An FA Cup defeat for Chelsea to League One side Bradford City at the weekend was a thrilling example of the enduring ludicrous nature of cup competitions, but it was hardly a legitimate worry for the Premier League side over the longer term of the season, beyond losing the chance to win that particular piece of silverware.
After the match, manager Jose Mourinho made all the right noises, calling the defeat "embarrassing, a disgrace and shameful," per the Telegraph, but has since also added a note about the lack of depth in his squad.
As reported by the Independent, Mourinho fears a lack of real numbers could affect the chances of trophies, saying: "I don’t want to speak too much about this, but it is easy for you to understand now why I play almost every game with the same players. I don’t make many changes. I try to keep stability in the team. Maybe now you can understand a bit better why."
While in principle his point might be right, in that a team needs great depth to win major trophies in the modern game, Mourinho really has no leg to stand on in arguing Chelsea are being left short.
Summer Sums
Loic Remy, £11 million. Filipe Luis, £16 million. Cesc Fabregas, £27 million. Diego Costa, £32 million. There were also outlays for £2 million Mario Pasalic and the considerable wages of free transfer Didier Drogba. Those were the major incoming deals for Chelsea over summer, a not-inconsiderable expenditure of around £90 million.
Of course, outgoing players recouped much of that—around £80 million from David Luiz, Demba Ba, Romelu Lukaku—but it was still a busy old time for the cheque-writers at the Bridge. Money was there, spent and allocated according to the squad needs.
Elsewhere, Mourinho or the club opted to let Oriol Romeu, Tomas Kalas, Marco van Ginkel, Ryan Bertrand, Victor Moses, Christian Atsu, Gael Kakuta and plenty of others depart the club on loan—not to mention released Samuel Eto'o, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard on free transfers.
If further depth was required, it was there in the summer; Mourinho simply chose not to keep those players around.
Marginalised Players
Bradford City's comeback win—three goals in the final 15 minutes to win 4-2, having been 2-0 down—was the stuff of dreams, but also the stuff of the FA Cup. As in, it was a one-off, a combination of opportunism, fortune and belief all mixing at the right moment.
Chelsea could play out the last 50 minutes of that match another 99 times and go through comfortably each time.
It's not as if it was a team of has-beens and unwanted individuals who took to the field: Petr Cech was the league's best stopper up until this season while Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta and Oscar are all part of the first XI. Ramires, Jon Obi Mikel and the two new forwards, Drogba and Remy, aren't exactly cast-offs either. Only young defenders Kurt Zouma and Andreas Christensen could be labelled new to the English game, with the sole figure of winger Mo Salah in a bit of a shop-window appearance.
Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Willian came off the bench.
Mourinho referenced his stability in picking the same players in league play, so perhaps he needs to take some accountability over the management of his players.
Sooner or later, every year, players either suffer injuries or losses of form. Mourinho knows this and must expect squad options have to come in and play their part—but when they feature barely at all for weeks on end, that's his decision and it is inevitable they might lack sharpness, match-long fitness or not be mentally keyed-in as much as they should be.
Rotation isn't just about keeping regular starters fit, but also about keeping those on the fringes involved, fighting for chances and ready to step up at a moment's notice.
Deflecting Pressure
Of course, this isn't anything new to Mourinho—he's perfectly aware of what his words are for.
The Chelsea manager has a two-fold reasoning for shifting the focus elsewhere: firstly, it takes the questioning off the performance and the defeat to a side two divisions lower than his team and shoves it firmly back in the direction of the last couple of days of the January transfer window.
It doesn't matter if Chelsea spend or sell; it's simply the last thing people will remember about his post-game quotes—"not enough depth"—and an easy theme to hit next time he has to speak. It will be a case of "any transfer news?" rather than "how have the squad coped with being beaten by inferior players?"
Secondly, it's a shield against his first-team players for the rest of the season. Months ago people were already saying the title is Chelsea's, the Premier League is heading back to Stamford Bridge. Now, without those players all being directly involved, Mourinho has given them a layer of protection: we always have to play the same players, we can't change things too much, they could get tired.
It's nonsense of the highest order, but it doesn't matter. He'll be able to refer back to it later in the campaign when the odd defeat comes Chelsea's way and point to a quiet January when perhaps the signs were there against Bradford, or some other such convenient bluster.
Nonsense, but masterful, protective, well-timed nonsense. Mourinho has proven over and over again he's the best not only at winning trophies, but at keeping his players away from bad press. A couple of league victories and this loss will soon be forgotten in the grand scheme of the season, especially with the next fixture a top-of-the-table clash against Manchester City.
Of course, some might be thinking if Bradford can defeat Chelsea, Manchester City surely can too...except for that pesky FA Cup doing its thing again. Well done, Bradford. Well done, Middlesbrough.
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