MOURINHO ... writes off Chelsea
The man still worshipped by Blues fans for winning back-to-back
titles watched the match from the Old Trafford directors’ box. And,
back at Inter Milan yesterday, the Special One slaughtered Phil
Scolari and his team in just one sentence.
Asked to assess what he had seen, Mourinho said: “I didn’t see
Chelsea at all, I only saw Manchester United.” And to twist the
knife a little deeper, he then wrote off Chelsea’s title challenge
altogether. He said: “I think Liverpool and Man United will fight
for the title to the end of the season. Chelsea will find it hard
to stay with them.”
Mourinho’s Blues were ruthless, super-fit, brilliantly organised
and, most importantly, extremely difficult to beat. It is no
wonder, then, that the Portuguese coach did not recognise anything
of his old team on Sunday.
The team was a very pale imitation of the defensive powerhouse
it used to be. Didier Drogba looked a shadow of the striker whose
presence alone was enough to frighten rivals. Deco and Michael
Ballack’s dismal displays made a mockery of Mourinho’s
never-say-die philosophy.
Chelsea stars now fear they are not fit enough to win big games.
In their last three games they have lost a goal in the final three
minutes against United, Southend and Fulham. And a source close to
the dressing room told SunSport: “Some of the players are wondering
if their fitness levels are at the necessary level. These players
never used to concede goals late in games and a lot of that was
down to making sure everyone was super-fit.”
We revealed last month that Scolari was asked to increase the
intensity of his training by senior players. Despite that, they
spent one session last week playing a seven-a-side tournament,
leaving some stars bemused.
Players are openly questioning Scolari’s tactics and selection —
an issue illustrated by the row between the manager and Nicolas
Anelka as revealed by SunSport today.
Under Mourinho, any player who did not toe the line was booted
out. And players would have been dropped if they failed to learn
from mistakes or from what was worked on in training.
Yet Scolari has vowed for the last three weeks to work on
defending set-pieces, only to see two more goals conceded from dead
balls on Sunday.
Mourinho added: “Manchester United’s victory was right because
they played better than Chelsea. “But it was not a superb display,
only an exceptional result. This was a peaceful match as only one
team played.”
At full-time, Mourinho went to Alex Ferguson’s office. Mourinho
revealed: “I had a glass of wine with Alex and we spoke for half an
hour. “I told him how Inter will play against United when we meet
in the Champions League and he named his 11 players for the game.
It was very funny.”
So there you have it. Chelsea’s most successful manager sat
laughing with Fergie over a glass of wine after his old club had
just been hammered.
How times have changed.
