Jose Mourinho made his press-conference ahead of the game this weekend against Stoke City and we present you here the major talking points or interesting quotes from the Special one. Questions came from different angles about the events that transpired this past week as the Blues suffered two consecutive losses against Crystal Palace and PSG in the Champions league. The poor performance of Torres at Paris Saint-Germain also triggered questions of the Spaniard’s future at Stamford Bridge.
The Portuguese boss had insisted how he is unhappy of his strikers’ performances but, said Fernando Torres might remain at Chelsea beyond this summer.
‘Yes, he has a future. He has a contract, he’s a good professional, he works hard for the team and brings positive things to the team. Obviously we want him to score more goals, obviously he wants to score more goals, it’s not just me that wants it, he wants it.’
‘He’s had moments with important goals, despite having not scored a lot during his time at Chelsea. We have six league matches and one Champions League match that can be transformed into three. I trust that he can have these moments.’
And focus was shifted on the task ahead in the premier league against Stoke in which the Portuguese insisted it is important to start winning our remaining matches to stand a chance of winning the premier league. But, he confirmed that Samuel Eto’o and John Obi Mikel are out for this clash through injury.
‘John Mikel Obi is injured, Eto’o is injured,’ said the Portuguese. ‘Van Ginkel is on his way back but still playing with the Under-21s. Ashley Cole is back with the squad.’
Mourinho was asked about the future of another of our strikers, Romelu Lukaku, with the manager expressing his satisfaction with the manner in which the Belgian’s loan is developing.
‘He’s a Chelsea player but at the same time he’s an Everton player until the end of the season and we want to respect that,’ said the Portuguese.
‘Everton has been a good club for the loan; our player is there, he’s playing and he’s developing. That’s what you expect when you send a player on loan, it doesn’t happen with every club and every player. The loan is working well for the three – Lukaku, Everton and Chelsea.’
And finally speaking of our opposition, Jose Mourinho remembered our struggles at the Britiannia stadium earlier this season and conceded that a repeat might be on the cards unless we deliver a top performance unlike the one we did last week at Crystal Palace.
‘We lost there because we made a couple of mistakes, it’s one of the few matches where we have made defensive mistakes this season,’ he said. ‘We could have been winning at half-time easily and we arrived at half-time drawing.
‘They are a difficult opponent, we played them in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge, we won 1-0 but it wasn’t an easy match, it was open until the end, so tomorrow will be difficult. They are fresh, they play one match a week, they have no pressure and they will fight to finish the season in a beautiful position, they want to finish seventh, not 11th.
‘We know how Stoke play, they are not the kind of team who change their approach to matches. They have their identity, they are getting good results, even away from home, so I don’t see a reason for them to have a radical change.’
This were the main points from Jose Mourinho’s press-conference and we sincerely hope for a victory and three points against Stoke.
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