Mourinho: Chelsea Strikers Need to Score More Goals

Jose Mourinho highlighted Chelsea’s weak forward and defensive lines following the Blues’ 3-2 loss at Stoke City on Saturday. The Portuguese admitted that his team, nowthird in the Premier League, would be first if the misfiring forward trio of Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba had more than just four goals betweenthem after 15 games.

“If you tell me [Manchester City striker Sergio] Agüero has scored 10 or 12 goals, [Manchester United striker Wayne] Rooney eight or10, [Arsenal striker Oliver] Giroud eight or 10, [Liverpool strikers Daniel] Sturridge eight or 10, [and Luis] Suárez 10 or 12, and ask if Iwould like my strikers to score eight, 10, 12 goals, then yes, I would,” Mourinho said. “If they had we would be top of the league. That’s the reality.”

The former Inter Milan andReal Madrid coach stopped short of explicitly blaming his defense for the defeat at the Britannia Stadium, but he did say: “By conceding late in the first half, we gave life to an opponent who was in big trouble. In thesecond half, they had more life. It was less of football — free kick, yellow card, push here, pull there — and it was more difficult to play.”

He added: “The other day at Sunderland, weconceded goals at set pieces and today we had another one — but don’t speak to me about organization, because it’s not about that. We don’t score enough goals for the football we play.”