Mourinho: In his pre-match conference, Jose Mourinho spoke about the importan t options a short injury list allows him. Today ahead of the visit from Aston Villa, the manager emphasises that strength in depth is available if he chooses to bring fresh faces into his selected team. This was confirmed by the way Chelsea went about overcoming Bolton in the midweek cup game with a side showing nine changes from the league match at Manchester City. Pointing out the risk which sometimes occurs in contests against lower division sides, Mourinho was pleased with the all-round display on Wednesday, including from the less experienced players fielded. ‘The young players did well,’ he says. ‘Many times you start these games and you see a lazy team, teams waiting for things to happen, but from the first minute my team was there, playing good football, playing fast, playing intense, creating chances. ‘The Bolton goalkeeper was the player with most influence in the game so I was happy with what we did collectively, and generally they had good individual performances. ‘Every one of these players they showed they can play in my team,’ he reports. ‘I am going for stability with Gary Cahilland John Terrybut Kurt Zoumashowed clearly he is ready to play when we decide or when we need him. The same with Filipe Luis. ‘ Cesar Azpilicuetaplayed many times in the first team, the same as Oscar and Andre Schurrle. ‘Loic Remy is getting his form. He is not playing a lot, Didier Drogbais the same, and John Mikel Obihas already played in three matches in the Premier League including Manchester City and Everton and so Mikelis one of our important players. Nathan Akehad a fantastic performance on Wednesday. Everyone showed they are ready.’ Especially prominent in our midweek game was Schurrlewho for periods of the game seemed to be involved in almost every effort on goal. Mourinhodiscusses this stage of what has been a momentous 2014 for the German. ‘Against Bolton Andre played fantastic. He really wanted to make an impact in that game and his performance was really good. ‘It was important for him to play 90 minutes and I don’t forget he was one of the guys, like the Brazilians, who reached the last stages of the World Cup. Their holiday was very short and they couldn’t train so hard to be ready to play in the first matches. ‘It is one thing for a club to have in last part of the World Cup one defender, one attacking player and one goalkeeper. We had players who all play in the same position - Ramires, Willian, Oscar and Schurrle. So I couldn’t say you four, have holidays because I can do without you. I couldn’t do without them. ‘So I need them step by step. Not one of them is in super form at the moment like you see with Cesc Fabregas, Nemanja Matic, Branislav Ivanovic…so it must be step by step.’ Summing up the season seven games in as we face a Villa side who are as close to us as anyone in terms of point, Mourinhodoesn’t pick out any one performance over the rest. ‘We did well in every match. We had a period at Burnley when the team played fantastic and we had the same against Leicester and Swansea for a certain period. ‘We were deadly in counter-attack against Everton, we were fantastic the way we defended collectively against Man City. ‘We have had very good periods but in the end what is important is in this moment nobody is ahead of us. We look down and we see the other 19 teams, but we have to improve in every aspect, no doubt!’
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 05:52:58 +0000
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