It’s a showdown between two of the most charismatic bosses in soccer — but while one is just starting out at his new club is the other on the way out?
Jurgen Klopp, the new Liverpool manager, takes his team to face Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea at Stamford Bridge Saturday with the Portuguese coach under increasing pressure.
Chelsea has endured a disastrous start to the season and in his press conference Thursday Mourinho said he could not promise the club would qualify for next season’s Champions League.
One of the most successful coaches in the world, Mourinho has even had to endure the media speculating about potential replacements with Pepe Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti both touted.
So what’s going on with the “Special One?”
How bad is it?
It’s less than six months since Chelsea was celebrating winning the Premier League title after finishing eight points clear of its nearest rival.
Diego Costa scored 20 league goals in his debut season and Eden Hazard was named Player of the Year by his fellow professionals and the English sports media.
Mourinho, who rejoined the club in 2013, six years after leaving Stamford Bridge, appeared set to lead the club into a new era of dominance.
How times have changed.
Chelsea sits 15th in the Premier League — 11 points adrift of leader Manchester City after just 10 games of the season.
Mourinho’s side has suffered shock home defeats by Crystal Palace and Southampton while it was beaten 2-1 in its latest league game at West Ham.
In October, the club took the rather unusual step of publishing a statement on its website giving Mourinho a vote of confidence.
Lost the dressing room?
One of the most common phrases often chucked at under-fire managers is that they have “lost the dressing room.”
That doesn’t mean that Mourinho no longer knows where his players get changed, rather that his authority within the group has been eroded.
A number of ex-professionals have suggested hat Mourinho no longer has the backing of his players while speculation in the media of divisions in the camp has been rife.
“Honestly, do you think they are not with me?” said Mourinho after his side was eliminated from the League Cup on penalties by Stoke Tuesday. “That they didn’t give everything to win the game?
“That is really sad — not sad for me but sad for the players, and I think it is a lack of respect to the players, not to me.”
The Eva Carneiro saga
Since the opening day of the season, Mourinho’s decision to criticize club doctor Eva Carneiro has led to questions about his judgment.
Carneiro was dropped from first-team duties and labeled “naive” by Mourinho for treating Hazard during the draw with Swansea at Stamford Bridge and she has subsequently left the club.
While Mourinho was cleared by the English Football Assocation of making discriminatory comments towards Carneiro the saga has arguably left a stain on his reputation.
The Women in Football group said it was “appalled by the conclusion of the FA investigation” and there have been widespread reports in the UK media that Carneiro has served notice of a claim of constructive dismissal against Chelsea.
“I’m not aware we have received any paperwork so we will keep to our stance that it is an internal staffing matter,” said a Chelsea spokesman.
John Terry finished?
He has been the rock on which Chelsea’s success has been built but is Terry’s time at the top finished?
There is little debate that he has been one of the outstanding defenders in European football over the past decade but at 34 he is entering the twilight stage of his career.
During Mourinho’s first spell in charge at Chelsea, Terry was the man entrusted with enforcing his instructions on the field which he did to great effect.
That Chelsea team won the Premier League title in 2005 and 2006, dominating English football and leaving rivals in its wake.
Terry played every minute of the league campaign last season but has since become a bit part player during this campaign and was controversially hauled off at halftime in the 3-0 defeat at Manchester City.
He’s even been linked with a move away from the club, though Mourinho says the bond between the two men remains as strong as ever.
“He’s a player of my total confidence,” Mourinho told reporters last month. “I trust him as always and he’s one of my men. Because he’s on the bench one game or because I take him off at halftime, nothing changes.”
Hazard warning
Last season, the diminutive Belgian could do no wrong. Hazard glided through the campaign and picked up the Player of the Year award following a series of outstanding performances.
His ability to conjure something out of nothing gave Chelsea an extra edge to their play and left opponents bamboozled — but that has all changed this season.
The 24-year-old has seemingly lost his mojo and missed a crucial penalty during the League Cup defeat at Stoke Tuesday.
He might have scored 19 goals for Chelsea in all competitions last season, but Hazard’s recent form has been such a concern that he dropped to the bench for the recent 2-0 win over Aston Villa.
“It was a tactical decision,” said Mourinho. “We needed midfield players to be concerned with being solid. I continue that way [leaving Hazard out] or he comes in our direction, and tries to play that way.”
Hazard is not the only player to have struggled this season. Costa, Branislav Ivanovic and Nemanja Matic have all looked off the pace after the club’s mixed preseason.
Men in black
Mourinho has never been one to shy away from controversy — or voicing his dissatisfaction with referees.
Only last week he was at it again, this time being sent to the stands during Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat at West Ham.
He was charged with misconduct by the FA after going to speak to the referee during the interval at Upton Park which is strictly prohibited.
Mourinho was also in hot water with the FA earlier in the month after his side was beaten 3-1 by Southampton at Stamford Bridge.
After that game, Mourinho went on the offensive, claiming officials are scared to give his team penalties when referee Robert Madley decided not to award Chelsea a spot kick — a rant which led to the Portuguese manager being hit with a £50,000 fine and a suspended one-match stadium ban.
“He was afraid to give it like everyone else is afraid to give it,” said Mourinho after the game.
“If the Football Association wants to punish me they can. They don’t punish other managers.”
Three year itch?
It was the great Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann who proclaimed that the third year of a manager’s reign could prove “fatal.”
Guttmann, who led Benfica to the European Cup in 1961 and 1962, never stayed at a club for more than three years — and neither has Mourinho — yet.
Mourinho, who has won the Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan, is without doubt one of the best in the business.
But he will have to stay more than three years if he is to turn this one around and re-establish Chelsea’s position at the top of English football.
While Chelsea could quite conceivably still finish in the top four and qualify for next season’s Champions League, the Premier League title already looks to be beyond it.
“This is a crucial moment in the history of this club,” said Mourinho ater the Southampton defeat. “If the club sack me they sack the best manager this club ever had. And the message again is that if there are bad results, the manager is guilty.”
What do you think?
Is Mourinho the man to steer Chelsea out of trouble? Would Guardiola or Ancelotti bring success?
You can tell us your views on Twitter @CNNFC and on our Facebook page here.
Until then, it’s all eyes on Stamford Bridge and Chelsea vs. Liverpool.