Chelsea's Jose Mourinho warns of Kop 'divers' threat

IT may not be the most important game of the week to Jose Mourinho but that didn’t stop him fanning the flames of controversy ahead of today’s potential title-decider against Liverpool.

  jose mourinhoJose Mourinho feels that some Liverpool players fall to the ground too easily[GETTY]

This time he re-opened speculation over whether Luis Suarez falls too easily in penalty areas with a warning that Chelsea need to beware of “divers” this afternoon.

Mourinho, already in deep water over comments he made about the referee after last Saturday’s defeat by Sunderland, has made no secret of the fact that Wednesday’s Champions League second leg against Atletico Madrid matters more to him than halting Liverpool’s title charge.

That is why the man who launched a personal crusade against divers earlier in the season admitted he now has a real dilemma over who plays in goal at Anfield because of his fear that diving could be an issue again today.

With Petr Cech definitely out, Mourinho has to choose between Mark Schwarzer, who took over so admirably in Spain last week, and Henrique Hilario, the forgotten Portuguese stopper who played his last full competitive game three years ago.

Should he play the rusty Hilario today rather than risk Schwarzer getting hurt in some contrived penalty area clash and consequently miss a match which is now top of his manager’s priorities?

Mourinho will make that key decision as late as he can before plunging one of them into what will be a veritable cauldron today.

He says: “It’s a big dilemma. And with players who are always looking for penalties and going for contact with the goalkeeper it is dangerous. When the goalkeeper comes, some strikers go there and dive for penalties.

“We just can’t afford to be without Schwarzer on Wednesday,” he added before giving a ringing endorsement of the qualities that made him sign the Australian at 40 years of age from Fulham last summer.

“We needed his experience; the number of matches he has played in his career,” Mourinho said. “He knows everything about the goal and the small box and when you are choosing a second goalkeeper you have to choose somebody who is mentally ready to play at any moment.”

 henrique hilarioHenrique Hilario could face Liverpool at Anfield this afternoon [GETTY]

We just can’t afford to be without Schwarzer on Wednesday

Jose Mourinho

If you draw a logical conclusion from that, Hilario will be the one who will get the nod to face a formidable strike force that is likely to include Chelsea “reject” Daniel Sturridge and new golden boy Raheem Sterling as well as the controversial Suarez.

That would appear to be less of a gamble than the prospect of Hilario being the last line of defence against the Spaniards on Wednesday.

“He is a serious contender,” said Mourinho. “I only have two goalkeepers and he is one of them. We will have to think about it.”

Either way, Mourinho is also likely to be without John Terry and Eden Hazard today for a game in which victory for Liverpool would allow them to clasp at least one hand on the Premier League title trophy.

Chelsea’s cheeky chappy may have been playing mind games again but the only name he was definitely prepared to pencil in for certain less than 48 hours ago was that of Serbian midfielder Nemanja Matic.

“You can’t avoid this situation,” Mourinho added. “We can’t have 40 players because we may be afraid that 15 are going to be injured. It is just the circumstances.

“We have two players not eligible to play in the Champions League who we brought in back in January because the future is more important than the present.

“We also had an accumulation of yellow cards that leaves us now without players because of circumstances out of our control.

“I cannot have five goalkeepers because I think three of them are going to be injured.

“You want the best players to play in the best matches but that is up to FIFA to decide and we can’t complain. Everybody knows the rules from the first match.”

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