Former Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit has accused Chelsea of being boring and says he “feels sorry for the players” because they are capable of playing entertaining winning soccer.
In an stunning rant against Jose Mourinho, the 52-year-old also claimed the “Special One” was over cautious and predicted that the Portuguese manager’s style of soccer will cost him like it did in his first spell at Chelsea unless he changes his approach to games.
Gullit said: “After a great, attractive first half of the season, Jose Mourinho put the handbrake on.
“His team is boring when, in my opinion, the players he has deserve much better. Mourinho deserves his negative label because of the calculated way he makes Chelsea play.
“I find it astonishing, because his players are capable of brilliant football, as we saw on Wednesday for a brief moment when they were losing 1-0 at Leicester and were suddenly forced to put their foot on the accelerator.”
“I can’t fault Chelsea when it comes to results and Mourinho is a top class coach. but when you have this kind of quality in your squad, you must bring more attractive football.”
“The lack of style cost Mourinho dearly in his first period at Chelsea and the same thing will happen again when he starts to get beaten with that defensive style.”
“I only have to mention his Champions League adventure – Chelsea refused to kill off 10-man Paris Saint-Germain and paid for it big time.”
“Mourinho keeps approaching every game as if it is a Champions League knock-out game. I can understand his ideas against Arsenal away, but not against Manchester United at home.”
“For me, it does not work. I really feel sorry for the players. They win, but in England every football fan says, ‘Yes, they win, but not in style’. Yet the players have so much quality.”
“They could win almost every game in style if Mourinho was prepared to play with the handbrake off. You would see great football with lots of goals.”
