Jose Mourinho explains Juan Mata's absence from Chelsea team

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has stated that he prefers Oscar as the team’s playmaker and confessed that Juan Mata‘s absence is due to “football issues”, Sportreview reports.

The Spaniard has only two first-team credits this term, and the lack of appearances of last season’s club player of the year has left fans perplexed.

Mourinho has so far preferred Brazilian Oscar in the play-maker’s role and has snubbed Mata who netted 32 goals for the Blues since his transfer from Valencia in 2011. The Portuguese coach has remained mum on the issue and has repeatedly stated that Mata must change his style of play in order to feature more for Chelsea.

“There are things I can say with the players but not with you [the media]. The way I am reading the situation and the reasons why, in this moment, he is not playing so much are reasons I can only speak with him. These are football issues.

“He played against Everton from the beginning and you can analyse his performance, and he played against Basel, not like Demba Ba or John Obi Mikel to rescue the job, but when we were 1-0 up. He had specific tasks to do. He is part of a process, too.”

The 50-year-old, who is at his second stint at Chelsea, plans to change his team’s style of play which Chelsea have been using since his departure from the club in 2007.

Mourinho plans to boost the club’s attacking capabilities, a problem which Mata has to overcome.

“One thing is to play with Ramires and Oscar on the sides, with Mata playing in the middle behind the striker because he is a great talent. But another thing is to adapt with Oscar. He has great talent,” added Mourinho.

“In this moment, Oscar is my No?10 and, if somebody tells me that Oscar is not Chelsea’s best player since the beginning of the season, I’d have to disagree.

“I am not ready to play both of them. I want to build with Oscar as my number 10.”