After a stunning 2014-15 English Premier League season where Chelsea outclassed other teams to win the title comfortably, Jose Mourinho would never have thought that his team will see such a drastic slump in its form a few months later.
The last year’s table toppers have lost six out of 11 matches this season and are struggling at the 15th place in the EPL table. Forget about winning the league, it would be a big surprise if the Blues finish among the top four and book a Champions League spot.
There are talks all over media that Mourinho could be sacked anytime but is he the only problem? And will getting rid of him solve all the issues at Stamford Bridge?
There are reports about unrest in the dressing room but this can’t be used as an excuse by players for not stepping up to give their 100 per cent on the ground. If you have some disagreements with the coach, then you have to sort it off the field so that the team doesn’t suffer.
Players like Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Nemanja Matic, who were the top performers for Chelsea last season, have looked completely off colour so far and club’s veterans like John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic are now past their prime and have made blunders in crucial matches.
On April 26, Hazard was given the PFA Player-of-the-Year trophy. Six months later, the Belgian who was compared by many to the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo earlier this year is on a rapid decline and hasn’t scored a single goal this season. Against Liverpool, he created zero shots, played zero crosses, didn’t take a single shot and even failed to complete a single take-on in the match. So why is that Mourinho is facing all the heat? All he can do is make a game-plan and instruct his players from the sidelines. It is up to the top players to take the lead on the pitch and execute those plans and strategies.
Frank Lampard, Chelsea's all-time top scorer and one of the greats of English football, said that Mourinho lacks leaders at the club and feels the lack of direction on the field is main reason for their downfall this year. "That must be a personality thing. I don’t think I’m being overly critical man by man. I know the boys. They are all good lads who want to do the right thing but some people are leaders, some people are vocal in the dressing room, some people probably show a bit more presence at certain moments on the pitch," Lampard told Sky Sports on Monday.
This is probably the worst phase in Mourinho’s coaching career and it is for the first time that so many things have gone wrong for him at the same time. He has always had issues with the English FA but this season his fines have reached a new height. After the £50,000 fine for his rant against Southampton, Mourinho has now received a total of £190,000 worth of monetary fines this season.
The Portuguese feels that the FA and the referees have played a big role in Chelsea's bad run but he has now also accepted that that the team played poorly in the opening phase of the league this season.
The 2-1 win against Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League on Wednesday doesn’t change anything for Chelsea in the EPL but it will give some confidence to the squad before their key encounter against Stoke City on Saturday. Mourinho must have breathed a sigh of relief and the positive thing to take away from the CL win was that the team responded brilliantly after Dynamo scored the equaliser before Willian’s late winner rescued his team.
The fans at Stamford Bridge made it clear that they are behind the Special One and that the club owners, who have been very patient during the team's poor run, need to give Mourinho more time to rebuild the team during this transition phase.
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