Jose Mourinho says there will be no laundry baskets or secret earpieces at Stoke City on Saturday, with the suspended Chelsea manager vowing to stick to the rules of his Britannia Stadium ban.
Mourinho
will rely on extensive pre-match briefings with his team of assistants
rather than the tricks of old that he reportedly used to get around
suspensions in his previous spell at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea
travel to Stoke in Saturday's 5.30pm kick-off with their manager forced
to watch elsewhere after he chose not to lodge an appeal against his
Football Association sanction.
Jose Mourinho will rely on extensive pre-match
briefings to make up for the problems of his stadium ban
Chelsea manager Mourinho will get his backroom staff
up to date on hundreds of potential situations
Mourinho says he will abide by the rules of his
FA-imposed ban by avoiding contact with his team on
Saturday
Assistant
first-team coaches Rui Faria, Steve Holland and Silvino Louro have
spent this week preparing for every possible scenario with Mourinho
looking to take the pressure off them.
The
Portuguese coach says his squad and backroom team are ready for every
possible situation - apart from one which would involve four red cards
in the opening 10 minutes at the Britannia.
'I
will be in charge,' Mourinho said. 'Every responsibility is my
responsibility. They are completely free of that extra pressure that
doesn’t belong to their jobs and it is my responsibility.
'They
know what they have to do. I choose the team, I predict the maximum I
can, the different aspects of the game and the different directions that
the game can follow, and I try to prepare them better than ever.
'This is what we have and we have to try our best.'
When
quizzed about whether he would hide in a laundry basket to enter the
stadium on Saturday - as he was reported to have done in a Champions
League clash with Bayern Munich back in 2005 - Mourinho shook his head.
Mourinho will not be using a laundry basket or hidden
earpiece, as he is reported to have done in the past
Red cards, injuries and gluts of goals have all been
part of the manager's thinking ahead of the trip to Stoke
He
continued: 'If after 10 minutes we are playing with seven men... It's
something that my assistants were not prepared for. I did not prepared
them for that. We try to reduce the unpredictable.
'The most incredible scenarios that you can imagine, lets go to extreme scenarios - at half-time winning 4-0, losing 4-0.
'In
between this you have a thousand options, be dominating and controlling
the game, being dominated, having problems with this area, problems
with that area, injuries or red cards of the goalkeeper, the right back,
the central defender, the left back, the winger, the striker. We went
through these scenarios and they are prepared.'
Mourinho
had until midday on Friday to lodge an appeal with the FA over his
punishment but said: 'I think it's stupid to fight a fight that you
already know you lose.'
The 52-year-old (above in our artist's impression) says he
will not opt to use his mobile phone to contact staff
Rui Faria, Steve Holland and Silvino Louro (front row, left
to right) will take Mourinho's words on board
He
is expected to watch what could prove a key game in deciding his
Chelsea future in a hotel close to the Britannia Stadium before meeting
up with his squad later on.
Mourinho
could even contact his team of assistants using his mobile phone, given
the FA's difficulties in policing such behaviour, but he says it is not
something he will pursue.
Tags
SOCCER