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Chelsea Manager Not Happy To Play Liverpool On Sunday

 

Jose Mourinho has insisted he will be putting English football first if he fields a shadow side against Liverpool in Sunday’s first vs second tittle at Anfield.

Chelsea boss Mourinho is still seething at his treatment by the FA, and at the Premier League’s refusal to shift the Liverpool game forward 24 hours to give him more time to prepare for Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg with Atletico Madrid.

Mourinho demanded more “respect” for his team from the footballing authorities, insisting he would have bent over to help Brendan Rodgers’ Reds were the boot on the other foot.

And while he briefly demonstrated his lighter side, suggesting the FA response to his remarks about Mike Dean and referee’s chief Mike Riley last weekend were proof of the loss of the traditional English sense of humour, the main message was deeply serious.

“I love English football. I love it. But you know what is English football? It’s the fans. The stadiums, The yellow ball in the winter. The white ball in the summer. The FA Cup Final with Hull City in it. The FA Cup semi-finals with Sheffield United and Wigan. All of this is English football. I love English football.

“But the most important thing for me is my club, and the supporters of my club. I have to defend my club, and I have to defend Chelsea supporters.

“And, if we are not helped to try to follow our dreams and our objectives? One more reason for us to close ranks. To try and think about us and only about us.

“The priority is the Champions League because, if we win two matches, we win the Champions League.

“For Wednesday I have lost the goalkeeper, maybe John Terry, Eden Hazard and Samuel Eto’o to injuries. And I’ve lost John Obi Mikel and Frank Lampard to suspensions.

“You think if I lose one more player I have any chance to try to play the final? I don’t think we have a chance. I can’t lose more players, especially in the defence.”

That could see 38-year-old keeper Hilario, whose last appearance was in August 2011, and one-start teenager Nathan Ake in the team at Anfield, but Mourinho vowed: “Chelsea is Chelsea.

“We have to work in the maximum of our possibilities, to give everything to our club, to make our families proud of us as good, professional honest people, and we have to sleep well at night. That is all.

“But we care about English football, and I’m telling you something now: if, next season, Chelsea plays against an English team that is playing the Champions League semi-final two days or three days later, we will play the game one or two days before to give the best chance to the English team.

“At that time, we would be protecting English football without creating any problem for Chelsea.”

Mourinho declined to discuss his latest FA charge – he and assistant Rui Faria have until Monday to respond – although he added: “I told the referee he was amazing, and I repeat, he was amazing.

“Now, though, I do not feel free to speak. I read about English humour – but now Mr Bean is in jail!”