Chelsea’s José Mourinho has ascended to legendary status in the realm of football managers by hauling in 21 trophies in only 15 years to this point in his career, a staggering success rate that will cement him as one of the best to ever patrol the touch-line by the time he steps away from the game. Mourinho’s fundamentally defensive methodology has been the foundation of his empire, although this season his Chelsea team have left much to be desired when it comes to closing out its most important matches.
Essentially, Mourinho’s approach aims to minimize the opportunities of an opponent while relying on counterattacking to produce chances on the other end. As Mourinho’s populous trophy case – which is bolstered by seven trophies won during his two stints with Chelsea – illustrates, the strategy is extremely effective when executed correctly. As Mourinho has said in the past, there’s nothing easier than winning 1-0 in football.
A downside to this approach, however, is that it is not aesthetically pleasing at times and when it backfires, it has a way of amplifying frustration. That’s not to say reactive teams cannot produce beautiful football, as Chelsea have shown before. But the beauty of this style is in the results, and when a result does not come – as it didn’t on Wednesday against Paris Saint-Germain – Chelsea supporters often find themselves boiling with vexation.
While incredibly effective at minimizing opportunities for opponents, Mourinho’s style can also limit the number of opportunities for his own side. When Mourinho is only equipped with the likes of Fernando Torres, Demba Ba and an aging Samuel Eto’o at centre forward, as he was last season, this aspect is not magnified; with relatively weak options at striker, Mourinho’s approach played into the strengths of his squad in 2013-14. This season, though, with the powerful Diego Costa up front to go along with a burgeoning Eden Hazard on the wing and the passing virtuosity of Cesc Fàbregas in the midfield, this factor is highlighted. With such an array of attacking talent in his armory, Mourinho seems to let it go to waste a bit at times by relying too heavily on counterattacks, which must be executed with razor-sharp efficiency to create scoring chances.
But despite the potential drawbacks of Mourinho’s conservative approach, it reaps successful results far more often than not. With the type of attacking talent Chelsea have assembled currently, one or two goals per game even against strong competition doesn’t seem unreasonable even if the Blues predicate their plan on stout defence. Unfortunately for Chelsea, the ugly side of this style has reared its head in big matches this season.
While the 2013-14 Chelsea side perplexed with its struggles against inferior opponents, which ultimately costing them in the race for the Premier League crown, they thrived against the best competition. Against the other three teams to finish in the top four of last year’s Premier League table – Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal – Chelsea won 16 out of a possible 18 points (88 per cent) with five wins and one draw in six matches. So far this season, the Blues have won just six out of a possible 12 points (50 per cent) against the other current top four sides of Man City, Arsenal and Manchester United with one match remaining against Arsenal and United, respectively. Last year’s Blues also took down Galatasaray and PSG en route to the Champions League semi-final round, while year’s squad was ousted in the round of 16.
Chelsea made routine work of Arsenal in a 2-0 triumph at Stamford Bridge back in October, but otherwise have only managed draws against the rest of the top four despite scoring first in all three of their matches against Man City (twice) and Man United. Other than that, Chelsea have only managed wins in two other matches of great significance, albeit those victories – a 1-0 extra time win over Liverpool and a 2-0 win over Tottenham at Wembley – brought home the latest addition to Mourinho’s silverware collection less than two weeks ago in the Capital One Cup.
While Chelsea have managed to cough up leads in some of their biggest domestic matches, their struggles in closing out games are not limited only to match-ups with the top of the EPL table. According to ESPN FC’s Migeul Delaney, Wednesday’s draw with the Parisians was the 10th time during the current campaign that Chelsea have scored first and failed to win a match, which is very much uncharacteristic of a typical José Mourinho side. Chelsea also conceded an equaliser after opening the scoring in the first leg against PSG, and managed to concede equalisers twice in a match for the first time all season on Wednesday, bringing the issue to a fever pitch in the frustrating fallout after the Blues’ exit from European competition.
Adding to the concern is that several of the concessions have come late in matches and some have even come to undermanned opponents. At the Etihad in September Chelsea allowed 10-man Manchester City to equalize via former Blue Frank Lampard, just as they allowed 10-man PSG to equalise twice late on Wednesday, once in the 86th minute and then again in the 114th minute in extra time. Likewise, Manchester United stole two points from the Blues in October with a Robin van Persie strike in the fourth minute of stoppage time at Old Trafford.
The debacle against PSG on Wednesday provided a microcosm of Chelsea’s struggles this season. Even while facing a 10-man side for 90 minutes of the 120-minute contest, Chelsea seemed to play without urgency and sat back rather than taking the action directly to PSG and forcing them to cope while down a man. Despite having a dribbling wizard on the left wing in Hazard and a predator of a striker in Costa (although he is admittedly out of form), among others, the Blues were passive and the lack of killer instinct played more and more into the hands of the Parisians the longer the match went on.
Although Chelsea did not concede from open play, a pair of stellar headers off corners eventually lifted PSG through by virtue of away goals, illustrating just how slim the margin of error is when attempting to win with such an unadventurous approach.
With similarly conservative displays against City, United and PSG at the Parc Des Princes producing draws already, the Blues have been bitten a number of times by their conservative style during this campaign. Failing to maintain leads is undoubtedly an issue for CFC, and one that the manager will be eager to repair. The good news for Chelsea is that José, the ultimate pragmatist, is the perfect man to provide a fix, and despite the late match frustrations the Blues still sit five points clear atop the Premier League.
While a treble is out of the question, the season still has the potential to be a special one for Chelsea if they take care of business, as they should, and capture the Premier League crown on the 24th of May, although it would be a great help if the Blues could return to locking down matches in typical Mourinho fashion.
To hear more from Scott, you can find him on Twitter @ScottCrumbly.
