The Hindu : Sport / Football : Mourinho's problem

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 22, 2006

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Mourinho's problem

LONDON: Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has a problem — finding room for his star players in the starting line-up.

``I had a situation last season where I lost a player I like very, very much in Tiago,'' Mourinho said on Thursday. ``Why? Because he was afraid of not having enough chances to play in Chelsea. This season there is a chance that I lose another player I like in Damien Duff.''

Mourinho, who has brought in Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack and youngsters John Obi Mikel and Soloman Kalou this offseason, said some players weren't happy with competition for a place in the starting 11.

``I can bring 50 central defenders, John Terry is not afraid, but generally players, they want to play,'' Mourinho said. ``People sometimes look at football players as people that are in the game focused on money. It is not really true.''

Mourinho said he wanted 20 players, not including goalkeepers, when the Premier League kicks off on August 19. He currently has 23.

``The way to be able to give that (playing time) to the players is to have a small squad in terms of numbers where everybody feels `I can play matches,''' he said. ``We will have top quality but short numbers so everybody plays. I think in this manner I can keep high quality and have everybody happy in the group.'' — AP

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