Is Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho really building a team around Oscar?

Chelsea’s midfielder Oscar

‘I feel sorry that I didn’t make him happy, but football is football and I build a team around Oscar in that position and on the sides the other people are doing very, very well,’ – Jose Mourinho on selling Juan Mata

Juan Mata has gone. We moved on.

There’s something interesting on that quote, however. Jose’s plan to build the team around Oscar is pretty questionable at this very moment. Not that I underestimate Oscar’s footballing gift or Jose Mourinho’s tactical excellence, but the fact that we’re now a bit over-reliant on Eden Hazard to do his magic, Oscar isn’t really like a man that his team is built around him. The truth is, since Mata went to Old Trafford, Oscar is quite overlooked by The Special One and replaced by the other versatile Brazilians Willian and Ramires.

GAMES			OSCAR		WILLIAN		HAZARD		RAMIRES
			Mins	Avg rating	Mins	Avg rating	Mins	Avg rating	Mins	Avg rating
Chelsea	1 – 0	Stoke	81	N/A	9	N/A	90	N/A	20	N/A
Chelsea	0 – 0	West Ham	80	7,1	90	8,01	90	7,99	90	7,35
Manchester City	0 – 1	Chelsea	7	5,96	90	7,09	90	8,9	90	6,58
Chelsea	3 – 0	Newcastle United	90	7,57	78	7,25	85	8,93	N/A	N/A
West Bromwich Albion	1 – 0	Chelsea	79	6,58	90	7,49	90	7,12	89	7,41
Manchester City	2 – 0	Chelsea	19	N/A	71	N/A	90	N/A	61	N/A
TOTAL			356	6,8025	428	7,46	535	8,235	350	7,11333

From the stat above we can see that Oscar isn’t really a player who his manager could build his team around him. He neither has the best ratings nor he played the most among those players. I’m not trying to criticize his performance though, but the stats show us that Jose himself isn’t really keeping his own words largely due to Oscar’s below par performance compared to the start of the season. When Mata and De Bruyne left us at winter window, the competition for the attacking midfield position should be much easier for a player of Oscar’s calibre. I didn’t include Schürrle and Salah on this occasion because they haven’t even played more than 3 matches since Mata and De Bruyne left.

Oscar isn’t really playing well at the moment and Jose knows this. His decision to pick Ramires in the attacking three was justified although Ramires wasn’t really great as well. You can tell he’s better than Juan Mata due to his willingness in helping his team in defending situation. It’s true. However, still with his poor defensive attributes, Mata has now bagged 3 assists in his 4 appearances which makes some Chelsea fans hardly forget him.

Defensively speaking, albeit Oscar is much better than Mata in this aspect, Ramires took his role occasionally. Furthermore, this leads me to a question what’s really on Jose’s mind. Was he just trolling us with his usual mind games? Or has he changed his mind because things didn’t really go according to plan? Because his quote is hardly true by far. One thing I know is that we’re sitting on top of the table with Hazard as the main man, not Oscar.

I was a big fan of Juan Mata’s astonishing, incisive, inch-perfect final third passes, and now he left. I expect Oscar to do just the same because, basically, he has the ability to do so. If he could do that, with his amazing work rate and defensive willingness, the debate of who’s better between Oscar and Mata would be undoubtedly Oscar to win by mile.

I’m really waiting to see if this team is really built around Oscar (as no. 10 or not, I don’t really care) because I know he has an immense lot to give. He’s just not reaching his true potential yet, and I firmly believe if it happens, we’d have two Ballon D’Or candidates in the same year.

Now it’s over to you, Jose.