Jose Mourinho Still Searching for His Best Team at Chelsea

Knowing your best team is important.

Undoubtedly, there is nothing wrong with rotating to keep players fresh, but Mourinho is generally the kind of manager who knows what his best side is.

That is not to say he does not value having a large squad. He is well known for being a manager who likes a squad with two players for every position. And this Chelsea team certainly has that (and then some).

Only at left-back do they lack two players of genuine quality. But Ryan Bertrand still has England caps and a Champions League final starting appearance under his belt.

But the main issue here is that Mourinho clearly doesn't know what his best team is, and generally the best teams will have their big name lineups.

If not the exact 11, then at least a big game 13 or 14 players. More often than not though, the best teams in Europe will have at least eight certain starters for every major game.


Prime Example

Barcelona's 2010/11 Champions League winning side is the perfect example of this. Throughout the season they used no less than 31 different players across six different competitions.

But when push came to shove, and an important fixture was looming, Pep Guardiola would generally go with a team that looked something like this...

The tactics and balance would change within, but the players essentially picked themselves for the major contests towards the end of the season.

Chelsea's conundrum

So far this season, Chelsea have already used 20 players. Of those 20 players, only four have started all five of Chelsea's games so far.

With Ramires suspended for Wednesday night's Champions League opener against FC Basle, only three certain starters are guaranteed to remain; Petr Cech, Ashley Cole and Branislav Ivanovic.

The transfer window has closed and the Champions League now looms large. It is becoming increasingly clear that "The Special One" has yet to find his ideal formula.

He's got previous experience

And Mourinho is certainly one for this. In the most successful season's he has had across his last three major jobs, he has always possessed a well-established big game unit.

At Chelsea, during his title winning 2004/05 campaign, when it came to it, his side would generally look something like this...

If you look back through the key games against his title rivals and in all the big Champions League ties, these players were the ones that were used time and time again (injuries and suspensions permitting obviously).

Then, fast-forward five years and we find ourselves in the same situation in Italy. During Inter Milan's historic treble season of 2009/10, Mourinho would put out this side against the big teams...

Special mention must also go to Thiago Motta as a midfield regular, but generally it would be Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti who were selected.

If you then look at his time at Real Madrid, with particular focus on the one season he managed to usurp Barcelona at the top of the La Liga in 2011/12, his big game eleven would generally be this...

 
Conclusions to draw

So, it's clear that when it comes to a big game, Mourinho's team selections generally have running themes. 

He likes to have a base of at least three regular defenders. 

When playing two central midfielders he would generally select them from three players, and during his time at Chelsea, he would select three from four. 

A settled attack. Only Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema were switched regularly as neither were fully convincing at any point in Mourinho's reign that they were deserving of a consistent starting spot.

Right now, I don't think anyone quite knows what Mourinho's best team selection is:

He has chopped and changed in the Premier League trying to find the right partner for John Terry; he is picking Branislav Ivanovic over the more attack-minded Cesar Azpilicueta; he has loaned out arguably Chelsea's best striker from last season (albeit for West Brom) and he doesn't at all seem to fancy Chelsea's best player from last season in Juan Mata. This is pretty much just the tip of the iceberg.

It is a bit of a muddle and it has shown so far in Chelsea's start to the campaign.

It has been by no means bad, but it has been some way off the imperious nature in which Mourinho started his first stint at at the club nearly 10 years ago.

For now though, expect Mourinho to keep tinkering in the hope of finding the right balance, as he looks to put the pieces in place to find his new big game side.