{"id":3881,"date":"2014-05-03T02:46:12","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T02:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=3881"},"modified":"2014-05-03T07:55:53","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T07:55:53","slug":"mourinho-admits-playing-dull-game-blasts-eden-hazard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/mourinho-admits-playing-dull-game-blasts-eden-hazard\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourinho Admits Playing Dull Game… Blasts Eden Hazard"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jose Mourinho has admitted he has made Chelsea dull to watch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But he insisted it was the only way the Blues could\u00a0qualify for the Champions League. Mourinho revealed he changed his side\u2019s tactics after they shipped six goals in four days at Sunderland and Stoke in December.<\/p>\n

Chelsea could finish the season empty-handed after their midweek European exit, with criticism raining down on Mourinho after he \u201cparked two buses\u201d in the victory over Liverpool last Sunday.<\/p>\n

But Mourinho said: \u201cAt a certain moment of the season I made the decision to stop our evolution in style and philosophy of play\u00a0and go the only way, with this team and these players, we could get results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt we had no conditions to go as far as we did in the Champions League or in the Premier League if we didn\u2019t transform our style of play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere came a moment when I felt it was dangerous and that there was a big risk that we could be out of the top four.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we hadn\u2019t gone for a bit more stability and development of a certain philosophy, it was a big risk. So from that point the team became more strategical and less intuitive, because we went for results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the\u00a0Chelsea manager has questioned midfielder Eden Hazard’s commitment during matches.<\/p>\n

Mourinho suggested that the Belgian should have tracked Juanfran in the build-up to Adrian Lopez’s equaliser in the 3-1 defeat\u00a0by Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n

Hazard, 23, has claimed that the Blues are only set up to counter-attack.<\/p>\n

“When the comments come from a player like Eden it’s normal because he’s not the kind of player to sacrifice himself for the team,” said Mourinho.<\/p>\n

“He’s not mentally ready to look to his left-back and leave his life for him.<\/p>\n

“Normally you get these kind of comments from players like him, from players that can’t resolve a problem like we had with the first goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgainst Atletico in Madrid, Willian played on the left side and Ashley Cole was protected all game. Against Liverpool, Schurrle played on the left and a dangerous player like Glen Johnson was completely under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean I want him to change but he\u2019s not the kind of player who is ready to sacrifice himself 100 per cent for the team and his mates.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mourinho, though, insisted Chelsea who can still win the league by beating Norwich and Cardiff if both Liverpool and Manchester City blow up will be a different proposition next term.<\/p>\n

The Blues remain confident of landing \u00a332million Atletico striker Diego Costa and Mourinho said: \u201cWe have created the right basis for next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there have been games where we\u2019ve created 12 chances, only scored one and were always in trouble because we didn\u2019t have a killer profile.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jose Mourinho has admitted he has made Chelsea dull to watch. But he insisted it was the only way the Blues could\u00a0qualify for the Champions League. Mourinho revealed he changed his side\u2019s tactics after they shipped six goals in four days at Sunderland and Stoke in December. Chelsea could finish the season empty-handed after their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,80],"tags":[68,37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3881"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3893,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881\/revisions\/3893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}