What's the Mata with Chelsea and Mourinho?

Chelsea fans making their opinions known

You've heard all the pundits and commentators talking about this issue countless of times. Juan Mata, Chelsea's Player of the Year two years in a row can't seem to find any room in the starting eleven. Is Jose Mourinho crazy? Well, not exactly. Roman Abramovich brought Mourinho back with one goal in mind and that is to re-capture the magic that led Chelsea to back to back Premier League titles and more. But on one condition: play a beautiful style of football. The roster inherited by Mourinho now is completely different than the one he enjoyed from 2004-2007. It features play-making stars like Hazard, Oscar, Mata, Schurrle and Willian. Gone are the days of 4-3-3 featuring a defense with 72 clean sheets and offensive players like Damien Duff, Sean Wright-Philips, Arjen Robben, Joe Cole, Michael Ballack, Solomon Kalou a younger Frank Lampard and the legendary Didier Drogba terrorizing opponents defenses. This new Chelsea is built on speed and creative plays. So what's the problem? Well, the style that Abramovich craves so much is one similar to Barcelona. It's a style built on possession play and defensive pressure.

Juan Mata waving goodbye perhaps?

Juan Mata has many qualities. He's an intelligent player with great vision that can create opportunities in tight areas that few other players can. He also can score at will with his instinctive style and nose around the goal. He has a deadly left foot that can pick out the top corner of the goal or the head of John Terry and Ivanovic in set plays. In three season with Chelsea Mata has compiled 33 goals and 68 assists which has led him to be Chelsea's Player of The Year the last two years. A player of Mata's caliber is a dream for any manager. So what's the problem? Well, all players have certain weaknesses. Mata's weakness is not being able to track back on defense as well as being in love with the center half part of the pitch. In the style Mourinho has been instructed to play, Mata is required to put pressure on the opponents to regain possession. Why does Barcelona always have a possession advantage over their opponents? Because it all starts with Messi upfront tracking back to gain possession. Then it's up to Iniesta, Pedro, Fabregas and now Neymar to do their part to track the ball back. Unfortunately for Mata, Oscar has had a great start of the season netting six goals in total. The main reason why Mourinho prefers Oscar at his number 10 is mainly because of Oscar's ability to track back opponents.

Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink was a popular
player shown the exit door by Mourinho in 2004

When a new manager comes in he must re-evaluate his roster by watching tapes from previous seasons. He must also shape the roster to his philosophy of play. Naturally new players will come and some players who do not fit the profile must be let go. This is also true for Mourinho. When he arrived at Chelsea in 2004 he let fan favorite players like Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink Juan Veron and Marcel Desailly go because they didn't fit his profile. It's possible that Mourinho might do the same as Chelsea transitions into a new style of play. Popular players like Mata, David Luiz and Ashley Cole may see the exit door as soon as January mainly because they don't the Mourinho recipe for success.

Fan favorites Cole, Luiz and Mata may be
looking for new residence in January.

So far this season has been a frustrating one for Chelsea and Mourinho. However, despite having lost six matches in all competition, they sit only three points behind the league leaders. The inability of Chelsea attacking players to score more goals to "kill opponents" as Mourinho like to say combined with the defense giving up late goals, it's just a matter of time before Mourinho pulls the trigger to buy players that best respond to his and most important Roman Abramovich's new philosophy.