'Chelsea stars may have lost focus'

14 April 2012

Most people would like nothing more than a quiet fortnight at work but Chelsea's head coach is no ordinary Jose. He is a special one, remember?

Having risen from life as an interpreter to the pinnacle European football in less than 10 years, Mourinho has no concept of leisure time and views barren weeks as a source of frustration rather than relaxation.

Mourinho without his players resembles a child deprived of their favourite toy - impatient, resentful and struggling to fill the void. Whereas his predecessor, Claudio Ranieri, would use international breaks to go and see his family in Rome, Mourinho has trotted the globe in search of work, preparing a report on the club's scouting network, attending an elite coaches forum with Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger in Geneva and launching an updated version of his autobiography in Lisbon.

Mourinho said: "I've been doing nothing and it's very frustrating. I've been working in the club, had a few meetings in different areas such as scouting and worked with the three of four players who were here.

"I went to watch the Republic of Ireland against Cyprus to show my support to Damien Duff. I kept at it but the we couldn't do the real work on improving the team and preparing them for the challenges ahead. It's been very difficult. To improve you need to train and to train you need the players, so without players there's no training, no work and no improvement. I hope they won't get worse, as that can happen."

Mourinho's big fear is that the progress he made in the first three weeks of the season could have been eroded by the players' time with their national teams. Chelsea's midfielders and strikers, in particular, have had to adapt to different roles and good habits are easily lost.

He said: "I didn't focus on the England match and was worried by a lot of games so was zapping all night. I watched the Portugal match where I had Paulo Ferreira and Tiago, the England match where I had three players and Petr Cech playing for the Czech Republic.

"I watched the first half of England, the second half of Brazil against Germany as I was very interested in Robert Huth, the last halfhour of the Portugal match and the last few moments of the Czech Republic.

"When the players go away for 10 or 15 days they can get tired, pick up injuries or lose focus. It's very difficult when they have just two days to change and concentrate on their club matches.

"You never know how the players are going to react. I'll have this same conversation with my players over the next few days and try to get their minds focused. In the next five days we have two away matches against difficult opponents and we need to get our performances right."

If Chelsea do slip below the level that has brought them straightforward wins over Manchester United, Birmingham, Crystal Palace and Southampton, then Aston Villa will be ready to capitalise. David O'Leary's side beat Chelsea twice at Villa Park last season and Mourinho is aware that his team are vulnerable.

He said: "We want to continue winning but know that one day we will lose our first match. That's football. I want to get maximum points as often as we can, both in the Premiership and the Champions League, but it's not that easy. Aston Villa is a difficult place to play. Chelsea lost there twice last season, in the Carling Cup and Premiership, they have very good players and we know what a difficult job we have."

Despite the difficult build-up, Mourinho will resist the temptation to make wholesale changes. Arjen Robben is still out with an ankle injury and, Damien Duff is unlikely to start despite playing twice for the Republic of Ireland this week.

Mourinho said: "I don't think I'll make many changes but I will see what condition my players are in. It's the beginning of the season so the players should not be overworked.

"Damien played 35 minutes against Southampton and two matches for his international team but he coped very well. He may be tired but he is feeling happy."

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'Chelsea stars may have lost focus'

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