The Special One: How Jose Mourinho Inspires Chelsea Players

There is nothing I love writing about more than when my beloved Chelsea put in a sterling performance. It’s about time too, I feel as if too often these days I’m dissecting games trying to figure out what went wrong and trying to get into Mourinho’s head to see what he was thinking.

Chelsea gained a very valuable three points last weekend at Craven Cottage with a 3-1 win over Fulham. In a very interesting turn of events, all three goals were scored by Andre Schurrle, and all were within 16 minutes of each other in the second half.

During this game it seemed as if two different Chelsea sides took the pitch during Saturday’s game. I can’t lie, the first half was a sorry performance, but the blues stepped it up in the second and earned their three points.

Now, what I’m going to try to do once again, is get into Mourinho’s head. What makes him so “special” and what are his reasons behind certain decisions? Today, I’m going to try to wrap my head around the wonder that is Jose Mourinho and what he is doing for Chelsea this season.

According to espnfc.com, Mourinho was completely silent in the locker room during half time at the Fulham match. The reports claim that he had no words for the team after their first half performance. I’m sure that choice is what really lit a fire under the Chelsea players for the rest of the match.

I think the man is a genius. Now, what would most managers have done in that situation? Yelled of course. They would have gotten in the face of the players making mistakes telling them that if they don’t do something soon they’ll be benched.

Mourinho knew that this was an important match to get three points from, he knew that his team didn’t play as well as they should have mid week in Turkey, and that they were probably fatigued. Sometimes saying nothing is a lot more effective than yelling and screaming. It’s like as a kid, when you’re in trouble and your parents tell you that they’re “disappointed in you” and walk away, you feel a lot worse than if they would have just yelled at you.

The Chelsea players probably felt as if they let their manager down, they were embarrassed and his disappointment in them made them all want to step it up just so they can prove to him that they are capable of playing like a team and scoring goals. However, the only time using the silent treatment on your team will actually work is when your team has a massive amount of respect for you, like the Chelsea players with Mourinho. The Chelsea squad want to do well for Mourinho, and all it took was the look in his eyes for them to realise that.

I also wish that I could watch an entire week of training as well, so that I could have a better understanding of Mourinho’s team selections. If a week ago you would have told me that a Chelsea player would score a second half hat-trick during the Fulham match, Andre Schurrle would not have been my first choice, or even my second for that matter.

Schurrle got the start in the midfield over veteran Frank Lampard as well as Willian, who has been doing very well since his recent start at Chelsea. It was a risk putting the German in, but Mourinho went with it and that risk paid off. Hopefully, after this match, Schurrle will get another chance to prove himself and could perhaps earn a more permanent spot in the first team.

I think that Jose Mourinho is a wonder to us all. He says what he wants, he does what he wants, and for some reason, we always let him. I think that Chelsea fans, like myself, have an odd fascination with the man.

He can do no wrong, and we love him for it. 

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