Chelsea players always get dropped.

 

Other teams players always get rested.

Diego has admitted he went into the season as a bit of a chunky monkey. 

 

I’m going to be very honest. Maybe a few weeks ago, five of six weeks ago, I was not on top of my game. At least physically.

 

“We talk within the players and we know that maybe at the beginning we were not 100 per cent as we were supposed to be when we got here. I got injured at the end of the season and then I went on holiday. Maybe I got out of my diet and when I came back I was not the way I was supposed to be. I was a little bit overweight. That affected my game.

 

“You can be selfish and blame it on the manager, but I’m not going to do that. I’m responsible 100 per cent and so are the other guys. We know we’re not in the best form we were supposed to be at the beginning of the season.

 

“We need to blame the players because we came back from holiday very confident, and we thought we could go back into how it was last season, and then when we actually realised in the situation where we were, the team was already in a bad situation. So all we can do now is train very hard and work very hard, and try to get back to that level where we were the season before.”

 

He's also joined Terry, Fabregas and Zouma in coming out in support for Mourinho. 

 

"I’m here because I’m happy with the manager, I’m here because my team-mates have gone away to the international break, I don’t like giving interviews, but I’m speaking for the group.

“We all feel the same way about Jose, for example when I played in Madrid, people respected me much more, the supporters and the crowd.”

 

“He’s very direct, straightforward, he always speaks what he thinks and what he believes to be the truth. Sometimes it’s not what people want to hear. It’s the way he is and it’s why sometimes they criticise him.

 

“There are managers who always say what people want to hear. I think that’s not good. I’d rather have someone who tells me straight up what happens rather than sweet things that I want to hear.

 

“I have been here for more than a season, I have seen sides that have lost much more games than Chelsea, and no one criticises their managers. They can say whatever they want about Mourinho, but inside the dressing room, he is completely different from the idea people have of him.

 

“If you ask a million players who they want as their manager, they will all come back with a top three list of Mourinho, Guardiola and Simeone. It was one of the reasons I joined Chelsea .”

 

Got to say Diego was looking a bit leaner and sharper against Porto compared to the start of the season where he was noticeably sluggish. 

 

Worrying that it sounds like a lot of players maybe went into the new season not in the best condition, why was this allowed to happen? 

 

Hopefully Diego is close to being full match fitness now and will start banging them in again, we need it. 

Young guys who have just won the league and cup double probably thought it would just be easy again. A short pre season wouldn't have helped either. Hopefully the players and the club have learnt a lesson by this and it won't happen again.

Probably another sign of how we miss the experience of people like lampard, drogba, cech and cole

Young guys who have just won the league and cup double probably thought it would just be easy again. A short pre season wouldn't have helped either. Hopefully the players and the club have learnt a lesson by this and it won't happen again.

As much as it pains me I think I partly agree with this, I think they thought it would be easy again and unfortunately weren't given a talking down by experienced players or indeed Mourinho. Obviously I have absolutely no knowledge of what was said or their mind-set but I do wonder if lack of experience of kicking on again after being crowned champions has hampered our start.

Could all be complete rubbish mind.

Nah, its 100% mourinhos fault.

what will the press do now? Mourinho told them to ask the players whether they wanted him, and unfortunately for their headlines they do!

Have been saying he looked overweight fron the start of the season. Was very encouraged by his performance against porto and he looked like he did at the start of last season appearence wise. Let's hope he gets his head down and starts firing in the goals now.

Quite a few looked to be carrying extra weight after pre season

Costa

Fabregas

Hazard

Quite a few looked to be carrying extra weight after pre season

Costa

Fabregas

Hazard

 

Yup, especially Hazard. He seemed to have lost a yard of pace since the start of the season.

https://twitter.com/MailSport/status/652399398580789248/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/MailSport/status/652399398580789248/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

 

I think it's really unprofessional to be honest, why are some of our players letting themselves get so out of shape ? No wonder why we look so slow this season.

Agree its strange how we have allowed him to get in that shape when our fitness team see him every day. Good news is against porto he looked back in shape and the 2 week gap since then I'm sure he has put in the hard yards. Remember he had hamstring injuries at the end of last season and in pre season so obviously spent more time resting than training.

the money they are paid is it too much to ask of them to stay in shape !!

I'd have thought the club Dr would monitor their weight, the GP monitors every day folk!

Quite a few looked to be carrying extra weight after pre season

Costa

Fabregas

Hazard

I'd add Matic but you've already mentioned the extra weight he is carrying: Fabregas.

Ha!

Lol although Matic has been just as poor as anyone

considering they had a summer of football and a few weeks off before pre season its pretty scary how quickly they let themselves go!

Have to question if they want it badly enough since they turn up out of shape for pre season.

He was very well behaved last night, wasnt he?

No squaring up or hard man bravado, just got up from the knocks and got on with it.

I think it was a well contested match last night, very physical but very fair.

Costa didn't get much change out of there centre backs though, both seemed to have a physical advantage, and we hit far too many balls into costa head height.

We need to play it to his feet more to give him more of a chance of holding it up, as he did well a couple of times yesterday, laying a nice ball of to ramires, and earning us a free kick to relieve the pressure.

He was very well behaved last night, wasnt he?

No squaring up or hard man bravado, just got up from the knocks and got on with it.

I think he's starting to put his head down.. even after his goals on the weekend he wasn't content, knows we need more.

Presumably it's based on the instructions from the manager. If he was playing aggressively it was because that's exactly what Mourinho wanted him to do; I know he's a naturally aggressive player but I don't think he particularly lacks discipline nor is he stupid.

 

Clearly now after the public furore about his antics and the FA having focused on him in the past, the risk of picking up further long suspensions is too great considering the alternatives and Mourinho has told him to tone it down.

He's on soccer saturday this weekend haha, will have to watch it

Not sure how thats gonna work since he hardly speaks a word of english

Edited October 22, 201510 yr by Zola