Is Jose Mourinho delivering on promises in his second Chelsea spell?

Rotation or lack of it

Terry played every minute of the Premier League in the 2014-15 season

Rotation is considered a major part of modern day football. A club has a duty of resting players and keeping them fresh over the course of the season. But the question is, does rotation disrupt the benefits of continuity and having the same squad week in week out? That’s probably what Mourinho believes.

Though known for being pragmatic and changing as per the need of every game, he invariably tends to find a way to adapt to the players at his disposal. Even in matches that are considered to be of reduced importance like the Carling Cup, he preferred to stick to his first choice team. Was it why the performances of the team who was so dominant in the first half of the season, began to decline come mid-season? Where the usually highly entertaining matches started to become drab affairs.

Mourinho’s teams are usually up there fighting it out for the title come the end of the season. So when the lots for the latter stages of the Champions League are drawn, Chelsea usually end up with a tight schedule involving playing a tough opponent in between mid-week clashes of continental football.

So rotating a few of the players would help in improving competition for places and keeping the players on their toes and also maintains fitness of the players and provides opportunities for fringe players like Cuadrado to impress.

Integrating Chelsea’s youth or Loan shark Club?

Ruben Loftus-Cheek is backed by Mourinho to make the switch to the first team

Chelsea’s youth team has been dominating the junior circles for a couple of years. But none of Chelsea’s young guns have come close to knocking on the first team doors. That may be because of the labyrinth of doors of Chelsea’s complex loan system they have to pass through to be able to stake claim for a first team place like Thibaut Courtois.

Mourinho though, has gone ahead and staked his reputation on coming good on his promise of integrating youth into his first team by saying that he would have failed if players like Ruben Loftus Cheek, Lewis Baker, Isiah Brown and Dominic Solanke fail to make the cut.

A handful of appearances he handed Ruben Loftus Cheek at the fag-end of last season when the title was safely in the bag shows some promise on that end. And although two more of Chelsea’s youth stars got a debut last season namely Dominic Solanke and Isaiah Brown, both of them are set to be loaned out come this season.

Highly rated youngsters like Christensen and Kalas have been sent out on loan again and Chelsea are reportedly trying to sign John Stones from Everton for a fee in the region of £30M. Though it might be argued that Stones has a larger potential than either of Christensen or Kalas but isn’t it worth giving them a try?

The Special One has talked about how age and experience has seen him evolve and become a different manager than he used to be. This still seems like the same short-term formula for instant success he’s applied everywhere. Do you believe he would really come good on his promises? Or is this yet another mind game he is trying to pull on us?