José Mourinho has admitted he has endured "the worst period" of his managerial career during Chelsea's stuttering start to the season and moved to offer public support to the champions' increasingly beleaguered right-back, Branislav Ivanovic.
The London club languish seventh bottom in the Premier League, with eight points from seven matches, and welcome Southampton to Stamford Bridge on Saturday with his team still digesting their midweek Champions League loss at Porto. There have been inquests at the team’s training base in Cobham this week, with manager and players desperate to instigate an upturn in form and results, and Mourinho is convinced the club is united in seeking a revival.
“I define it as the worst period in my career with the worst results in my career,” said the Portuguese. “I get it as a fantastic experience – an experience that I don’t want to repeat. I want to finish it tomorrow and win some matches again. I think it comes too late [IN MY CAREER]. To come after 15 years is too late, but it’s something that is helping me to be better. A great negative experience. It’s the worst period, the worst results. I’ve never lost so many matches. That’s a fact.
“But we [manager and squad] communicate openly. There are no prima donnas crying. Everyone wants to do well and accepts the criticisms, knows the job and knows what is letting the team down. Nobody wants to do that, but that’s the reality: for the second goal against Porto, Maicon should have been surrounded by three of our players, but they failed. They let the team down. But they know. We spoke about it because we try not to make mistakes, and when you make mistakes you have to speak about it.
“You know what I call that? In football? ‘Coaching’. Coaching. We speak about it. If it happens in the first half, we speak at half-time. If it happens in the second half, we speak the next day. Never after the game. Never. But in here we speak openly: ‘You did that’, ‘you could have done that’, ‘you could help your mate’, ‘I did that mistake but you could do a bit better to compensate for my mistake’. I don’t have prima donnas who cannot be criticised.”
Arguably the player whose form has been criticised most to date this term has been Ivanovic, the vice-captain who has retained his place – he has only missed the Champions League game against Maccabi Tel Aviv to date – and even taken the armband with John Terry dropped to the bench. Asked about the 31-year-old's poor form, Mourinho said: "Well, that's something I speak about with Ivanovic.
“Ivanovic likes to speak with me, and Ivanovic likes to speak with me about his mistakes, and is not crying. He’s not crying, he’s not a prima donna, and I’m critical with him. We speak about what he has to do to try and improve. I have no doubts he is my best right-back, and that he has to improve in some aspects of his game this season. Simple as that.”
Terry could return to the starting lineup against Southampton with the trio of players who were omitted from the travelling party to Portugal – Oscar, Loïc Rémy and Radamel Falcao – all pushing for a place in the team.
“I was told by my assistant, [the first-team fitness coach] Chris Jones, who stayed in London and didn’t travel that, on Tuesday, they worked fantastically well,” added Mourinho. “That was the first reaction. They could have stayed here and not shown motivation but, because they knew they could be selected for the next match, they worked very hard and well on the Tuesday. It’s not easy to do that when the team is playing and you’re not with them, but they found that motivation. So fantastic. Then, in the last few days, normal business, working well. With me, everyone is working well.”
The Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah will complete a permanent move to Roma at the end of the season after the Italian club took up an option to make his loan move permanent for an undisclosed fee.
(Guardian service)
