1. Player unrest
PUBLICLY, EVERYONE AT Chelsea will insist they are behind the manager.
However, actions speak louder than words, and performances on the pitch indicate not all the players are backing their embattled manager.
Garry Richardson of the BBC this week quoted a source as saying “Jose Mourinho’s relationship with many of his players is at rock bottom,” with one player allegedly suggesting he would “rather lose than win” in a supposed bid to hasten the Special One’s exit from the club.
Eden Hazard, in particular, is reportedly at odds with his manager, though a number of first-team players, including John Terry, are believed to still be behind Mourinho.
The Belgian international was described as the third best player in the world by Mourinho only last May, but he was dropped recently, and got taken off after less than an hour on Saturday.
At the moment, the situation looks difficult to retrieve, but the former Porto and Real Madrid boss has to find a way to get the best out of his under-performing players to avoid the chop imminently.
2. The vulnerable backline
John Terry was compared to an “old man” at the weekend by Trevor Francis, and while that may be a bit harsh, the veteran centre-back has been poor this season.
However, Terry is far from the only culprit in this unfortunate saga — of the backline, Ivanovic has been conspicuously poor, while Matic — the best defensive midfielder in the Premier League last season — has been so inept that he has struggled to make the team regularly.
Even attackers such as Hazard and Fabregas have been defensive liabilities at times, while not offering nearly enough down the other end either.
Chelsea have consequently conceded 22 goals already, including 10 at home — in all of last season, they conceded 32 goals and nine at home, while in 2013-14 under Mourinho, they let in 27 in all and 11 at home. This dramatic decline in form is the primary reason why most critics suspect there is more than meets the eye to these relentlessly dire performances.
3. Diego Costa’s issues
For much of last season, Diego Costa looked like the best striker in the league, managing 20 goals in 26 appearances, but this year has been an altogether different story.
In nine Premier League games, Costa has just two goals and has looked a shadow of the player who tore teams apart at times last year.
What’s perhaps an even bigger concern to Mourinho, though, is the Spain international’s tendency to hit the self-destruct button on occasion.
Costa was recently rightly suspended for his awful behaviour against Arsenal, and was very fortunate not to be sent off.
Similarly, on Saturday, when things weren’t going Chelsea’s way, Costa again lost the head and was lucky not to be sent off after kicking Martin Skrtel off the ball (and perhaps even more fortuitously, the striker won’t face retrospective punishment this time around).
The former Atletico Madrid man therefore needs to wise up and show far more discipline, as well as improving his general play — otherwise he will end up costing Chelsea more points this season, possibly getting the manager who spent £32million on him sacked in the process.
4. His dealings with the media
In the past, the excuse for Mourinho’s poor behaviour when dealing with the media was that it put the focus on him and took the pressure off his players.
However, the criticism of Chelsea’s stars has hardly been quelled by Mourinho’s diva-like antics in recent weeks.
Instead, by acting the way he does and refusing to be civil during interviews, Mourinho simply embarrasses himself and the club.
At 52 years old, he still acts like a spoilt child, claiming conspiracies left, right and centre and frequently unduly castigating honest professionals from referees to ambulance staff to reporters to doctors, who are merely trying to do the best job possible.
At this point, however, it seems fanciful to think the Chelsea coach will change his ways, even though his methods appear to have alienated virtually everyone by this point.
5. The selection policy
Last season, Mourinho clearly knew his best XI and would generally only make a change if a player was injured or in serious need of a rest. Nemanja Matic, to cite one example, was involved in 36 of Chelsea’s 38 league games last season.
By contrast, this season, Chelsea’s starting XI nearly always contains at least one surprise. Matic, previously a virtual ever-present in their side and an extremely reliable performer, has completed 90 minutes in just five of their 11 league matches (the last of which was two months ago in the 2-0 win over Arsenal).
The hapless Serbian international was even brought on against Southampton, before being substituted less than half an hour later amid a 3-1 loss for the hosts at Stamford Bridge.
Accordingly, there is little or no consistency in the selection and so it’s hardly a surprise that subsequent results have been erratic, with the Chelsea players looking short of confidence and lacking sharpness more often than not.
