Mourinho: Chelsea Lack Strength To Challenge For Title

Mourinho: Chelsea Lack Strength To Challenge For Title

Jose Mourinho has conceded that his Chelsea side are lacking in squad strength needed to challenge for the Barclays Premier League crown.

Chelsea have not had the best of starts to the Premier League, and it is hardly the perfect return to Stamford Bridge for Mourinho, who left his managerial post at Real Madrid to take on the role at West London. Despite bringing in talented players like Samuel Eto’o, Marco van Ginkel, Andre Schurrle and Willian, the squad have not clicked as a unit to execute the elaborate plans set out by the Portuguese boss. Players like Frank Lampard and John Terry have tried their best to inject positivity in the squad by using their experience, but nothing has worked in the favor of the Blues. Demba Ba has not been able to get himself in the first team much, and Fernando Torres has yet not seen his best form return.

Mourinho seems to have taken some hasty decisions like the one to send Romelu Lukaku on loan to Everton. Lukaku has been scoring freely for Everton, and his sheer pace combined with physicality has proved a handful for defenders so far this season. Also, the decision to leave out Juan Mata from the starting eleven has worked against Mourinho, who feels Mata has yet to improve to get into the first team. Mata won multiple awards last season by players and fans alike for the best performer of the season, but has hardly featured in the first team ever since Mourinho took over this summer. The new signings will take time to integrate in the squad, but time is not on Chelsea’s side, as Liverpool and Arsenal continue to dominate.

According to ESPN, Mourinho has accepted that his squad has not been good enough to challenge for the title, but insists that his methods will take time to show, indicated by the fact that Chelsea’s league position in the past few seasons has not been close to the top spot.

Speaking ahead of the Norwich game, Mourinho said, “We need to be more consistent. If you see the position of Chelsea in the last leagues and the difference of points from Chelsea to the champions, you can imagine that even with a magic click – that I don’t have – it’s not easy to recover 20 points. It’s more than one click.

“For a club like us it’s not good to be 15, 20 points behind.”

“I don’t think we are strong enough at this moment to have that kind of run of victory, victory, victory.”

“We will, for sure, we will. In this moment I don’t think we are.”