Football
PA Sport 9y

Jose Mourinho had 'not a word' for Chelsea players after loss to Bradford

Jose Mourinho was so disappointed in his Chelsea players' defeat to League One Bradford that he dished out the silent treatment.

Mourinho was "ashamed" after watching the Blues go from 2-0 up to lose 4-2 and exit the FA Cup in an "unacceptable" performance which he described as a "disgrace."

The Blues' boss left his players to stew afterwards, saying "not a word."

"It was not the moment to speak with them," he said.

Mourinho made nine changes for the clash, which fell between the two legs of their Capital One Cup semifinal tie with Liverpool, with the second leg taking place on Tuesday night.

Mourinho has relied largely upon a tried-and-trusted starting lineup this season for the Premier League leaders.

And he hinted at a frustration with the depth of his squad after the likes of Didier Drogba, Loic Remy, Mohamed Salah and John Obi Mikel failed to impress.

"I don't make many changes. I try to keep stability in the team. Maybe now you can understand a bit better why," said Mourinho.

"But I don't want to speak too much about it. This is our squad, I trust them and let's move on."

Mourinho insisted he was not about to delve into the transfer market.

He added: "I trust my squad. And it's not because of this disappointment and this really bad performance that I'm going to change.

"I'm happy to go [until the end of the season with the same squad].

"This is Chelsea, always thinking and being proud of thinking about numbers and Financial Fair Play and so on.

"We cannot now go to the market and spend money. So I'm completely with the club. I share this idea.

"I don't think we are going to the market."

Mourinho suggested complacency might have been a factor for the poor second-half display.

"The way they arrived to the 2-0 looked quite comfortable," he said.

"But the goal they scored minute 40-something brought them into the game. After that there are things difficult to explain. Goals we miss, goals we concede.

"At halftime we spoke about the danger of the situation. We spoke about the way they play.

"We repeated at halftime what we spoke about in the preparation.

"We prepared for the game the same way we prepare for a Premier League game.

"We respected them, or at least I respected them, in the way we prepared the game.

"But probably at halftime the players thought 'in the second half we're going to score, not them'. When they scored the [goal to make it] 2-2, after that the game became crazy."

^ Back to Top ^