The Guardian are reporting that Jose Mourinho has criticised the commitment and desire of his players. He has started doubting how many consistent ‘champions’ he has in his current crop of players after an indifferent start to the season in the Premier League.
Chelsea face Porto this week, the team at which Mourinho began to mold his reputation as a top class manager just over ten years ago.
Mourinho has threatened to begin dropping the players who are not performing for Chelsea at the moment, which could be most of them. He has also said that he is prepared to go with the younger players and give other players in his squad a chance to show what they can do in the first team.
He has been particularly disappointed with his team’s performances:
Since half-time [at St James’ Park], they know who they are. The matches where we performed with a consistent attitude were the matches we won, so we need to learn how to be consistent again. Physically there’s no problem. Tactically it’s the same. Clearly it’s an attitude perspective of some individuals. And when you have individuals with that unstable attitude in terms of motivation, desire and commitment, you will pay. There are two sorts of champions. There are those who win something, and there are lots of them. But there are the other champions who, during their career, win one, two, three, four, five, 10 or 20 titles. In this club we have 25 champions from last year, but serial champions in this squad? John Terry, Jon Mikel [Obi] and [Branislav] Ivanovic are serial champions. Almost every season they have something in the pocket. But how many other serial champions do we have? Last year we were champions, but the point for me is are we serial champions? Of course it’s very difficult to win every season, but you can be a serial champion in your approach and your attitude. If we fight every minute of every game and in the end someone has two more points, then we don’t go from champions to losers. Not at all. If you lose the Champions League final to Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich you are not a loser. Mentally I can say I am a serial champion. I can be five or 10 years without winning a title, but I will still be a serial champion in my approach and my attitude. This is the problem we have at this moment. We have champions, but not serial champions.
Diego Costa is set to return to the side following his domestic ban that has seen him miss their last two matches and their next Premier League match. Mourinho that this about Costa:
Like everyone here, he is not happy.
Mourinho then gave a message to his players, demanding more from them. He also said he’d happily throw some youngsters into the Chelsea line-up if he deemed it necessary.
They fight and want to improve, but we have some players I want more from. I look for consistency. If we don’t find it, we become a Newcastle. Everyone knows when Newcastle play Chelsea they play amazingly well but against other teams, not so well. This happens with most of the teams whose objective is to stay between eighth and 16th in the league. They win today, draw tomorrow, three points here, one point there. But when you want to be a big team and to win you have to be consistent in your attitude. At this moment it’s difficult to win the Premier League, but possible. It’s difficult to win the Champions League, but possible. It’s difficult to win the cups, but possible. I’ve explained to the players that when the situation is open, I have to try and prepare the kids for their future and, at the same time, bring the best out of the players with more experience. But if the season becomes ‘closed’ and we can’t win trophies, I will go just with the kids instead. It makes no sense to play the older players when you have nothing to win. There can be a moment where I will look to the kids and say: ‘Let’s go, non-stop.’ I am ruthless. But at the moment, everything is open.
