Jose: Terry IN, Luiz OUT; Courtois to Real Madrid not happening

Jose Mourinho conducted his weekly pre-match press conference at Cobham ahead of tomorrow’s League game against Everton. He talked about the fitness of John Terry, Luiz’s recent minor injury, Galatasaray, Thibut Courtois’s future and many other issues.

To start things off, Jose Mourinho confirmed that Captain John Terry is fit and ready to Everton after a very positive week of training for the entire team.

‘John Terry is fit and he plays,’ said the Portuguese boss.

Mourinho on facing Galatasaray and on David Luiz’s injury:

‘And I don’t think about Galatasaray. So the team will be the team I think is the strongest team for the game. It’s important to have him back, especially because David Luiz is not fit.’

‘David Luiz is injured, he’s feeling some pain in his muscle, he’s not ready for this game but hopefully he will be ready for the next one. The next game is in the Champions League where we will have two players less than normal because Matic and Salah cannot play. We need him, if possible, to be ready for Galatasaray.’

The Boss on John Terry‘s importance,

‘It’s important, especially because now we don’t have David. If we don’t have David and John the situation is even more difficult, so the fact John didn’t play but David did, and now David can’t but John is ready, gives us that balance.

He’s a stable player, not a player that makes lots of mistakes. He has a basic level of performance that gives stability to the team. Every team, especially one with a lot of young players, needs stability from the back and that stability from the back is something which is keeping us in a good position in the league.

For me, the captain’s armband doesn’t mean so much. What really matters is the voice on the pitch. Many times I can’t control that, especially when they are defending the goal far away from my position. Sometimes there are things to control, like the distances, position of the defensive line and the line where we start pressing the opponent. To have a player on the pitch with this kind of voice, to transmit what I need, is important.’

Jose Mourinho also spoke about our opponents tomorrow, Everton. He said,

‘They are a very good team, they’re playing well and getting good results. They are in a position in the table that reflects the quality of their team and obviously it will be a very difficult match for us. They defend well and are dangerous on the counter attack. They have a very experienced midfield with players like Barry and Osman who give them stability to their game. They are a team with good balance and they are a difficult opponent.

‘I don’t think statistics play a part, it’s an isolated game and it doesn’t matter what happened in the past. We think we can beat them because we believe in ourselves and we worked hard during the week to be at a good level for the match. We are not influenced negatively or positively about what happened in the past. It will be a good weekend for us if we can beat Everton. To lose points at home is never good.’

Now to wrap things up, Jose Mourinho also played down talks of Thibaut Courtois joining Real Madrid next season. He was in sharp form as usual as he said,

‘I don’t give assurances to any player. A player who has a contract with Chelsea, has a contract with Chelsea. If someone wants a player with a contract, we have to know. The problem is when you want a player and the player belongs to another club. When you want a player and that player belongs to you and he has two more years on his contract, it is easy to say you have no problems.’

Thats all we have for todays’s press-conference. Do let us know what you think about the many issues Jose Mourinho talked about and adressed today. Courtois? JT? Luiz? Drogba’s Galatasaray?

KTBFFH!