Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/616203
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2015 20 Sport SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL 20 Sport My work was 'betrayed' by Chelsea players, says Jose Mourinho JOSE Mourinho has identified the problems at both ends of the pitch which led him to talk of "be- trayal" after seeing his champions Chelsea slump to their ninth Pre- mier League defeat of the season at Leicester City on Monday. The under-fire Portuguese man- ager explained that he had warned his players about the threat posed by table-topping Leicester's fast- moving strike force. "I worked for four days on this match," he told the Chelsea web- site (www.chelseafc.com). "I prepared everything related to the opposition. I identified four movements where they score al- most all of their goals. "My players got all that informa- tion and training in the last three days. From the four types of situa- tion I identified, we conceded the first and the second goal. "I think they listened and they are good enough, but the mis- takes were there." Mourinho said Chelsea also had a problem with the number of goals their attacking players are scoring. "When we make defensive mis- takes, we are punished because we don't score enough goals," he said. "The team pays for the number of goals our attacking players aren't scoring." Mourinho was encouraged by the spirit shown in the final 30 minutes when, 2-0 down, Chelsea rallied to pull one goal back. "They tried, they gave every- thing they had, they scored one goal, and they could have scored more," he said. "That's the positive thing that makes me leave the dressing room with a feeling that isn't so bad as the result because, in the last 30 minutes, they were a team. "They accepted the risk and the risk was enormous. If we didn't play well like we did it could have been a fat result. Nobody was afraid of that. We went for the res- cue and we were almost there." Spain striker Diego Costa's poor form has caused Mourinho to change his formation. "The lack of confidence of Di- ego, in front of goal, is bringing him to other areas," the manager said. "When I saw that situation with him leaving the box, I put (Loic) Remy on. When you have a sec- ond striker you reduce the area between the lines which is very important for us." Chelsea Manager Jose Mourinho during press conference Valencia players given iPads by Neville to help in training VALENCIA coach Gary Neville is using modern technology to get his ideas across to the players and his assistant Miguel Angel Angulo says he is managing with the language barrier better than he expected. Neville was known for his dex- terity with touch screen analysis as a television pundit and he is now using computers at Valencia to compensate for his basic Span- ish. "He has given an iPad to each player to help them follow train- ing and different actions during games," Angulo told a news con- ference. "He is doing better than I expect- ed. I thought the language barrier would be more of a problem. Gary has already started to speak a lit- tle Spanish and he is improving quickly. There is a good under- standing with the players asking him or me what is wanted. "It won't take long before we can demonstrate the style of football that we want." Neville faces a difficult challenge to get Valencia back on track and he is yet to win after two games in charge. They failed to reach the Cham- pions League knockout stage af- ter losing at home to Olympique Lyonnais and got a fortunate draw at Eibar in La Liga last Sunday with a late own-goal that left them eighth in the table with 21 points from 15 games. It should be an easier evening on Wednesday, however, when they bid to book a place in the King's Cup last 16 against lower league Barakaldo. They lead 3-1 lead from the first leg. "What he (Gary) is looking for is that the players understand as quickly as possible what he wants and the games against Lyon and Eibar were really games of adap- tion," Angulo said. "Barakaldo maybe a good rival for us to work on ideas that we want to transmit. Then we play Getafe also at home where we can continue that. "We are not looking for long- term goals to be honest. We are looking at short-term targets. We now play Barakaldo, who we need to beat, then Getafe, Villarreal and Real Madrid." Valencia coach Gary Neville