Mourinho mad with his medics
IF IT’S not match officials, it’s his own staff. Jose Mourinho decided against lambasting referee Michael Oliver and his assistants on Saturday and instead took his frustration out on Chelsea’s medical team.
According to Mourinho, his staff do not understand the rules of the game. Not like him, anyway. He accused them of such after club doctor Eva Carneiro and physio Jon Fearn ‘unnecessarily’ treated Eden Hazard in the third minute of injury time during their draw with Swansea, potentially costing Chelsea a stoppage-time winner.
The Barclays Premier League champions were gifted a set-piece from the foul by Ashley Williams, yet under FA rules were forced to launch their final attack without the forward who made a clean sweep of the Player of the Year awards last season.
No Hazard, no winner, was the gist of Mourinho’s point as the manager risked igniting a row with his medical team.
Even worse, the decision to treat Hazard left Chelsea vulnerable to defeat. They were already down to 10 men, having had goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois sent off for a last-man offence on Bafetimbi Gomis after 52 minutes, and were temporarily l eft with nine.
Swansea were a counter- attack away from becoming the first team in Premier League history to beat the previous season’s champions on the opening day of the following campaign.
That annoyed Mourinho, who rarely refrains from speaking his mind. After all, this is a man who last season made an impromptu television appearance on Sky Sports programme Goals on Sunday to debate why Burnley’s Ashley Barnes got away with nearly breaking Chelsea midfi e l der Nemanja Matic’s leg.
He may not have needed a television studio sofa this time, but Mourinho made his frustrations just as clear about Carneiro and her staff.
‘It was the physio and the doctor,’ said Mourinho.
‘ The problem was that I had 10 men and the moment the medical department puts a foot on the pitch, then I have nine men.
‘So for them to do that, they must be sure the player has a real problem and not a little knock.
‘And with my experience and the way I read the game, I could clearly see it was not a problem.
‘But without any doubt they went on to the pitch and left the team with nine men. Without any doubt, if you are involved in the game, then you have to understand the game.’
Mourinho previously had limited sway over when Carneiro and her medical team could approach a player on the pitch — a liberty which could be restricted following this incident.
Yet he may have brought this upon himself. In January, the manager gave Carneiro an earful after he felt she was not quick enough to treat Oscar during an FA Cup thirdround tie. The Brazilian star had required t r eatment after hi s clash with Watford goalkeeper Jonathan Bond, but Carneiro did not diagnose the problem to Mourinho’s liking.
The Portuguese felt he was not told whether he needed to prepare a substitute in enough time and Oscar played on until being replaced by Diego Costa.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, in other words.
‘I was not happy with my medical staff. Even if you are a kit man, doctor or secretary on the bench you must understand the game,’ the manager added after his team had been held by Swansea.
‘ I was sure he (Hazard) hadn’t a serious problem.
‘He had a knock, he was very tired. But my medical department — on an impulse — was naive and left me with eight outfield men in a counterattack after a set-piece.’
It i s no secret that when a game does not go Mourinho’s way, he will l et his annoyance be known. There was the red card for Courtois, which resulted in Swansea’s equalising penalty from Gomis, and a denied spot-kick for Chelsea when Costa went down under a challenge from Swansea defender Federico Fernandez.
Both decisions irked Mourinho on the touchline, yet he resisted temptation afterwards.
‘I expect the referees to do their job well,’ was all the manager would say. ‘That’s what I expect.’ Instead, it was Carneiro who had to bear the brunt. Still, at least referee Oliver and his assistants will be thankful that was the case.