One of the most mystifying aspects of this current Premier League season Jose Mourinho's continued indifference to Juan Mata, Chelsea's reigning player of the year. Despite grabbing 19 goals and 35 assists last season, the Spaniard has been one the bench/subbed off in ever game this season, and as ex-Red Jamie Redknapp discovered last night, it seems that Mourinho is growing tired of the constant questioning of his approach to Mata.
Two days ago, Redknapp posted a column on the Sky Sports website slamming Mourinho for his failure to utilise Juan Mata effectively this season.
After Chelsea's 2-0 victory over Fulham on Saturday, Redknapp interviewed Mourinho live on Sky Sports, and the Portuguese made it clear that he is not impressed with the conclusions reached in the aforementioned article. He snapped:
"I understand many people including yourself like Mata [but] you cannot compare a number 10 [Oscar] with a player that plays wide on the right and chases the fullback up and down.
"You are paid to have an opinion, I am paid to put my ideas into practice. I think you are very good, but the Chelsea manager is Jose Mourinho, not Jamie Redknapp"
Chelsea's form at the moment is patchy at best, and with only three wins in eight games, it's inevitable that people will question the treatment of Mata, a player with an incredible creative return for Chelsea over the last two seasons. The questions will continue unless and until Chelsea go an on a long winning/unbeaten run, at which point Mourinho will be able to deliver a two-fingered salute to his doubters as his his strategy will appear to be working.
Liverpool were linked with a move for Mata on transfer deadline day, and what an amazing signing that would've been. With the world cup fast approaching, the Spaniard will no doubt be worrying about his place in the national team, which could conceivably prompt him to seek a move during the January transfer window.
It would be amazing to see Liverpool pull out all the stops and make Mata the number one transfer priority in January. At Anfield, he would undoubtedly get regular playing time, and with time running out, the fact that LFC is not in the Champions League may be less important than the chance to showcase his talent on a regular basis.
Alas, I can't see it happening. After wasting so much money during the Dalglish era, the club seems reluctant to spend big on players, with Mamadou Sakho being the only notable recent exception. One thing is, however, clear: Liverpool need another Coutinho-type creative player in the squad, and that should be a major priority during the upcoming transfer window.
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
Two days ago, Redknapp posted a column on the Sky Sports website slamming Mourinho for his failure to utilise Juan Mata effectively this season.
After Chelsea's 2-0 victory over Fulham on Saturday, Redknapp interviewed Mourinho live on Sky Sports, and the Portuguese made it clear that he is not impressed with the conclusions reached in the aforementioned article. He snapped:
"I understand many people including yourself like Mata [but] you cannot compare a number 10 [Oscar] with a player that plays wide on the right and chases the fullback up and down.
"You are paid to have an opinion, I am paid to put my ideas into practice. I think you are very good, but the Chelsea manager is Jose Mourinho, not Jamie Redknapp"
Chelsea's form at the moment is patchy at best, and with only three wins in eight games, it's inevitable that people will question the treatment of Mata, a player with an incredible creative return for Chelsea over the last two seasons. The questions will continue unless and until Chelsea go an on a long winning/unbeaten run, at which point Mourinho will be able to deliver a two-fingered salute to his doubters as his his strategy will appear to be working.
Liverpool were linked with a move for Mata on transfer deadline day, and what an amazing signing that would've been. With the world cup fast approaching, the Spaniard will no doubt be worrying about his place in the national team, which could conceivably prompt him to seek a move during the January transfer window.
It would be amazing to see Liverpool pull out all the stops and make Mata the number one transfer priority in January. At Anfield, he would undoubtedly get regular playing time, and with time running out, the fact that LFC is not in the Champions League may be less important than the chance to showcase his talent on a regular basis.
Alas, I can't see it happening. After wasting so much money during the Dalglish era, the club seems reluctant to spend big on players, with Mamadou Sakho being the only notable recent exception. One thing is, however, clear: Liverpool need another Coutinho-type creative player in the squad, and that should be a major priority during the upcoming transfer window.
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
Mata yet to start a game? He's started two in the Premier League, the last one being at Everton.
ReplyDeleteMata is the most talented and kind person at Chelsea, It is a disrespect to him and all Chelsea fans, that you come here to destroy his confidence and joy to play for Chelsea. We as fans are completely happy with Mata being the conductor at Chelsea, and you as a employee at the service of the club has the responsibility to nourish and enhance Mata's qualities , not the contrary Mourinho.
ReplyDeleteI believe you are acting cowardly abusing your managerial position and do not deserve the idol position you held among Chelsea fans.
Keep Mata and Luis and Azpilcueta frozen because your inability to deliver good football strategies not centurions playing for survival and the results will probe you are wrong very soon at the Europa League were you belong.
i hope he comes to liverpool in the jan sales
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.
ReplyDeleteLeave him on the bench Jose!
Mata is a massive player and is not wise to treat him without respect. Mark my words, the second coming of JM will be a disaster for him and for Chelsea...
ReplyDeleteLiverpool has to make some serious desisions for the next transfer window. If our team is to do something about "top four task" has to buy two players: One defensive midfielder (Lucas cannot be our only DM for the whole season) and one attacking midfielder (Mata is great, but I cannot see it happen).
Strong words JOSEPH.You must be the only CHELSEA fan who isn't caught up in thinking MOURINHO is Godlike.
ReplyDeleteRafa won again ................. ;)
ReplyDeleteMata would be awesome but there's no way we could pull it off, probably 30m+ for him.
ReplyDeleteFor me, Suso is the answer if we are looking for another Coutinho type player, can't wait till he gets back.
Redknapp was put in his place! in the couch far far away from any action.
ReplyDeletefking twat how dare he question Jose ,if Mata is not here yet after that confederation cup then Oscar will take his place end of Story!
The type of play we need to buy is that Almeria kid, Suso...oh wait..
ReplyDeleteCan't see it happening..we are far behind in queue if he's available..
ReplyDeleteMidfield issues show we are not as deep a team as we need. Eriksen, Lomela and HK! UGGH! We never pulled the trigger and any one of these guys would have the made a huge difference and provided the role of the old Stevie provided. Coutinho can't be the only serious midfield threat on the team but that's where we are at the moment.........
ReplyDeleteTotally agree, I would also have played 3 CBs.
ReplyDeleteThe wing backs in mine would be ultra attacking though and I would have dropped Gerrard back to help Lucas, put Moses upfront and played Alberto behind.
...Although I thought this before the game, hindsight is easy I suppose
Yet they never managed to actually win the league, spent huge amounts of money on far too many average players which in the end saw us drop out of the top four. One step forward, two steps back.
ReplyDeleteRafa and Reina ruling Serie A, defeated Dortmund. Envy...!! Good wishes to both of them though. Reina the first keeper to save a Balotelli penalty and is impressing everyone at Italy with match winning performances. We can get a better transfer figure now, hopefully from Rafa himself. Funny how Anfield rejects (Rafa and Reina) ruling Serie A and CL group stages out there....
ReplyDeleteWe haven't won the league in over 20 years. Those two guys produced the best Liverpool teams in the PL era, the idea that they took us "backwards" isn't really based in the reality of where Liverpool have been over our recent history. Of course they made mistakes but if your only benchmark is to win the league then you're very most often going to fall short. For all our ambition as a club what did we get back sacking Houllier and then Benitez? We sure haven't won the league since then, and the only time we've gone backwards is after they've gone. The facts remain that the best Liverpool sides in recent times were under either Houllier or Benitez. They are, in terms of percentage wins and trophies, our best managers in the PL era. Not winning the league means there was always still something to aim for, but at some point you have to come to terms with reality and accept that not doing so doesn't mean the manager should be sacked. It's only fans and press stuck in the past that can't come to terms with that. We're not the team we were in the 70s so our achievements need to be put in some kind of relative perspective.
ReplyDeleteRight, five games in and let's focus on our own club for a second rather than Chelski. Summer transfers out? Shelvey, Suso? Doesn't seem like such a good idea now does it? Summer transfers in? Aspas, Alberto, Sakho? Impressed yet? Money spent - 48 million. Money spent on reserves - 15 million. Money well spent - 9 million. The 15 million spent on reserves would have signed us Eriksen. The remaining 39 million wasted would have signed us Lovren, Wanyama and would have left us with some 20 million to burn. So let's let chelski fans worry about Mata and let us focus on the mismanagement and sheer magnitute of incompetence in the transfer market at Anfield.
ReplyDeleteBR fluffed it big time.his team selection was very poor n why does he insist on playing aspas we jordan ibe wud of done a better job.how do u play 2 centre backs wen u hav 2 natural full backs available?
ReplyDelete1) We did not need to panic-sign two overpriced CB's at the end of the window. Signing someone like Eriksen would have been far more important.
ReplyDelete2) Sakho was not deemed good enough for the first team at Paris when Alex was fit, in the judgement of two consecutive managers. This should tell us that he is not as good as any of our 3 senior CB's, and paying 15m for him was an act of folly. Presenting him as our 'Marquee' signing was outright idiotic by Ayre.
Obviously, Rodgers has pressure to select his "Marquee" signing ahead of cheaper players who are better than Sakho. The result is that Sakho was partly at fault for both Swansea goals and already cost us two points there, while Toure was kept on the bench. And now we are getting Sakho at LB. He is the new Downing who will be played ahead of better quality players that will be kept on the bench. More politics from incompetent management.
Bang on m8, there lies the problem. A half decent manager should see that. Our midfield is the worst for over 40 years, long gone are the days where we always had probably the best midfield. Can't see us improve on last year tbh.
ReplyDeleteI fail to see realistically what choice Rodgers had. Clearly his hands were tied at the back, what with him unwilling to try Wisdom once again after his poor showing at Swansea, or lacking the back up options to fully rest Enrique, who it seems had some knee trouble, and Agger, who as we know was rushed into the squad. Might it have been better to play a fit Wisdom and replaced Agger's error-prone, not entirely fit capability with Toure's organisation of the defence which was sorely lacking? It's easy for us to say that Rodgers made the wrong decision, and I admit to having done that myself. But we had the chances to score and win the game despite us not playing at our best. Should Wisdom have played? Despite playing a reserve game, should Kelly have been risked? Clearly Rodgers had those decisions to make and chose not, it is his fault we only lost one nil? Not entirely, but he and the players have to and will shoulder the blame for a lacklustre, poor performance, but roll on Wednesday, and let's kick those Mancs out of the Capital one cup!
ReplyDeleteIf Kelly is not fit, why put him on the bench? we also had Wisdom, that's two right backs on the bench. Enrique was fit to start, if he has a knee problem he would not be able to participate, still he came on. Agger was not fit, yet Rodgers found it easy to risk him, even Agger said he should'nt have played! Is Rodgers trying to keep all four Center backs happy? Rodger DID have a choice and blew it. He also blew it by failing to get in a defensive midfielder during the summer.
ReplyDeleteI watched him play the other day, he gets so much more time on the ball than anyone in the BPL does.
ReplyDelete'Funny how Anfield rejects (Rafa and Reina) ruling Serie A and CL group stages out there'
ReplyDeleteBit early to get carried away and Napoli were hardly mid-table fodder last season. Just like it was a bit early to get carried away when we were top of the table after 3 mere games. Rafa has made a lot of changes to a side that was already one of the better sides in Serie A but kudos to him, if he pulls it off as its a lot of changes (somewhat had to make changes as they lost Cavani). He didn't sign Insigne but he is a little gem.
I'm please for Guiseppe Rossi after rotten luck with injuries. Has hit the ground running at Viola.
Best article I've ever read on here. Well balanced mate. I think Rodgers should've given McLaughlin a shot at right back tbh. Wisdom was dire against Swansea and has centre back written all over him. The game was lost by Rodgers though. Southamptons fast paced pressing game was always going to be too much for a Gerrard-Lucas pairing. I'd have played:
ReplyDeleteMingolet
McLaughlin, Toure, Sakho, Kelly
Hendo, Lucas
Aspas, Alberto, Moses
Sturridge
A) you need wingbacks for our system.
B) you need a mobile central midfielder to press the opposition.
C) you need a proper playmaker in our style, not a converted forward.
Gerrard to come on for Alberto about 60 mins. Sterling for Aspas about the same time. Enrique on for McLaughlin/Kelly if either had tired. Tbf, Enrique did damage his knee in training and when he came on, it was very noticeable.
Hopefully Rodgers does learn though. We often show lenience towards young players but forget that Rodgers is a young manager.
Scary how productive Ozil is, especially when you take into account how he can have quiet spells in a game. End product.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, good to see players coming good after these long layout. Everyone was buzzing about Gomez but it was Rossi who took everyone by surprise. Amazing talent, hopefully he stays fit.
ReplyDeleteNapoli and Inter are surprising me most. Walter Mazzarri is something!! Leaving a team like Napoli and joining a team in their worse period was a suicide job but ain't he something..!! I would like to see him replacing BR ;-)
redknapp and ince were europe's best forget keane and scholes and zidane and redondo but these boys were legends in there own minds i hated redknapp he was a sh*t danny murphy and stevie gerrard was better at 19
ReplyDeleteNever mind MATA we have enough problems at Anfield - really dire on Saturday and I fear that Man U will be really hell bent on beating us Wednesday - and probably will.It was just so bad against Saints
ReplyDeleteGoing to watch the under 21 tonight to see if there is JUST ONE who will be able to make the grade.Time has come for some of these kids to grow up or move on. -Coutinhio took 2 minutes to acclimatise
ReplyDeleteNo. Liverpool had those decisions to make in the last window yet in stead of deciding on what is good for the club, it decided to invest heavily in players who do not improve the first team right now. They let us down last summer, they've let us don this summer and I'm pretty certain January will be the same.
ReplyDeleteHe is though.
ReplyDeleteMata is a class act, and would walk into pretty much any team. Love to have him but unfortunately i think there will be more appealing suitors for him come january, thats unless we're top of the league of course :)
ReplyDeleteClassic Mourihno though, like a bold child, the more you tell him he can't do something, the more he wants to do it.
On the other side of the arguement though, I was impressed with Oscar last season, and his performances this year have been superb, Chelseas stand out player by a mile, and i wouldnt be dropping him either, but surely there's room for both.
Come to Liverpool Mata, we will play you!
ReplyDeleteCould this turn in to another free Kagawa type thing? lol.
Take your point, i was seething for two days after sat and railing against the team selection etc. We have missed out on Eriksen thats for sure, said since may that he should have been no1 prority, wanyama a quality type too.
ReplyDeleteBut after two days to calm down maybe its time to look at where we are in the league, the start we've made. Points are what matter, and its a decent haul from the first 5 games.
I'm still worried, but think the time for panic has not yet come.
We need at least 7points from Sund Palace and Newc. Anything below that and i think i will start to doubt our ability to challenge for even europa.
I dont expect a win against utd on weds. I expect a big backlash from the derby.
In his own head alright :)
ReplyDeleteI imagine he has a self portrait hanging over his bed :)
lets hope moyes continues to not play kagawa then maybe we could try ..... kagawa could force a transfer for playing time
ReplyDeleteRead what the secret footballer has to say about mata. a very interesting perspective, with some very valid points.
ReplyDeleteJust like our Brendan does? :P
ReplyDeleteNah he has a life sized marble sculpture, anatomicaly correct aswell....
ReplyDeleteYour just Chelsea's second team enough said
ReplyDelete