Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois slams team-mates’ mentality after Roma mauling
Belgium stopper and his team-mates were beaten 3-0 in Rome on Tuesday and have been unconvincing in Premier League
Sponsored by
THIBAUT COURTOIS has issued a wake-up call to his Chelsea team-mates ahead of their crunch clash at home to Manchester United.
The Blues were mauled 3-0 by Roma to leave them second in Group C of the Champions League.
Belgium stopper Coutois, 25, said: "I don’t know why in the second half we dropped our fighting spirit.
"We dropped our mentality a bit and that cannot happen of course so we have to fight back on Sunday now.
"We must show the fans that this was an off day and we will move on."
The Premier League champions are already nine points behind leaders Manchester City.
Antonio Conte's resolute defence - which sparked this season's trend of playing three central defenders - has only kept five clean sheets in all competitions.
Courtois believes his team-mates have lost their ability to react to danger.
KANT BELIEVE IT Seven things you never knew about Kante
He said: "It is hard to say what the problem is this season.
"Last season in many games I had nothing to do, sometimes one or two saves.
Latest Chelsea news
"Sometimes in games against Manchester United or City maybe four or five saves but this season every game is a hard game for the defence.
"We have to find the balance again and the mentality of keeping clean sheets and not conceding chances, not letting them cross easy.
"Then we will be fine but obviously we have to react on Sunday because tonight was a bad image of ourselves. We don’t want that to happen again."
