Players' stomach for fight questioned

The sense of crisis gripping Chelsea intensified last night after Jose Mourinho appeared to question whether some of his players have the stomach for the fight ahead in the wake of their meek surrender at Liverpool.

Mourinho pointedly failed to acknowledge his substitute Andriy Shevchenko at the final whistle on Saturday, the manager not even offering the Ukrainian striker a glance before shaking hands with every other member of his beaten side. "There are players who adapt to difficult moments, to the fight and to the effort we need from everybody," said the Portuguese. "Some other personalities are weaker, are not so strong. That is why I try to be surrounded by the strong mentalities."

That suggested a level of dissatisfaction, not only with Shevchenko - who has come to be seen as Roman Abramovich's signing rather than Mourinho's and featured for only 17 minutes here - but potentially with those other key players who failed to perform at Anfield. Arjen Robben was anonymous in the early exchanges before limping away after 21 minutes, ripping his shirt off in frustration as he disappeared down the tunnel. German international midfielder Michael Ballack contributed little, a player of established pedigree who earns £130,000 a week unable to stamp any authority on the occasion.

Mourinho's public comments echo his sentiments after the recent draw with Fulham at Stamford Bridge, a result that prompted the manager to state Shevchenko, Salomon Kalou and Shaun Wright-Phillips were "not performing" at present. While Chelsea suffered only their second defeat here in all competitions since early November, a sequence stretching back 19 matches, those players' loss of form and apparent questionable desire have contributed to the team having won only once in their last five league games to hand Manchester United the advantage at the top.

The visiting manager also bemoaned the absence of his only previously fit centre-half Ricardo Carvalho, who fell ill on the eve of the match. "We'd done our work all week building the defensive line around Ricardo," said Mourinho. "When I heard he couldn't play, I saw it in the faces of my players and it was easy to understand what was going on in their souls. It's difficult to do it after that."

Asked why he had been unable to sign a replacement defender during the transfer window, Mourinho replied: "For some reason it hasn't happened. I'm never allowed to do what I want to do! I'm the manager, I'm not the owner, the chief executive or the chairman, I'm just the manager. I give my opinions to the club and the club tries, if they want to, to give me what I think is good for the team. The market is open for another 10 days but it has been open for 20 days and if we didn't already get a player then I don't see why we should get one now.

"I'm not criticising anybody. At the end of December . . . I was saying: 'In my opinion, we need two players - a central defender, because we are in this position, and an attacking player. Joe Cole is out for the rest of the season, and also because Robben is injured a lot."

Mourinho is counting down the days until John Terry and Khalid Boulahrouz return from injuries, with Carvalho expected to have recovered in time to feature at Stamford Bridge against Wycombe Wanderers in the League Cup semi-final tomorrow.

Guardian Service