There is a chance Jose Mourinho is sitting back in his cave, eating a steak and planning to win the Champions League with a pretty thin squad. I hope that is what is going on because otherwise there is simply no explaining Chelsea and their outright brutal start to the season. Some of the lowlights include: a 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace a team with freaking cheerleaders; a 3-0 drubbing to Man City who look rejuvenated and ready to win any and all competitions and finally, a 3-1 trouncing at Everton thanks to a remarkable hat trick by Steven Naismith. If one pauses to throw in the near fist fight between Manager and Beloved team doctor, Lady Physio, the season has not exactly started out looking rosy.
John Terry has been benched, the defence suddenly looks 300 years old and our keeper got a red card and then knee injury in the span of three weeks. On the bright side – it really cannot get any worse. Sure we chose to mostly sit out he transfer window, pegging small targets and missing out on big ones (except for the Pedro theft…which seems to be working out for United okay) while allowing other teams to retool at our expense. City got stronger in nearly every part of the field, as did United, and with all the TV money rolling in the mid level teams and even bottom tier are spending on players and getting results. Chelsea simply looks tired and is struggling to repeat what went right last year, against all the odds. We needed a deeper squad for all the competitions and we did not get it.
Another factor seems to be Mourinho and his bizarre habit of giving up on players way too soon. Take Juan Mata who has become David Silva for United (and of course, previously, Chelsea) – I understand that Eden Hazard needed to grow as a football, but point out any contest where Mata was worse than Oscar. You can’t: and then there is the letting go of Lukaku for nothing when strikers were desperately needed, and selling the very talented Andre Schurrle when he could have added the depth we so desperately crave.
In short: Jose either plans to win the title or he has crushed the spirit of the team through his draconian ways. It has been said that there are 2 types of coaches: Doctor coach and Chemo Coach. The doctor keeps you well but might not make you totally healthy or a champion; the Chemo coach will destroy everything and make you a winner, but then continues giving Chemo…because that is all they know. Eventually they must move on because they are killing a healthy team. It is becoming somewhat apparent which coach Mourinho may be and for Chelsea, that may not be what we need right now.
Unless of course this is all a ruse to win the Champions League which is not out of the realm of possibility. So, well, at least there is that.
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