Mourinho’s tactics are simply absurd

I can only imagine how bad it feels to be a Chelsea fan at this moment. It must be confusing and heart-breaking, like a hot iron rod that’s suddenly dipped into chilled ice.

Friday, September 20, 2013
Ivan R. Mugisha

I can only imagine how bad it feels to be a Chelsea fan at this moment. It must be confusing and heart-breaking, like a hot iron rod that’s suddenly dipped into chilled ice.To have a very strong squad with top quality players but somehow play boring football must be so painful. But the most painful of all is when this boring football isn’t even winning games.Chelsea fans applauded the second coming of Mourinho as messianic – as if he was a messiah coming to make them a dominant force in England and Europe. As things stand now, Mourinho is anything but a messiah.Only in Mourinho’s world is Juan Mata bench warming material. Only in Mourinho’s world is a Chelsea draw against Manchester United worth fighting for in 90 minutes. Worst of all, only in his world is Eto’o better than Fernando Torres and Demba Ba.Eto’o, with all due respect to him in view of his past prowess, is now a washed up player. When he went to Anzhi Makhachkala, I thought he was lining up a good final paycheck for retirement, but little did I know that Mourinho still thought of him.He has now played 180 minutes for Chelsea, and they have lost both games. It must be a disgrace to a player like Ba, who was about to be loaned away to Arsenal, to be warming the bench at Stamford Bridge week in week out.Besides that, Mourinho should know that football has changed a great deal. Defensive tactics are no longer the winning formula.Even Italian clubs well known for their super defensive qualities attack these days, so defending for 90 minutes isn’t just going to work anywhere in modern football.Like I suspected, it is now dawning on Chelsea fans that Mourinho isn’t after all as special as they thought he was.Will Mourinho be the first Premier League manager to be given the boot? Did Roman Abramovich shoot himself in the foot when he decided to rehire a man he had fired in the first place? It’s only a matter of time before we find out.**************************If only Arsenal had a good second striker…Prof. Arsene Wenger has mastered the art of winning games he is supposed to lose. He has turned a fickle squad into a half-sized giant that scares more worthy clubs out of the lovely fourth spot in the Barclays Premier League.With so many injuries at the moment, it’s only a matter of time before the Gunners start to crumble. Yet one can only imagine how good this Arsenal side would be if Olivier Giroud wasn’t the only striker they had. I know they have Nicklas Bendtner but his rating is too low to be termed a worthy striker.Mesut Ozil was a perfect signing for the Gunners, but Wenger’s fault was that he overlooked the need to reinforce his striking force – this is the reason why he should make it his prime objective to buy a striker in the January transfer window.Had Demba Ba joined the Gunners from Chelsea, Arsenal would probably be a title contender.But for now, they have to concede defeat and do what they do best these days– hunt for that fourth place again.

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