, which is his role, but failed to score goals as often as his position would suggest, which is not his actual role as per Mourinho’s vision of a number 10. Considering his talent, he has to be deemed as a failure this past half season even though he did what was asked of him decently enough.
Matic and Fabregas lacked creativity, lacked in defensive cover for Terry and co and failed to work as a double pivot due to random positioning and lack of will in their game. Ivanovic, Terry and Cahill were the most disappointing of the bunch considering that they were three quarters of the same defence that let in absolutely nothing once it shut the doors just the previous season. Failing to intercept, failing to block shots, failing to win header, failing to block crosses and panicking like headless chicken as soon as the ball even crossed the halfway line on a counter.
Remy and Falcao were expected to chip in their fair share but failed too as Mourinho would later have to put Eden as the number 9 to make sure proper movement upfront was restored.
6. Defensive Failures
The Chelsea defence was well drilled last season, almost impenetrable once it shut shop but this season Chelsea have failed in containing opponent defences more often than not. Most common of them was letting in crosses from each and every possible angle possible at the centre backs, who in turn failed to contain them and gave away cheap goals via headers and first time finishes. Another huge failure was the susceptibility to opponent overloads. Chelsea simply failed in such situations. Crystal Palace, Leicester, Southampton, Everton, Porto.. the list goes on and on. All they needed to do was to commit 4 players or more in their attack and there was almost a two in three chance that it ended up with a shot on target. With even decent finishing, any team could simply slice through Chelsea. Most worrying was the set piece department in which Chelsea simply failed to control the balls floated in. Ayoze Perez’s goal at St. James’ park is a shining example of his failure.
7. Attacking Failures
The most striking part about Mourinho’s teams is that they score goals from situations in which they almost certainly should score and more importantly, doesn’t require anything flashy. All the players needed to do was to attack the space the opponents didn’t cover and soon enough you get a goal. But in possession, they look equally impotent. No movement in the box at all. A surprising refrain from crossing. An even more surprising refrain from making simple runs which might result in a sure shot goal. It was depressing and infuriating. Chelsea players have been extremely lazy over this season and with their wages, it is no short of a scandal. Combine this with Costa’s antics on the bench, Hazard’s resentment to track back, Fabregas’ best impressions in looking like a fluff board in defence and Oscar’s generally low scoring style of play and we had extremely frustrated Chelsea fans. This was not a friendly match against a friend’s team, this was the biggest stage of all, the English Premier League and still the players were so careless it hurt.
8. Appalling Refereeing
Ever since Ramires fell down against West Brom in the season before last, the refereeing in Chelsea has never been same. The huge controversy created by the media out of spite was embarrassing and it has clearly affected the minds of referees across the nation. Simple and obvious decisions are miscalled and even innocent actions are misjudged. Worse still, tackles like the one Ashley Barnes made on Matic last season and Naismith on Ivanovic go unpunished. The country needs better refereeing and like any field of work, when the results are not up to the mark, the employees need to be reprimanded. Instead the dictatorial FA fail to control any such results and simply insult their own power with such disappointing actions.
9. Mourinho’s Outbursts
Mourinho has been on the edge this season, it is very clear and it often leads to outbursts which are unprecedented even by his standards. Publicly criticising players, then Carneiro, then taking a dig at the board, then criticising the referees, then attacking the media, then the FA, then the players again and so on, it led to a very toxic atmosphere in the dressing room and in the end was too much to handle.
Mourinho leaves Chelsea with his reputation damaged but his pride intact and will always be a legend at the Bridge. He was at fault at for a lot of things over the season but after watching any Chelsea match, it will be very clear that players have actually let him down, simply failing to turn up. For the next manager, there is a huge challenge on the offing because of the scale of project at hand. Over half a season, Chelsea’s managerial job has gone on to become one of the greatest challenges in the footballing world and if the upcoming manager is able to fix this season, it will make a huge positive mark on his reputation. Goodbye Mourinho.