José Mourinho has dismissed claims in Luis Suárez’s autobiography that a Chelsea player was uncomfortable with his manager’s time-wasting tactics when the London club won at Anfield in April, and vowed never to write his own book just to “tell shit” and criticise.
The Portuguese takes his players to Merseyside on Saturday for the first time since the 2-0 win which effectively wrested the destiny of last season’s Premier League title out of Liverpool’s hands.
Chelsea’s selection that afternoon had been made with the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Atlético Madrid in mind three days later, and with their own pursuit of domestic honours effectively over, yet they excelled defensively and prevailed to hand the initiative in the race to the eventual winners, Manchester City.
Suárez had reflected on that missed opportunity in his autobiography and recalled a conversation on the pitch with an unnamed Chelsea player after complaining at the visitors’ perceived time-wasting tactics. “What do you want me to do?” he claimed his opponent said. “If [Mourinho] makes us play like this, I have to play like this. What else can I do? If I don’t, I won’t play. What would you do?’”
Those allegations were put to Mourinho, who had been criticised by Roy Keane while he publicised his own recent book and has regularly suggested he is being mentioned to boost sales, with the Chelsea manager shrugging. “Another book,” he said. “Books … Do you read these books? I don’t. At 51, I might have enough story to write one. But when you are 25? Do you write a book about when you were a kid? I don’t think I will [do a book]. I have an invitation to do a picture book, just with 100 photographs I’d choose of my career, and I’d just make a little comment on every picture. A memory book. But not a book to tell shit and to criticise people and to speak negative things about people who belong to my career.”
Chelsea’s successful tactical gameplan on their last visit to Anfield had provoked criticism from the Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers, who claimed the visitors had “parked two buses” and that it was “not hard to coach 10 players to be on the edge of the 18-yard box”. The pair, who are friends from Rodgers’ time under Mourinho on the Chelsea staff, have since spoken and remain on good terms, though the two-times European Cup winner would still reject accusations that his team’s approach had purely been defensive.
Asked if it is indeed the case that instilling defensive discipline is simple, Mourinho said: “It’s happened before in football. It’s an option. But it’s difficult to win a game playing just to defend, not thinking about how to counterattack or exploit the weaknesses of the opponent. It’s difficult to win just by defending, but you never know. When we have the ball, our intention is to score goals. When Liverpool have the ball, we have to stop them scoring. Sometimes some people pretend to be clever or influence the opinion of others and say it’s not, but that is the ABC of football.”
The Chelsea manager expects all those players rested by Rodgers at Real Madrid on Tuesday – he rattled off their names – to start, and insisted he would not be in the market to secure Steven Gerrard at the end of the season if he does not agree new terms to remain at Liverpool.
Diego Costa will begin for the visitors despite Spain’s decision not to select him for their forthcoming international fixtures because of a pelvic problem. “I expect a game where Liverpool know that, if they lose, they are 15 points behind [Chelsea],” said Mourinho. “If they are 15 points behind in November, obviously it’s not over for them but it’s difficult. If they win, nine points behind is different to 15. It’s a very good motivation for them. So I expect them to try and win.
“As for us, we knew in the first 11 matches we would have to go to Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool, so we knew for sure we’d have the most difficult fixtures of every team. The fixtures were very, very difficult. If, after 11 matches, we had been in a mid-table position because we had lost three matches, it would have been something normal, very acceptable.
“When we leave Anfield, we will have left behind three of the most difficult stadiums to play in all season. The points we are getting against the other contenders – one here, one there, three here, three there – are important points.”
They arrive on Merseyside unbeaten, with a four-point advantage at the top and Costa in their lineup. There is relief at Chelsea that Spain have opted against calling him up for the games against Belarus and Germany, allowing the player a complete two-week rest to recover from his persistent hamstring and groin complaints.