Mourinho- Busy Festive Period Calls for Mental & Physical Wellbeing

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has spoken on his love for the busy but difficult winter period in England and the best approach to its arduous demands.

The ‘Blues’ will look to extend their 17-game unbeaten run (all competitions) at home to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday afternoon and a win could stretch their lead over second-placed Southampton, who are due to play Aston Villa on Monday, to seven points.

Mourinho’s side are involved in eight Premier League matches, the last two rounds of the Uefa Champions League group stages and a trip to Derby County in the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup before the New Year.

Jose Mourinho Loves the Winter Period But Acknowledges the Challenges Ahead for the Players. Image: CFC.
Jose Mourinho Loves the Winter Period But Acknowledges the Challenges Ahead for the Players. Image: CFC.

Despite his fondness for the busy calendar over Christmas in England, the Portuguese acknowledges the impact so many matches can have on players, yet deem it best you take each game one at time.

He explained: “I go match by match. I know we have seven Premier League games, plus two Champions League games and one in the Capital One Cup (up until Boxing Day).

“It’s a different phase, yes, but it doesn’t mean we can train more. In fact, the number of matches is so high that the days in between games are so few it doesn’t improve our training programme, but we know what we have and the good thing in England is it’s the same for everyone.

“When you go to the second part of the season and some English teams are hopefully in the Champions League and Europa League, these teams will pay the consequence of such a different winter compared to other countries.

“It’s something I love, it’s very difficult for me but especially for the players and their bodies, but it’s a beautiful period. I look forward to the marathon Christmas period.”

Both Diego Costa and defender Filipe Luis, who joined from Spanish club Atletico Madrid last summer, should rather start dreaming of an all new Christmas in London, more so adapting to its newfound challenges- such they had missed all the while in their previous environment.

Mourinho revealed on Friday that the club’s leading goal scorer- with ten goals- is now in a good shape after an extended period of rest and recovery, having been exempted from internationals on the back of his winning goal against Liverpool a fortnight ago.

It has been a relatively good season for Chelsea so far in terms of injury concerns. The 52-year-old opines “many of the factors that contribute to good or bad numbers are not under control” while others “are pure luck.”

“There are certain types of injuries that you can do things at a certain level but there are factors that can kill your strategy, especially when players go to national teams when the situation changes because the habits change,” Mourinho said.

“But I’m not saying the others work badly and we work well, but the human body needs adaptation.

“It is not fair to criticise any club or manager for certain numbers of injures. We try to do our best, our medical department works also well at the prevention level, but you never know.”

Chelsea have yet to drop out of any competition on all front and fancy heading into the coming weeks with as much of its resources in good and healthy condition as possible. Mourinho however stressed there is a thin line connecting the physical requirements of his squad to its mental approach as concerns putting paid to a heavy workload this festive season.

“We have to take care of the players with our training and recovery programmes with the experience we have on that,” he added.

“Our staff has experience of many seasons in English football, it is very important, and also the presence of other experienced players is important in making them anticipate the other problems of that marathon.

“The mental aspect is fundamental because if you don’t do it in a happy way, if you think I should be having Christmas with my family in Spain or Brazil or France or wherever, or the guys from the Spanish or German leagues are on holiday on beautiful islands getting the sun, then I think you can’t do it.

“So you have to do it happy like I do. The positive side is a lot – giving the people what they want. If you are feeling it in any positive way it makes you happy and if you are happy it is not so difficult to do.”