Mourinho’s special ones: Chelsea’s most hard working front-four

Much has been said about José Mourinho’s reluctance to play Juan Mata since taking over at Chelsea this summer for his second spell in charge.

Mata has twice been voted Chelsea Player of the Year, due to his seemingly effortless knack of finding the killer pass throughout the last two seasons in English football, however under new management and a new regime, the Spanish playmaker currently finds himself warming the substitutes’ bench.

A decision that has fans, pundits and journalists scratching their heads in disbelief.

On first glance it may appear that the Portuguese manager has lost the plot. Did his refusal to play Iker Casillas sour the man? Do the grey hairs signify battle-hardened individual under the strain of constant expectation, teetering on the edge of insanity? Sure, the “Special One” has changed since his abrupt departure in September 2007, but his reason for omitting Juan Mata is based purely on tactical ideologies and philosophies. There is method in the madness.

According to a BBC Sport interview with José Mourinho in September, Mata needs to “adapt to different realities” and “transform a few things in his game”. He is of course referring to his desire that all attacking players carry out greater defensive responsibility – harrying from the front with a high defensive block, thus restricting the number of passing possibilities for opposition players.

But, if Juan Mata has been ousted from the Chelsea first team, why do Eden Hazard, Oscar and André Schürrle find themselves scribbled onto the team sheet at the earliest possibility? What qualities do they add, remembering that Chelsea’s great leader demands a large proportion of defensive contribution from his front-four?

Well, having ventured into Squawka’s vault of statistics, I have constructed an infographic to help demystify the reasons behind Mourinho’s choices.

The image highlights Chelsea’s attackers during the past two seasons – 2012-13 and 2013-14 (the current campaign) – and their tackling contribution, sorted in descending order by the average number of tackles won per game.

The number of appearances includes time spent on loan at other clubs, as well as the number of appearances played at their previous club (from the 2012-13 season) before making the switch to London.

So, for example, Demba Ba has 36 appearances alongside his name due to the fact that he played 20 times for Newcastle United in 2012-13 prior to signing, and featured 14 times for the Blues throughout the remainder of the season. Finally, two further league appearances have been made during the current 2013-14 campaign.

For further clarification, the number of appearances for Romelu Lukaku, Marko Marin and Victor Moses etc, includes time spent on loan at West Bromwich Albion/Everton, Valencia and Liverpool respectively. And while I understand that the strategies and philosophies differ at the aforementioned teams (varying pressing systems), I felt that it would be reasonable to include their defensive contribution at these clubs.

Infographic Analysis

Hopefully you’ll be able to see that Oscar is by far the most active player when it comes to the average number of tackles won per game (1.67). Within Mourinho’s current philosophy, the tricky Brazilian is deserving of his place. Whereas Juan Mata has averaged 0.40 tackles per game since arriving at Chelsea, and as such, flounders at the wrong end of the table.

André Schürrle and Eden Hazard take fourth and fifth spot respectively, while Fernando Torres has won 27 tackles in 32 appearances, averaging 0.64 tackles per game. However, their statistics are worse than the marginalised Kevin De Bruyne.

Throughout his time at Werder Bremen last season, and the three league appearances for Chelsea, the 22-year-old has averaged over one tackle per game, thus achieving a place within the top three. Therefore, based purely on statistics, it would seem that José Mourinho has made the wrong decision.

Although, if we scrutinise Kevin De Bruyne’s rival, André Schürrle, his reasoning may become clear.

• Kevin De Bruyne is 22-years-old and has played one season in the Bundesliga – 17 caps for Belgium, 4 goals.
• André Schürrle is 22-years-old and has played four seasons in the Bundesliga – 28 caps for Germany, 11 goals.

Due to the differences in footballing experience (years in Europe’s elite leagues), closeness of tackle statistics and attacking contribution, you could argue that Mourinho has made the correct decision. For the time being at least.

In conclusion, after analysing the average number of tackles won per game, combined with José Mourinho’s desire for his attacking players to contribute defensively, it would seem that the 50-year-old manager’s decisions are founded on statistical evidence. Fernando Torres, Eden Hazard, Oscar and André Schürrle are very much deserving of their place within the starting eleven.

See, I told you there was method in his madness.