Agreed on everything. Carlo Ancelotti has been managing the team as bad as anybody could. The Chelsea squad would be in the title race now if the manager was Ferguson, Wenger or even Redknapp.

As much as I love Ancelotti, and forgetting our form since november, he has been our best manager so far with our playing style, mentality and winning the double. But every day that passes where we don’t improve, the thought of Mourinho returning to Chelsea sounds more and more pleasing. I think Mourinho may return next season. I reckon our season will end of two ways:
5th Place Premier League Spot + Champions League Winners
or
3rd/4th Place Premier League Spot + Champions League Finalists.
Either way i think Mourinho may come back, though that is less likely with the first option. It’s plausible for us to come 4th and win the CL but it depends on how our routine changes and Torres’ form.

Unfortunately you seem to have been drawn into this “justification” whipped up by the tabloid press. Whilst your “arguments” may be sound, the basic premise of the cause(s) of the “dip in form” are highly questionable.
I for one do not believe the media (negative) hype, neither do I expect Chelsea to win everything and every game. My expectations are more realistic. Of course I hope that we will always win, knowing that it is impossible – as it is for any team.
So, in my opinion, notwithstanding all of the points you have highlighted, I think a contributory factor is “motivation”. It would appear that most “Chelsea supporters” assume that the players have the same motivation – what Terry calls “manning up”. Kalou, Malouda, Robben (of old) for example do not. They are all skilful and would grace any premiership team but they lack the “spirit” and the “British bulldog ” fight of old. Their definition and standard of motivation is not ours – that’s just the way they are. Drogba is the same – selfish and not a team player. His first season with us was diabolical. We need consistency in commitment. When we get rid of the above and buy replacements, that is the element we must insist on.
Basically, you take the money and you deliver. If you wear our shirt then you “bleed” as we bleed. As they say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

I hope Roman read this.
Not Carlo.
Champion league title cant save Carlo. He must leave by next season.

“I think when we faced adversity, we didn’t show up” Exactly! And this isn’t the trait of this season alone, there were signs of it last season too, when we had some 2 or 3 ‘BAD MOMENTS’. I don’t know why we lose confidence so badly after not getting results for just 2-3 games. I have never seen Arsenal or Utd playing with such poor confidence even when results don’t go their way. They are able to arrest the slump within 3 or 4 games. We have so many big characters in our squad, but still we manage to lose confidence. I think Wilkins had better motivation skills than Carlo. But it is not Carlo’s fault alone. When we fans were urging him to drop Drogba, he didn’t except once, which had a good effect. Now, when Drogba is being dropped more and more, he does not show any kind of hunger or desire to storm back into the first team. Even when Essien, Mikel and Malouda were dropped, I couldn’t see a fight in them, a real desire in them. So even the players are equally responsible.

Our club is still in very good shape. We fantastic squad and manager who won the league and cup double last season. And the current problems are natural. That happens to every team. Even real madrid who even after spending millions on ronaldo and kaka didn’t win anything and i dont think they are going to change their fortune this year. Our club released a few important and experienced players and that backfired us. But no need to worry. I never expected our club to repeat the success of last year. Its true that we should be ambitious for winning it takes a lot more like fitness of the squad, form of the players and more than anything else LUCK. So I will be very happy if we finished among top four. If not i will wait another year. I just luv Chelsea if they win or lose.
Go Chelsea

Hi, something to share with ;
Sturridge just score another goal againts Newcastle.. what a good strike!
Perhaps in near future Sturridge will displace Drogba from the team sheet…who knows?

I agree with most of your points BC,but i don’t think Carlo is solely responsible for our slump.The “motivation” that you are talking about,what if this motivation was given to the players by a certain bloke called Ray Wilkins.He was his right hand man and both of them had a fantastic relationship.Whenever he needed a word of advice,he’ll have Ray by his side.Now he cuts a lonely in the dugout(with all due respect to Paul Clement who is still inexperienced in such a role).So someone higher up in the Chelsea ranks must hold their hands up.If you want the club to succeed,then work with staff and help them out.Not sack someone and destabilise the group.

I think the expectation is very high from the owner, fans n media so it gives immense pressure to the players n manager to perform day in day out with same sort of confidence n motivation Roman also making this team unstable by interfereing in team management n sacking coaches n managers everytime every official at chelsea do fear about the job including players his biggest mistake was sacking of jose n then grant n may be will soon carlo he did it with ray sir Alex made some futurestic comments that he an wengers longivity as manager the example of success whem u work in an envirönment so long u establish urself n ur ideology of success ur bonding with players become true u inspire them u get respect we all knom arsenal winning nothing for so many years manu also had bad times at past have listen any rumour that sirALEX Or Wenger going to be sacked no never it gives them confidence this seasöns turmoil may be because of carlos mismanagement but its the impact of roman n for the chelseasake stay away from managers mind
n have patience to get more glory give them time to analyse their faults n be stronger even if we dont win anything this season give carlo n co ur luv n support be blue n cool enjoy dont hate or show red to them coz it doesn’t matter how much experienced u r u tend to do mistake as a human being

Good blog and very timely…we are all here because we want the team and the club to be better and yes we have GREATLY underperformed…yes we do want to win everything because that’s the mentality the uniteds have and why they have been successful year after year…success comes by doing many things right from the small to the big consistently and when it’s going good looking at ways to make it better because the winners are not resting. Do we want to be happy having had our 15 minutes of fame in the sunshine and then wait decades for the next bit of success.

I agree if we swapped managers with united the table position would be very different…in reality this is one of the weakest uniteds for a while and yet they are 13 points in front of us and lost once to our six! The buck stops with Carlo, Arnesen, the board and the players.

Yes, we need stability in coaching but Carlo had a lot of very talented players who are well below their best. If it was 1 or 2, ok, but it’s almost a team load!

Man management is his sole domain and getting the best out of players week in, week out is number one on his job description!

Tactically and on set pieces we are oh so very predictable with no surprises for our opposition! Once we were quite deadly on the counter with this now a thing of the past.

Yes, carlo has created a style where we have become obsessed with holding the ball but in bringing the ball out it takes too long and the endless passes to retain possession allow opponents to set out defences. We do not take each game on it’s unique set of circumstances but rather just keep on doing the same old stuff.

We were told by carlo at the start the youngsters were good enough for the oncoming campaign yet were hardly given a chance when it started and now farmed out on loan! Take Josh, who is good enough but he can’t even get 15 minutes at the end of the game for experience. Hello carlo the horse has bolted, give the kid a cameo to get experience for next year!

We don’t have a motivational system which rewards players with game time based on good performance and vica versa. In actual fact if you play badly or just grow through the motions you still keep on playing! Sturridge could not get a look in with others long overdue for the chop yet they kept on playing and performing badly, with him now banging in 4 goals in a few weeks at Bolton.

I suspect carlo is a very nice guy but too nice and too close to the players when tough decisions need to be made! He needs to be firm but fair and give out the message teams are selected on performance, not reputation which then motivates everyone and the youngsters who you want to bring on for the future!

As someone else mentioned this team looks tired even in the warm up and for me they look very flat with no extra gear when they get behind or when they want to push teams into a corner. In the not so distant past they had a physical presence to go to a higher level but not anymore.

Player development is another area very much lacking as each one of them has the potential to be even better. Take for example Mikel who has a young player has been shoe horned into be a defensively minded holding midfielder. I believe they should be moved around, tweaked positionally for their natural development and growth which also freshens them up and also might throw up a few surprises for the better.

The coaching staff needs to be seriously looked at as we don’t have experience to assist the head coach. In chopping Wilkins we lost our only person who had excellent player experience but also the coaching badges and then man management skills to act as a go between for head coach and players for dialogue.

I can go on about carlo and then arnesen who should give some of his wages to charity based on performance and then the board who might be great business people or lawyers but can’t seem to chart a course of rebuilding and improvement and progression with a long term strategy and short term methods in reaching the outcomes and finally to the players who have emabarressed the club and themselves by as Mourinho would say “not putting their foot in a tackle”.

We learn that Rooney elbowed a wigan player deliberatly in the head within 4 minutes of the kickoff which apart from telling me he is quite feral also that he was fired up to win at all cost! Ask yourself when was the last time we saw this team fired up to win? Ferguson as usual turned the whole thing around and already went on the attack and said the media would persecute young sweet rooney for a nothing incident because he is rooney! For me at least he sticks up for players and imitades in his style fellow coaches, players, referees and the media where it actually pays dividends. Carlo very rarely does that which again is a minor thing but they all add up! Mourinho realised that games are not only won on the fiels but outside of it at times!

The buck has stopped with carlo and now he should pay! But he would merely be the first on the list and others time has come as well!

Forget Sir Alex, this team will be in a better position if I was handling them. I don’t understand all the emotions towards Ancelloti, he is obviously not interested in the job anymore or he is not capable of handling this team. What’s all the noise about Wilkins’ departure? What if he had died? Who is the team coach/manager, Wilkins or Ancelloti? If the departure of Wilkins can affect the team this much should it not call into question Ancelloti’s pedigree and ability to handle the team? Is it not possible that the players seeing his inability to turn things around are beginning to view Ancelloti with less esteem? The bulk simply must stop on the team manager’s table. Simple. You have used many semantics but simply shied away from saying it so I’ll help you say it, Ancelloti should go. Whatever happened to Managers saying that as long as it is still mathematically possible, Chelsea are still in the race. Hell, the team captain is even sounding more positive than the team coach. He is even affecting us the fans, why should we give up when it is still possible, especially with this team. I make bold to say that we have the best team in this premiership, mark you I said team. I challenge anybody to mention more than 2 pple from the premiership that can come into the Chelsea squad and displace someone. We are Chelsea, we will go down fighting to the death, it ain’t over till its over and that’s in May, not before. Other managers even give us more props than our own manager does. I am sure they are concerned because they know what this team can offer. The team is in pieces right now, the missing gel to bring them together is the coach.

Great article. . .
You’ve penned down each thought of a Chelsea supporter. . . I feel Bruma played fantastically against Villa in that Epic 3-3 thriller. He deserved more first team action and not a loan deal to Leicester city. Van aanholt also played a really good games against Zilina and Newcastle.
Right now also Carlo isn’t using the squad intelligently. He played a balanced and a good team against FCK. He should follow a similar team for United, maybe include Mceachran. I’m 100% positive mceachran can tear apart united’s plans.
KTBFFH

I’m working my way through this slowly on my mobile.

But already I see flaws in your thinking.

You hold Chelsea’s young reserves in high esteem based on hope, not performance. Your belief that if they’re on the squad they’re good enough to entrust with Chelsea’s EPL future is not one based on evidence of their performance.

Your contention that if Drogba is in the lineup he’s fully fit flies in the face of logic and his performance. We can all see he’s weaker and slower. It’s a fact that it can take months to recover from malaria. On top of that Drogba’s malaria was initially misdiagnosed, meaning he played with full blown malaria and further deleted his body’s ability to fight back. So it is wide of reality to say that if he’s on the pitch he’s 100%.

Lastly (for now!) you cite Chelsea’s poor record when Lampard plays as evidence that the team’s woes go beyond him. Indeed they do. But it’s obvious that Lampard is far below his best. And that when he came back from his extended absence he was not the same player.

This has taken me ages to write on my mobile. But I simply had to point out the early flaws in your post!

We need to swing the axe and add sum new blood by next season.
Do you all think that carlo have the guts to tell Drogba or malouda that they are leaving the club by the end of season?( Like sumone mentioned carlo is too “close” or too “nice” to the players.)
We need sumone to do that.
And why the hell carlo is not giving josh chances at all?
See wads sturridge doing at bolton now? 4 GOALS in 6 games ! (correct me if im wrong)

@Blue Champion :
i want to know your thought on all these rumours coming up on various websites that drogba is extremely angry at being dropped for the cl game and he is considering to leave chelsea in the summer no matter what… even if theere is a mangerial change …
……..i though personally never want him to leave …
drogba lampard terry cech … these guys must nevewr leave the club even in the agein bodies they have so much to give the team in terems of experience and a sense of calmness to the entire team …
these people must follow in the footsteps of ryan giggs and scholes ..

BC, thank you for the great post, it’s very thoughtful. I think you matured greatly as a sports writer and completely deserve the honor posting on official CFC site.
We all are playing detectives now, trying to understand what happened to our beloved team this season, nobody knows for sure. Rear view mirror vision is always 20-20. Back in October, when we were leading the table, with aplomb, I didn’t hear a lot of voices from commentators and fans about our squad being too thin, and having only youngsters on the bench and pensioners on the field, but somehow claiming to be fighting for the league title again and also to finally winning the CL. I remember having my doubts but we were winning games with such ease!
I have my theory on this dreadful season too…Chelsea owner and management time and time again have showed complete disrespect for our double-winning, record- setting coach, by selling the experienced players, by firing his close friend, translator (yes) and confidante Wilkinson, by promoting inexperienced sub, all without his content!. This hurt Carlo greatly, and thus hurt the team too. So in addition to physically weakening the team, they cracked our spirit. Add to this catastrofic loss to Sunderland at home, add some injuries, and we have a crisis on our hands. If I were Carlo I would simply slam the door and quit, but he is a proud man and he promised to fans at the start of season to win – and he still hoped to win something! So he stayed but tried to lower fans expectations.
I think he will just leave by himself for Roma next summer (he probably already agreed with Roman). And by buying Torres (again against Carlo’s knowledge!) Roman created attraction for whever comes next (Jose? maybe..)
Having said that, I agree with BC that buck still partially stops with Carlo: he showed tactical weakness in many games this season and he definitely lacks understanding (and bravery ) in how to integrate young players into the team.
Still let’s look forward with some hope…We still have a great team and whoever coaches us next season, we should be fine. KTBFFH!

BC

Congrats mate for keeping the blog going and flying high the blue flag. It’s such a shame some of us are unable to contribute as regularly as in the past. Greetings to other ancient buddies like Maysam, joseholiday etal.
Carlo’s problem in my opinion has been lack of courage to bench so called untouchable.
One need not be a magician to realize that some players were consistently playing below par. Didier, Malouda, Lampard and to some extent my own Essien. The courage to bench them and send a signal that form rather than name is what will determine position in the team is what has been carlo’s weakness. Fergie would have done that. Jose would have had that courage.
Same lack of courage is what Carlo shows when he is frozen into inactivity till about 70th minute before attempting some lame changes. Every team needs changes. When players feel they can walk into a team regardless of form, the team is in trouble. Apart from Cech, Ivanovich and Terry I have not sensed enough Hunger, passion and desire in the team. The Passion and Desire Jose inculcated into the team and Hiddink watered is all but dissipated.
I like Carlo. Great bloke. I like the beautiful aura he has brought. But without that hunger and passion and courage Chelsea will quickly revert to the era when we evoke no fear in any team. If Carlo cannot discover that courage and find a way of inculcating hunger and passion back, then please let him leave and let’s have our Jose back.

Amasing Post as Usual BC! I agree 100% that we have not had enough rotation!! just look at Ashley cole!! His been running up and down the pitch all season, Van Anholt played an amasing game against Newcastle, his more powerful than cole so i really cant conceive why he hasnt started games and why we have loaned him out? what if cole gets injured? bye Bye champions league hopes, zirkov as backup?? Huum with malouda with a yellow card to miss next match who replaces him??
Mceachran has been the best player in most matches he played, my only logic of why they are not playing him, especially in the premier league is by fear he gets a big injury!! Like Kakuta with his broken leg a few years back which has affected his performance to date…Until the end of the season i would play Anelka and Torres in attack…and use drogba as impact player…specially when chasing the game in second half as we can hit long balls to him (change our style of play) unlike bringing anelka in second half who cant change the style fo play as drogba can…

Is it just me or did every get an orgasm from the last paragraph?

Of course the manager takes some of the blame but as I am trying to say.

Alex, Jose, Arsene can singlehandedly run clubs.
Carlo needs a proper board backing him and proper staff especially assistant manager.

Ray was Carlo’s Mauro.

Carlo was never a motivator or tactician so please stop expecting him to do something spectacular like Jose or Guus. This isn’t Alex Ferguson with warlike speeches pre game and half time. This is Carlo, Roman’s puppet. Smithers I should say. Carlo is Smithers while Roman is Mr. Burns.

Give us Ray back, stop meddling with affairs and let the most important person at the club, the manager, do his goddamn job.

Age may have not been a factor and it never was. What I am saying is, Fergie is there to motivate and keep his Giggs and Scholes running like they were 15 years ago. Ray, Guus, Clarke nor Jose isn’t are not with us anymore. So the age factor finally creeps in because the antidotes have been sacked or released.

We need a CA team not a JM team. We also need a CA staff. Ray was perfect, but I suggest Zola. He speaks fluent English and Italian, a Chelsea legend, friend of Carlo, fellow Italian, former Assistant Manager and Manager and most importantly understand the English game and obviously will provide a lift in motivating the players.

Zola in, Emelano back to scouting.

4-3-3 can still work but the following will be needed

Neymar/Lukaku after Drogba/Torres/Anelka retire, leave or immensely drop form
Sanchez/Hazard for the creative, pacy void left by former wingers Cole,Robben and Duff
McEachran must be loaned to Bolton, Jack Wilshere anyone?
Youth must be given more chances to develop them. Can’t develop youth if you don’t play him.

Look at Liverpool and Manchester United

Man Utd are reaping the rewards of Fabio, Rafael, Smalling, Gibson and Obertan.
Liverpool are atleast using Kelly, Shelvey and Wilson.

I don’t want Roman to jeopardize our entrance to UCL. I am simply stating we need to go a couple of years on trying to stabilize our future.

Sorry for the double post.

As you can see Birmingham have defeated Arsenal. This isn’t really a surprise when you look at the tactics.

McLeish cleverly used a 4-5-1 with its main purpose to win the midfield battle, defend well and solid, keep the ball and use Zigic as the target man. Zigic is 6″7 so he is obviously great with headers and is very physical. He is like a white Drogba. He had 3 strikers on the bench given him many options.

Wenger as I predicted used a 4-2-3-1 as he was missing his focal point and wanted to get a quick goal and retain possession and try to dominate. He used Jack as a holding mid, he can play there but is best used where he played Tomas. I have always said any type of physical play intended on midfield domination, excellent defending and a 1 man striker system will always beat Barcelona, Spain and Arsenal.

Arsenal is nothing without Fabregas pulling the strings, Walcott’s pace, Nasri’s flair and van Persie’s eye for goal. Nasri wasn’t at his best today and sadly they also used a poor Arshavin although he played surprisingly well today as well as a very poor Tomas intended to pull the strings.

May I aslo add that West Ham defeated Liverpool 3-1 and guess what. Liverpool didn’t park the bus but were forced off the ball time and time again, because of the high amounts of pressuring done by West Ham. If Chelsea had done what I said, they would have done exactly what West Ham did today.

Recent weeks we have been force changing our philosophy. Players aren’t giving that 110% seen under the Carlo and Ray team. In the 09/10 season Carlo played a pass and move game. Nowadays until the 4-4-2, we played a dwell on the ball, allow a marker to get in and be forced off the ball. Today West Ham was Liverpool and Liverpool was Chelsea.

Now I know a few things about the Fergie famed 4-4-2.

First of all we can use a DM and AM in CM at the same time. Essien and Lampard will fit right in. Lampard aslo has his space. Ramires can use that beast like pace of his down the flank. McEacrhan can use a his range of passing, dribbling and excellent Scholes like first touch to beat defenders and make runs down the left flank. Work on the crosses Josh. He is also naturally left footed so even better. Torres and Anelka are constantly improving and forming a unit. Anelka can use his skill at getting past men and slot in shots or give it to Torres. A Cole can resume normal service. Terry and Luiz can form a partnership out of this world just like Vidic and Smalling are about to. Ivanovic… enough said. This is the attacking side. Defensive side coming up.

When on the defensive side of things. Essien can gel back to help. Ramires no doubtedly has gotten better and can help Ivanovic who is already so much pwnage on the right against that left winger. McEchran may be at fault in the first few matches but I believe he can develop a skill to retain the ball as seen in the Marseille match. A Cole resumes normal service. Luiz and Terry resume normal service. Luiz can also launch attacking breaks. Lampard has a slide tackle out of this world. If Drogba is in the match he can retreat and regain the ball easily and probably use his beast like body to score or create for Torres or Anelka. I won’t tell you everything as they are different teams and different formations. Situations can change by the slighest bit of things so you figure it out for yourself.

With this 4-4-2.

We look to reinstate the pass and move play of 09/10.
Defend well and initiate attacks quickly.
Use BOTH flanks.

Excellent post BC, it’s been a while since I commented on here. Congratulations on being contacted by Chelsea and appearing on the official website, I used to read your blog back in its beginning days and its great to see how its come such a long way, I’m very proud of you.

Liverpool lose today and City draw, great results for us. A couple wins would propel us to 3rd in the table. We’ve gotta finish the campaign strong.

Good:
1. Our London neighbours (Fulham and WHU) did a brilliant job!
2. ZIGIC and MARTINS!

Bad:
1. Clattenberg is an arse-hole! Ship him out to Antartica for licking Rooney’s arse!
2. Sri Lanka, Wigan and Federer all lost against my wish!
2. I wanted England to win it against India, nevertheless it was a thrilling tie!

The buck does stop with carlo…and it’s time to pay the price with him being first on the line with others also in need of the chop..maybe roman can arrange a little trip to siberia as a parting gift…we hear today cole shot a student with an air rifle which apart from being a gross act of stupidty becomes a symbol of the relationship between the caoch and players….. which is a coach who is too close to the players and afraid to make the tough decisions in getting the best out of a group of gross under achievers….could you imagine someone playing around like this under ferguson….I think not, I think this team has reached it’s use by date, a project started by Mourinho which then becomes fitting he starts the next new project…rebuilding a new chelsea, one which regardless of the result, at least we can respect as a group of fighters, who give 110% every game rather than go through the motions!

Did Ash really shoot this kid with the rifle or was it an accident? What is a rifle doing there in the first place. I dont wanna make excuses but i am pretty sure the Manure loving media are actually waiting to unsettle us again. Come on guys, why do we always give the media people ammo to attack us. And surely there must be someone in the team who keeps leaking these stories out. KTBFFH

just to lighten up
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/blogs/football-banter/Ashley-Cole-shoots-Chelsea-work-experience-intern-and-fan-Tom-Cowan-with-airgun-The-web-s-Top-10-jokes-article708677.html

Yes, he did shoot the kid…with his excuse being he didn’t know it was loaded…durrrr…..mmm….you don’t point a weapon at anyone especially if you’re not sure if it’s loaded or not, fullstop…why he had the thing there who knows but again my point is carlo lets them have too much lattitude when he should be kicking their arses…he should have had a ball practising either his crosses or penalties! Anyhow, I think we can win against united who again lead a charmed life with the FA and referees…Rooney just got off the elbowing incident which is a total farce as having seen it, there is no doubt there was an elbow to the ear totally off the ball! The referees says he saw it but it was only a coming together of players..yeah right, rooneys elbow to macarthies ear hole at force! As martinez (coach) said add this to scholes dirty tackle on macarthy he was a target for united with both players deserving cards. Well carlo learn from the master, as ferguson has been initimidating referees year in and year out, to the point, where referees don’t give cards and the FA is too scared to act. On teams, I would follow the danish set up….and go with 4.4.2 with anelka and torres up front…but have essien on the right of mid and ramirez on the left to track their full backs and lamps and luiz in the middle…with lamps given the job to make life hard for scholes as he is the catalyst for many attacks and everyone winding up rooney as he has a short fuse but we hope it’s not too windy as nani could be falling over a lot! If the boys show some fight winning is more than possible against a team who are predictable.

I was amazed at the lack of atmosphere and energy at City of Manchester on Sunday. City had no energy or sense of mission. What a waste of a hugely talented squad. They’re still not a team. That’s good for Chelsea.

The Ashley Cole thing is much ado about nothing. It was an air gun, a pellet gun. He was stupid to aim it at a person. But unless it’s a sign that interns are being bullied, it’s not a big deal.

BC, we’ll have to agree to disagree. Certainly Carlo is more reluctant to play kids than Ferguson. But that is not the fundamental problem. As I posted earlier, when your team scores 15 fewer goals-to-date than last season, and your two top scorers have disabilities, trouble is inevitable.

ps In honor of Ashley Cole, please rename this post “Where Does the Pellet Stop?”

And the answer, of course, is in the hide of a 21 year-old intern.

The other strange sight this weekend was watching Real Madrid struggle to score against Deportiva.

A star-studded attacking midfield trio of Ronaldo, Kaka and Oezil couldn’t do the job. Such talent. So little production.

Benzema was poor at the point. He wasted at least two golden opportunities.

It just shows how important it is to have an in-form striker, even for Jose.

excellent post

I was wondering how Mourinho would deflect attention from Madrid’s failure to defeat a weak Deportivo side.

When in doubt, go after the officials! A tried and trusted strategy. He blames La Liga for scheduling a Saturday match after a Tuesday Champions league fixture.

Weak. But you have to go with what you have.

BlueChampion:

I know how. I saw the match too. If I were a Real Madrid fan, I’d have been proud of my team’s showing. Madrid gave it all. They produced so many opportunities. Though they didn’t score, they played so very well.

They didn’t win, they didn’t score and Madrid have virtually no hope of winning La Liga.

Sound familiar?

Here’s a prediction. If either Chelsea or Madrid find a scorer who can net them some consistent goals, everything will suddenly be all better again.

Funny how finding a scorer in form can change things. (I, like you, wish Sturridge had been given a chance when he suddenly blossomed on January 6th.)

BlueChampion:
You don’t hear Jose saying that his players are not giving their best because he firmly thinks that it’s his job to make his players give their best. Refer Ibrahimovic’s comments last week:

Interesting claim.

Jose Mourinho doesn’t criticize his players in public? You might want to Google stuff like that before you write it!

Because I did. And here’s what I found. From The Special One. While at Chelsea, no less!

“Maybe we are not as good as we think, maybe I am not such a good boss, maybe the players are not such good players. What can you do with Paulo (Ferreira), with Geremi? Nothing. The players have no qualities adapted to the game opponents are playing against us. Andriy Shevchenko, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Salomon Kalou are just not performing,”

Jose Mourinho
Manager, Chelsea FC, December 30th, 2006

All — repeat, all — managers occasionally use the media to motivate their players.

Although frankly, I don’t think that’s what Ancelotti was doing. He was just stating the obvious.

Kinda like Jose Mourinho did on December 30th, 2006. :-)

i have to agree with wxwax here, personally i have never been a big fan of Jose mourinho and his school of thought, he is and forever will be a short term manager, he needs a helluva budget to function and is very bull headed, he has decided that Benzema is not for him so he publicly slams the player, damages his confidence, stops playing him, and gets a b-grade replacement called adebayor. Who will never match up to even a part of benzema’s talent.
Madrid are also a club i hate, their strategy is buying the best player of every big club and trying to make a team, they have forsaken their youth system which produced such greats in earlier years, and look now how they lag behind Barca.

People criticize Carlo for winning only one league title with AC but they forget that Milan had a shoestring budget, they contend for the title only now when they have brought in Zlatan, Robinho and Cassano. Who did Carlo have? boriello and Inzaghi. In his first season here he won the double, its only his second but people think they all know better than him, give him three-four seasons atleast, and lets not make the club a joke with musical chairs in the managerial area.

Roman did bring in a lot of cash but unfortunately zilliions of glory hunters as well.