Jose Mourinho gave an interview to NBC Sports where he admitted that his Chelsea side had “the worst performance” of the season in the first half. He was so upset at the Blues first-half performance that he said nothing. Not a single word. He just walked, and then walked out. He didn’t know if anyone else said anything or not to his players at Craven Cottage.
I guess the message was received as Chelsea rallied to a 3-1 victory. They know sit at the top of the table, by four points over Liverpool.
“I didn’t say a word at half-time, I was silent,” Jose Mourinho said. “Normally I give them two or three minutes, for them to clean or change boots or shirts, and then after that they know I’ll start talking. They were there, ready for me, but I was not ready for them. I decided not to speak because, if I started to speak about the first half, I’d need more than the 10 minutes of half-time. I was so disappointed.
“That was the first time I’ve done that, at Chelsea for sure, and also perhaps in my career. But I haven’t had many first halves like this one. It was very bad, so I decided not to speak and went outside, did nothing, just waited for the second half. The players showed they were very intelligent. Without words, they understood the first half was really poor and they transformed it into a fantastic second half.”
Well done Jose Mourinho, well done.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)