Mourinho on the brink after defeat
Abramovich running out of patience after Liverpool stun broken Blues
ROMAN ABRAMOVICH is prepared to fire the most popular manager in Chelsea history if Jose Mourinho fails to turn results around at Stamford Bridge.
The club slumped to a 3-1 defeat at home to Liverpool yesterday — their third loss in a week — and are now a staggering 14 points behind Barclays Premier League leaders Manchester City.
Chelsea supporters repeatedly sang Mourinho’s name during yesterday’s dreadful performance against Jurgen Klopp’s team, but the club have now made it known that his job is under threat.
Mourinho, who spent 15 minutes talking to his coaching staff in the centre of the pitch after the latest demoralising defeat, will take charge of training today.
He saw his side take the lead through Ramires after four minutes yesterday but Liverpool sliced them apart after that, with Philippe Coutinho’s double and a goal from Christian Benteke setting Klopp up for his first league victory.
Chelsea have now won only one of their last eight games — a 2-0 defeat of Aston Villa on October 17.
FOR Jose Mourinho the painful, pitiful truth is that he has tried every trick in the book to bring these Chelsea players back onside.
Nothing has worked and nobody inside that dressing room is listening anymore to the manager. They’re done with him, that much is clear.
Mourinho revelled in his billing as the master of motivation and mind games when he gained a reputation across European football as the game’s ultimate trophy hunter. Now the players who won the Barclays Premier League title and Capital One Cup last season have lost faith and trust in him.
Yesterday they capitulated, unsure and uncertain about their individual roles even though Ramires had converted Cesar Azpilicueta’s fourth-minute cross from the left.
Why? Because after so many Mourinho outbursts in the dressing room and at team meetings this season they are no longer capable of listening to him. His voice is just noise now.
They were well beaten yesterday, humbled and embarrassed by the brisk, adventurous football that Liverpool’s players have taken to playing under new coach Jurgen Klopp. Philippe Coutinho’s goals were both peaches: one from his left boot to equalise two minutes into added time in the first half, one from the right that beat Asmir Begovic deep into the second half.
By the time substitute Christian Benteke scored Liverpool’s third seven minutes from time, Mourinho wore the haunted look of a man who had run out of ideas.
Liverpool were superior in every department, tactical and technical. That will hurt Mourinho because the illusion he created, that of a supercoach with no equal in this sport, is suddenly making fools of us all. It turns out the guy is not infallible.
This is Chelsea’s sixth League defeat, their third setback in eight days if you include the League Cup penalty shootout exit at Stoke City on Tuesday. It feels as if we are a long way into the end-game.
Beyond Ramires’ goal this performance was shameful, one of the meekest surrenders in Mourinho’s history as a coach with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid.
It was chaotic. In times gone by this Chelsea team would have dug in for the afternoon, suffocating the silky skills of Roberto Firmino, Adam Lallana, Lucas Leiva and Coutinho if it meant they could eke out a victory. Here they crumbled.
Starting with the obvious and increasing influence of Lucas, Liverpool launched their attacks from deep and moved the ball as quickly as they possibly could through midfield. John Obi Mikel and Ramires, starting ahead of Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas, obligingly allowed Liverpool’s players to comb through them at pace.
At times, when Firmino dropped deep, he was outstanding.
Klopp’s team recovered from Chelsea’s early strike, dominating possession and waiting for one of the flicks from their enterprising forward line to finally pay off.
It did at the end of the first half when Coutinho gleefully curled the ball beyond Begovic after a neat interchange between James Milner and Firmino.
Mourinho, waiting at the top of the tunnel, turned on his heels and made his way to the home dressing room the moment Begovic was beaten. That stunt has long since lost its impact, if indeed it ever had any. He had been irritable on the touchline and you know things must be bad when his irksome sidekick, Rui Faria, is leaping off his seat to calm his manager down.
The Special One was annoyed with the Normal One when Klopp drew an imaginary square in the air for the benefit of referee Mark Clattenburg when he missed a first-half foul.
While Mourinho later made no mention of Diego Costa’s kick at Martin Skrtel, for which he could have been sent off, he had demanded a second yellow card when Lucas stupidly body-checked Ramires. At least he was right about that.
By the time Mourinho replaced last season’s PFA Player of the Year Eden Hazard with Kenedy, sheer panic had spread across his defence as substitute Jordon Ibe and Lallana sliced through the lunges of John Terry, Gary Cahill, Kurt Zouma and Azpilicueta. All four defenders were awful.
Oscar’s impudent lob from just inside Liverpool’s half which Simon Mignolet palmed aside was Chelsea’s only meaningful attacking contribution of the second half.
This was Liverpool’s day, with the eyes of Lucas, Firmino, Coutinho, Lallana and Ibe lighting up every time they were in possession. They are enjoying the game again.
Liverpool’s second goal arrived via the masterful Coutinho, feigning to shoot on the edge of the area before finally wrapping his right boot around the ball to find the back of the net.
When Benteke wrong-footed Chelsea’s defence with a neat turn and planted his effort beyond Begovic, it caused Mourinho to miss his mouth with a swig of drink, the manager spilling it all over his light blue shirt.
Much more of this and there will be another jaw-dropping moment pretty soon.