The problems at Chelsea lie in Jose Mourinho's tactics, not his talking - Danny Higginbotham

INSIDE FOOTBALL: Forget Mourinho’s spin, it’s on the pitch that his players are at sixes and sevens

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho (Getty Images)

A radical suggestion to open with. Can we discuss what is wrong with Chelsea without referring to the press conferences of Jose Mourinho, which take up more and more of the analysis with every passing week?

What Mourinho says in public will bear no relation to what he is saying to the players privately and in the dressing room, so it’s all just part of a strategy. It’s in the tactical and technical dimensions that we can locate what is actually wrong with Chelsea and why the team are a shadow of what they were. Those areas hardly seem to get a mention amid all the talk about Mourinho’s talk. Let’s look at them, instead, on another big weekend with Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool at Stamford Bridge today.

The fundamental fact is that Chelsea are losing the midfield battles. Any suggestion that the legs of some of the defenders have gone – John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic keep being mentioned – is rubbish, I would suggest. Chelsea are still playing a very high line in an attempt to impose themselves on games, with the plan being that they’ll take the lead and then earn the right to sit back. But instead of that happening, they’re finding themselves being beaten for pace in the central areas by fast players suited to the counter-attack. Look at all the players who have caused Chelsea most problems. West Ham’s Dimitri Payet, Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha and Yannick Bolasie, Swansea City’s Jefferson Montero. They’re all fast, counter-attacking players.

The numbers underpin the story. In a division where the first goal is so important – earning you the right to control the game – Chelsea are not scoring it. Last season, they went behind eight times in 38 Premier League games. This season, they’ve already gone behind five times in 10. In last season’s 38 games, they scored first 28 times and 12 times in the opening 15 minutes. So far this season, they’ve scored only once in the first 15 minutes in the Premier league. This is a side who have grown accustomed to winning games they take the lead in. This season, they’ve won only three of the five they’ve led in. The Chelsea of the past would never have opened the scoring and lost. Meanwhile, they’ve lost four and drawn once on the five occasions they’ve gone behind.

People say: “How can the confidence of top Premier League players possibly dip when they play for a club like Chelsea?” But, it most certainly can. Part of the problem is that this group are just not acquainted with what it’s like to be losing a game in the way, for example, a Leicester, a Stoke or a West Bromwich will be. It’s completely new to them – having to come up with a solution when losing. And let me tell you – once you get into a pattern of not holding a lead or struggling to come back from a goal behind, the mindset becomes: “Oh no, it’s happening again.” Or: “I don’t really know that we can hold this.” It doesn’t matter who you are. Your mind plays on what has happened in previous games. Let’s look at a few of the players who are so clearly short of confidence.

Nemanja Matic is one of several Chelsea players struggling for form (Getty Images)

Nemanja Matic is one. Last season, having him in the side was the equivalent to having two players. This season, opposition players are more across the fact that he will dictate Chelsea’s game if you allow him to. He is clearly suffering psychologically as well as technically. He was subbed on and off in the 3-1 home defeat to Southampton and in the four weeks since then he’s been sent off twice in four starts for club and country.

Eden Hazard is another. Take, for example, that unique way he has of not looking at the ball while taking penalties. That’s a difficult trick. It requires confidence. It failed him when he missed from the spot against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League. He also missed using the same technique for Belgium against Andorra. And against Stoke in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday, he abandoned the trick for the first time and looked at the ball as he struck the penalty and went for power. He missed the spot-kick again, as Chelsea were knocked out.

Look at the way Hazard controls the ball, if you watch any of the Liverpool game. Last season, he took his first touch to beat a player and get on his way. This season, he uses his first touch to get the ball under control – watching the ball all the way on to his feet. That’s not the Hazard who was so unbelievable last season.

Mourinho is not used to this situation, either. In the past, what we’ve seen is him prioritising competitions. In the 2013-14 season, he focused on the Champions League. His side were beaten six times during that campaign – every one of them on the weekend before a Champions League game. Last season, he very clearly was fixated on his first title since returning to England. When you are losing like this and need to steady the ship you just can’t prioritise like that.

It’s a mistake to make all of the focus on Mourinho and his ways, though. His handling of press conferences is all part of a plan to distract from the genuine football problems. It’s what he wants. Which creates all the more reason to look at the proper football evidence instead.

Howe faces stern test to alter team’s style amid injury crisis

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe (Getty Images)

Sunday brings what they call the “friendly derby” on the South Coast – Bournemouth v Southampton – and I feel sorry for the Bournemouth manager, Eddie Howe, as he heads into it. He’s an excellent manager, who has a particular style of play, players who’ve been with him since League One who know it, and more brought in because they fit with it.

But now he has long-term injuries to the players who form the spine of his team – Callum Wilson, Tyrone Mings and Max Gradel – which mean he probably can’t continue to play the style he wants. It might well mean him having to drop that style – rapid passing and forward runs – and try something different.

In the Stoke side I played in, Tony Pulis also had a successful, set way of playing. But there are far more people who play the Pulis way than the Howe way. Howe will need all his powers of management. Good luck to him. Few managers deserve more of it than him.

Danny Higginbotham, analyst and co-commentator, will be a guest on Sky’s ‘Super Sunday’ this weekend