Mourinho Targets Wholesale Changes at Chelsea After League Cup Exit

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is planning a complete overhaul of his tactics after his side were dumped out of the League Cup by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Lee Cattermole's own goal had the Blues seemingly cruising through to the semi-final but substitute Fabio Borini struck three minutes from time before fellow-replacement Ki Sung-Yueng hammered home deep into extra time.

After squandering several chances in the second half to increase their lead, with Samuel Eto'o and Frank Lampard among those guilty, Mourinho was incensed his Chelsea side couldn't progress in a competition he won twice as a boss during his first spell at Stamford Bridge.

And with a trip to league leaders Arsenal to come on Monday, Mourinho is ready to change his approach in order to end Chelsea's lacklustre showing in front of goal.

"Maybe the way to rectify it is not to concede goals," said the Chelsea boss.

"Maybe the way is to have a different approach and not to concede goals because when you don't score enough goals, when you are a very offensive team and you don't score enough goals to win matches, maybe the right approach is to be more defensive, concede fewer goals and win matches with the few goals we score.

"But that's not what I want because that's not what we have in mind in the building up of this team. We want this team to play the way we are playing, we want this team to have evolution, but based on the football we are playing at the moment.

"We need to score goals to finish opponents because we feel very comfortable on the pitch. The possession of the ball becomes easy, the creation becomes easy.
We had big chances to score goals against Sunderland, but we didn't score."

During his three-and-a-half years at Chelsea from 2004-2007 Mourinho often adopted a defensive approach and claiming two league titles as a result. A return to that style might frustrate many supporters but with the club continuing to ship goals the Portuguese boss' hand might be forced.

"In the Premier League, I haven't lost one single game because the opponent was better than us," Mourinho added.

"I lost in the Champions League - Basle played better than us in a game where we produced absolutely nothing and we were punished in the last minute.

"Every other game - here, Stoke, Newcastle, Everton - every game we have lost, every game, it's the same story: chances and chances and football and football and not enough goals."