Chelsea profit as Mourinho's tactics pay off
By Oliver Brown
Sport.Telegraph, 16th August 2007
At a stroke, Jose Mourinho ensured that Chelsea's return to Reading would be
remembered not for Petr Cech or Stephen Hunt, but for his own tactical
inspiration.
Enmities were simmering at the Madejski Stadium last night, with Chelsea
supporters well recalling Hunt's skull-breaking challenge on the Czech
goalkeeper 10 months ago, but Mourinho brushed aside the sub-plots as he
transformed an unlikely first-half deficit into a galvanising win.
It was on another dank night in strange surrounds last season when Chelsea's
vulnerabilities had emerged in defeat to Middlesbrough in only their second
game. Mourinho was not about to commit the same error twice. Ascribing an
early goal for Reading defender Andre Bikey to a brief aberration, he replied
by allowing Claudio Pizarro to join the attack in an irresistible three-striker
system - the clearest evidence yet of his "beautiful blueprint" and fully
justified by two goals in three minutes for Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba.
Explaining this ingenuity, the manager said: "We made the changes and I
explained the objectives. The players were brave to accept some difficult
situations."
The changes were stark, as Shaun Wright-Phillips switched to right-back
while Florent Malouda anchored midfield. But when the rethink enabled
Chelsea to build a four-point lead over Manchester United just five days
into the season, few were arguing.
Such was the aplomb shown by Wright-Phillips in an alien position, Mourinho
might have been tempted to call off the quest for Sevilla's Daniel Alves.
The Brazilian full-back, who was left out of the Spanish club's Champions
League qualifying round tie against AEK Athens last night, has been linked
with a £21.5 million move to Stamford Bridge, but Chelsea claim there
is still no agreement. Mourinho acknowledged: "We try to buy him, but the
situation is not done."
Mourinho had tried, abortively, to throw three strikers forward in an FA
Cup defeat to Newcastle in his first season and was roundly questioned. On
last night's more successful experiment, he said: "I knew it was a big
gamble, but if one day it doesn't work, I'm criticised. I accept the
criticism, but I sleep well because I tried."
The defining incident of this fixture last season - or, more accurately,
Mourinho's histrionic reaction to it - had stirred up an animosity between
the teams, with Reading supporters perversely barracking Cech's every
clearance. Judging by Steve Sidwell's reception, the midfielder's defection
to Chelsea was also seen as a betrayal.
Ironically, it was Hunt, the pariah of the evening, who gave Chelsea cause
for concern with his lively surges into the box. In the early exchanges,
only the muscular intervention of Tal Ben Haim prevented him from scoring.
There was a raggedness about Chelsea's play, and after 29 minutes Nicky
Shorey's free kick, nudged into the box by Ivar Ingimarsson, left Cech
floundering. There were few players more surprised than substitute Bikey,
who took one touch - his first of the game - to steer Reading into the lead.
But Mourinho then engineered his half-time changes and the dividends
were immediate. Lampard, not content to lie deep, profited from Drogba's
deft header to surge through Reading's scattered back line with ease.
Holding off Shorey, the England midfielder showed consummate control to
angle his shot beyond Marcus Hahnemann.
With Reading at their most vulnerable, it was Drogba's turn to pounce.
Again, Shorey was the unfortunate victim of some irresistible play as the
Ivorian cut in to unleash a superb strike from 22 yards past Hahnemann.
"At 2-1, all the energy we had in the first half evaporated very quickly,"
Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, said.
Stunned, Reading lapsed all too easily into impatience, and Kalif Cisse
was sent off for a second yellow card as he challenged Pizarro heavily.
The decision looked dubious, but Chelsea's damage had already been done.
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