If a manager does not have a plan B, then whose fault is it when he cannot get results against common Basel?

Your submission sounds so absurd considering that we have conceded 6 goals in two matches against Stoke and Sunderland.
Games that ended 4-3 and 3-2 suggest that they were open ended games on both sides
We have lost to Everton ,Basel and Newcastle and drawn 2-2 with Westbrom.
So I dont know what teams are setting up defensively to deal with Chelsea.

Oddly enough, Everton have had more of the ball when they play. Their high possion stats suggest that the opposition are bunkering. Yet Lukaku is still scoring for fun
Case study Everton (4) v Stoke (0)
Everton had 54% possesion of the ball. Stoke were clearly bunkering as they do best. Lukaku scored.
So what's your point?

coogar:

mourinho is not incompetent - this is not his team. at least give him time to tweak here & there before you start blaming him. look at the defensive side of chelsea(mourinho's strongest emphasis) - what you have now is a parody to the chelsea team of 04/05.


terry has aged, cahill & luiz wouldn't make chelsea's team of that era. essien has gotten older, cech hasn't been the same since his head injury. mourinho's team has always been built with a very strong defence & the current chelsea side isn't even 10% of what the 04/05 defensively. these ones are babies.

ritchboy: The ninjas saying JM 'clearly' has the best squad don't know what they're talking about. Just because you see Mata on the bench cos JM doesn't fancy him is no evidence of anything.

You can't possibly have the best squad when all your strikers are pants. All City's strikers will stroll into Chelsea XI, even Guidetti will fancy his chances.

You also can't have the best squad when your midfield is also pants. Yaya and co. will cartwheel into that Chelsea team, let's not even get started with Arsenal's.

The much hyped AMs Mazacar/Willian/KDB/Schurlle aren't any better than City's/Arsenal's AMs/SSs so what are we talking about here?

Even the defenders/goalie are mostly past their prime[Cashley/Cech/Terry] or were never that good to begin with [Luiz/Cahill].

As much as I'd like to label JM incompetent, i think he's doing OK with the players he has to work with. At least his team aren't ninth on the log

Folks like Dayokanu who trolls around Staten Island would love you to be on his side.

Murder Jose when a player gives into individual error!

That dude would probably blame Jose for everything.

Katsumoto:
I am not buying these excuses. Mourinho has a team most managers would kill for. If Mourinho can't manage that squad, then Everton would be in the relegation zone if he was managing them. Essien is no longer a starter and Cech is still one of the best keepers in the world. The defense is slightly worse than what he had in his previous era but which team has a better defense (in terms of ability) than Chelsea?

The Everton isn't Martinez's team but he has them playing for him. The Bayern team isn't Guardiola's but they are playing well. What of Martino ar Barca?

It appears that your point is that Mourinho can only win if he is managing a team of the best 22 players in the world.

nateevs:

Seriously? You think conceding 3 points against Sunderland suggested an open game?
Did you see the game? The 3 goals were from set pieces.
You might want to refresh your memory

3 goals each against Sunderland and Stoke is an anomaly and has no bearing on the starting setup of the oppo. I cannot believe you think Stoke will attack Chelsea and Everton in the same spirit.

High possession does not automatically suggest opposition bunkering. It could also mean that the opposition are very open. Or that the opposition are unwilling to press. Shots on goals/target are a more appropriate way to reveal bunkering.

Everton v Stoke. 4-0. You are making my point for me. Stoke go out to attack Everton, hence the space and hence the number of goals. How do you think Stoke were bunkering yet Everton put 4 past them?

ritchboy: The ninjas saying JM 'clearly' has the best squad don't know what they're talking about. Just because you see Mata on the bench cos JM doesn't fancy him is no evidence of anything.

You can't possibly have the best squad when all your strikers are pants. All City's strikers will stroll into Chelsea XI, even Guidetti will fancy his chances.

You also can't have the best squad when your midfield is also pants. Yaya and co. will cartwheel into that Chelsea team, let's not even get started with Arsenal's.

The much hyped AMs Mazacar/Willian/KDB/Schurlle aren't any better than City's/Arsenal's AMs/SSs so what are we talking about here?

Even the defenders/goalie are mostly past their prime[Cashley/Cech/Terry] or were never that good to begin with [Luiz/Cahill].

As much as I'd like to label JM incompetent, i think he's doing OK with the players he has to work with. At least his team aren't ninth on the log

GustavoFring: Coogar,Lala and Guapo say the manager is not to blame but the players....

I no get power argue abeg.

Mate dont read too many meaning into my comments.

Under certain given circumstance, I'd blame the manager for a team's loss and JM aint an exception.

The truth is, to a large degree defeat is associated with the leaders’ failure whiles victory is for all. That is the way of man and that is neither fair nor just. I'm in no way trying to assuage the coach from error or blame but the real life case is that no matter how good coaches do their job, their players are the ultimate determinants of how the game puns out. This is not exclusive to football but to all sports.

Check this Scenarios OUT - Would your Dayokanu's led protestants mob blame the gaffer?

When a player scores one own goal? Chalk it down to bad lack. Two own goals? Let’s take him to the guillotine. Jamie Carragher on 11 September 1999 managed this feat against rivals Manchester United. Jon Walters of Stoke city is also infamous for scoring two own goals, miss a penalty kick and volleyed the ball into his own face against Chelsea, they lost 4-0. Special mentions to Stan Van Den Buys, whiles playing for Germinal Ekeren against Anderlecht scored three own goals. His team went ahead to lose 4-2.

Ever heard of Jonathan Woodgate? On his debut for Real Madrid he scored an own goal and later received a red card in the very match. He scored another own goal two matches after that.

John Mensah. I won’t explain, I won’t tell you when it happened but you all understand it.

Victor Valdes, which of his thousand examples do you want? Is it his attempt to dribble Di Maria? Or is it his billion other howlers?

Maicon against Gareth Bale or was it Bale against Maicon. I have a feeling Ghallywood produced a movie titled: The death of Maicon’s career Part 1 and 2.

The faithful afternoon in august 2011, Arsenal’s defense decided to suddenly treat spectators to a bout of football comedy.

Who can forget the Manchester derby? The one where Rio shocked not only his manager but his manager’s chewing gum.

Roberto Baggio’s name will forever be engraved in footballing lore. Not because of his glorious ponytail, but for that penalty kick which gave Brazil their fourth world cup. Do you know who the Italian coach was? Exactly, Baggio’s name was synonymous to their failure not the coach.

It will be unfair of me to remind you of Asamoah Gyan when the country is basking in the air of democratic tolerance post-election verdict.

Speak of certain circumstance, i would only blame the gaffer for a team's loss when he makes a horrendous team selection or goes with an inept tactical approach, if he does gets these rights and somehow things went wrong on the pitch, have a review on how the players fared.

GustavoFring:

So let me get this straight. Stoke were playing defensive football when they put 3 goals past us, but were playing attacking football when they lost 4-0?

dayokanu: I asked was Avram Grant the one who help Terrys legs or Anelkas leg? How come he was the one to blame for the defeat in Moscow?
AVB, RDM, Scolari Ancelotti that were sacked were they telling the players to miss chances or not score goals?

dayokanu: Di Matteo was sacked soon after Torres and Ivanovic collected red cards in Old trafford and Hernandez scored an offside goal. So which of these was RdMs fault?

There he goes again, Powwowing farce writings on HD!

RDM axed after Clattenburg's show? You're better off with burnthisleaguedown punditry

dayokanu: A manager puts the players on the field and takes responsibilities for their action, The players didnt force themselves there. And any player not following the tactics laid out he can remove

If you parents put your younger ones in your charge with the right to dicipline and correct you dont go ahead shifting the blame when things go wrong

Thats lack of leadership there

What is truly myopic is to think that football is still in the times where every role is performed by the manager.

dayokanu: When Ronaldo does an impossible trick that wins the game, Was it Mourinho that taught him how to dribble? When Suarez was doing the impossible was it Rodgers who taught him how to do it? When Messi dribbles everyone and scores was it Pep that taught him?

How come the coaches took the glory in these situations.

Mourinho is reputed to be a top coach based on his achievements at his previous clubs, has he ever gone on the field once to play or did he teach Drogba, Deco, Milito, Ronaldo how to play football or how to score goals?

So its either the coach takes all the glory and the blame or he takes none.

A nice analogy is an army general who sends his men to war, in actuality a leader, any leader is only as good as his followers. If you move to concentrate on tactics developed by coaches as approaches to all matches in generality or specific matches then you can grasp the seeming disparity between the ideal situation and its execution. What we mostly see on our screens is the execution part. No matter how great a team’s tactics is if they execute poorly then defeat is ‘a hello away’.

A coach brings to the fore what needs to be done to win; the players are responsible for the ‘what was actually done’. Not tracking run of opponents, ball watching, complacency, high turnover rate these are game upshots that are totally ascribed to the players.

I earlier asked, would you blame a manager for an own goal scored by his player that eventually led to his team's loss?

Would you blame Jose for Luiz's incessant bad positioning, Ivanovic's sluggish return runs, JT and co cheap mistakes and Essien's sublime Up through pass to Rodriguez against Southampton?

nateevs:

Sort of how Chelsea played defensive football against Barcelona over 2 legs and went on to the UCL final and then played attacking football against Sunderland and lost 3-0 at the Bridge. Yeah, that's it. You got it straight.

GustavoFring:

I didn't know you were an Ikemba wuruwuru like this o.

How can you compare a 2-2 draw to a 3-2 loss?

How can you compare a game where Barca had 73% Possesion to one where we had 55?


How can you compare a game where stoke had 9 shots and 5 corners to one where we had only 7 shots and 1 corner?

Yeah the Stoke game was exactly like the Barca game...

GustavoFring:
So let me get this straight. Stoke were playing defensive football when they put 3 goals past us, but were playing attacking football when they lost 4-0?

ritchboy: The ninjas saying JM 'clearly' has the best squad don't know what they're talking about. Just because you see Mata on the bench cos JM doesn't fancy him is no evidence of anything.

You can't possibly have the best squad when all your strikers are pants. All City's strikers will stroll into Chelsea XI, even Guidetti will fancy his chances.

You also can't have the best squad when your midfield is also pants. Yaya and co. will cartwheel into that Chelsea team, let's not even get started with Arsenal's.

The much hyped AMs Mazacar/Willian/KDB/Schurlle aren't any better than City's/Arsenal's AMs/SSs so what are we talking about here?

Even the defenders/goalie are mostly past their prime[Cashley/Cech/Terry] or were never that good to begin with [Luiz/Cahill].

As much as I'd like to label JM incompetent, i think he's doing OK with the players he has to work with. At least his team aren't ninth on the log

A-40:
Wait oh is this not the same thread where niggas were boasting not too long ago about Chelsea having 5,6,7 or even 8 players that would walk into Bayern (The best team in Europe's squad) all of a sudden the team is not good enuff? We don't believe you you need more people

A-40:
Wait oh is this not the same thread where niggas were boasting not too long ago about Chelsea having 5,6,7 or even 8 players that would walk into Bayern (The best team in Europe's squad) all of a sudden the team is not good enuff? We don't believe you you need more people

Ibime:

lol. You got a point there sha.

But that one no consine me. I've always maintained that Emenalo has done a very poor job of building a team.

dayokanu:

You dey mind them?

Anything to exonerate the coach from wrongdoing

Now its that the players are substandard the same players they claimed were better than bayern squad

Let's list their players man for man and see which would get into which squad?

Using Man City as an example is laughable because Aguero,Yaya and Kompany are probably the only players that would make Chelsea's starting XI

Arsenal? Please don't make me laugh. Prior to Ozil's signing and Ramsey's recent form which Arsenal fan could boast and compare their squad to Chelsea

ritchboy:

The first thing you have to realize is performance(especially at this stage of the season) is not just about squad depth but more importantly how good your XI is(unless injuries hit hard). Liverpool are sitting pretty in second with little squad depth but a starting XI that can blow most teams in the league away.

ritchboy:
Having good players on your bench means nothing if they won't play. The Premier League aren't going to say "oh look, they have Willian and Mata on the bench, let's give them 3 points"

ritchboy:
What a joke. Any manager with half a brain would also pick Zabaleta, Fernandinho and David Silva in addition to those 3. That's six guaranteed starters already. Not to mention the ones dat will boil down to personal preference: Azpilicueta/Clichy/Cashley/Kolarov at LB, Nasri/Schurlle/Navas etc on the wing and Nastasic/Terry/Cahill/Lescott @ CB. We're looking at as many as nine City players out of eleven.

ritchboy:
Prior to Ozil's signing? Ho ho ho, why not prior to Essien signing or prior to Roman buying the club or prior to the 21st century.

As we speak Hazard is the only Chelsea player that would break into Arsenal XI, and maybe one or two others MAX depending on preference.

ritchboy:
I don't even know what niggas are chatting here when Mourinho himself has already admitted City clearly have the best squad and all his strikers are pants.

dayokanu: So why was Avram grant sacked after the Moscow loss? When we all know he didnt cause Terry and Anelka to miss penalties

RdM played strikerless vs Juve, Mourinho did the same vs Man Utd this season how come he hasnt been sacked. Was it the strikerless formartion that made them lose? On the day vs Juve Chelsea players still had enough chances to score and they didnt How come RdM wasnt exonerrated like we are doing for Mourinho now?

Did Essien, Luiz etc get on the field on his own accord? Wasnt it the manager who put him on the field? So who takes responsibilities when you put dud players on the field?

Other managers got sacked because of tactics, but Mourinho has never used a wrong tactic its always the players fault whenever he doesnt get result

EVen with your army general tactics, when you lose a battle, the general is fired or withdrawn and replaced no one blames the soldiers who follow his tactics

nateevs: The football is appalling really. Having a large chunk of possession but no idea of what to do with it in the final third. Everyone's running around like machines but there's no particular pattern of play. No structure, non existent forward passes in area that matter and poor movement in attack.

It's like a disjointed display of individual abilities, for the umpteenth time, against a very poor side. Strikers won't score with this 'no pattern of play' and games won't be won. If the opposition were a little better, we won't win this.

1-0 sha but I worry.