Well no-one can be bored, as it has already been a most interesting season with the “Special One” back at the helm as I think we all knew it would be. Losses to Everton in the League and Basel in the Champions League has had the media buzzing and some fans panicking but order was restored on the weekend as Mourinho guided Chelsea to a 2-0 win over West London rivals Fulham. So far we have clearly not been at our best as the boss looks to try and figure out what his best team is but we are still 4th in the League only 2 points behind Tottenham and Arsenal.
Mourinho has tried a number of formations and combinations, for example: using Andre Schurrle as a striker and also as a attacking midfielder; using Samuel Eto’o as the loan striker and pairing him with Torres; but his use of two-time player of the year Juan Mata is the most surprising of his moves.
Mata was virtually ever-present in the Blues lineup last year but this season he has started only 2 games, finishing neither and has made one appearance as a substitute, registering no goals and no assists so far in his few opportunities. Mourinho has made it clear that Oscar is his 1st choice as number 10 and you can understand his thinking with the rich vein of form that the the Brazilian playmaker is in but when players like Hazard and Willian look off the pace it is most surprising that Mata has featured so little when the Spaniard would surely offer more than either of these two players with the form they have shown so far this season.
Seemingly Mourinho identified a plan for Chelsea when he came back in June and that clearly only includes Mata as a bit-part player and the Portuguese manager is certainly one to stick to his guns so I don’t think his usage of Mata is going to change much in the near future unless Oscar gets injured.
It is a long season so there is plenty of time for things to change but going on what we have seen so far you can certainly see AVB trying to reunite with Mata at Tottenham as we reported a couple of days ago. I don’t think Mourinho would be foolish enough to let Mata join a rival where he could show up the manager’s decisions to leave him out especially during the season but the Spaniard is a class act and if he does not get more game time then you can see him trying to force a move to another club and clearly there would be no shortage of suitors with Tottenham, Man United and Arsenal among the many clubs who admire him.