Five issues Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho must resolve

Despite a series of dreadful displays from Ivanovic this season, Mourinho has kept faith with the right-back.

The effect has been twofold: one, Chelsea are leaking goals at a rate never seen in

the Roman Abramovich era, and two it looks like favouritism when a player so patently out of form is still being played, while the likes of John Terry have been dropped.

Branislav Ivanovic has been out of sorts this season

After the 3-1 defeat to Southampton in which Ivanovic was routinely beaten by Sadio Mane and Dusan Tadic, Mourinho insisted he would not be rushing to drop the Serb.

The manager said: “When I play [Cesar] Azpilicueta on the right and Baba Rahman on the left and I don’t play Ivanovic, I have only three, not ever four [good players in the air]. So we have to think about all the details. And I think about all the details.”

Baba Rahman has been on the fringes so far

Looking at the details of Ivanovic’s demise will surely be a priority for Mourinho during the international break, and his selection for the club’s next match against Aston Villa will be one of the manager’s biggest selection dilemmas.

Bring back confidence to the side

The substitution of Nemanja Matic after he had been on for just 28 minutes against Southampton was a pretty savage verdict on a player who has performed with such distinction over the past two years.

Substitute Nemanja Matic was subbed against Southampton

Yes, the switch could be justified in tactical terms, but it felt like an unnecessary scapegoating of one of the team’s most popular players.

Now the challenge is to get players like Matic and Cesc Fabregas believing in themselves again, if they are to stand any chance of rediscovering their form from last season.

Whether Mourinho has the adaptability to soften his stance towards his players remains to be seen, but even the supremely confident Portuguese will be doing some soul searching in the coming days.

Get Diego Costa’s focus back

Costa’s antics against Arsenal and subsequent suspension have distracted from just how poor the Spain forward has been so far this season.

He has scored twice in eight appearances, and has looked off the pace and more focused on getting into scraps than finding the back of the net.

Diego Costa has mainly been scrapping in the last few weeks

Sources close to the club have described Costa as ‘unmanageable’, but Mourinho will have to find a way if the striker – who has admitted to being unfit this season – is to get back on track.

Decide if the youngsters can be relied upon

A constant criticism of Mourinho has been that he does not give Chelsea’s young players enough of a chance.

The team’s current malaise could be seen as a good opportunity to blood the likes of Ruben Loftus-Cheek (or the worst possible time, depending on your point of view).

Ruben Loftus-Cheek has not started a league game this season

The crux, really, is whether the likes of Loftus-Cheek merit a place in the starting line-up, and of course Mourinho knows that better than any of us.

But if his central midfielders are misfiring to the point of being taken off after playing for less than half an hour, you would think Loftus-Cheek is worth trying at least

Keep the dressing room onside

In his last season at Real Madrid, Mourinho began to lose respect from his players, and by the end left an unloved and divisive figure.

At Chelsea, despite their protestations, there is the danger that the likes of John Terry could follow Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas’s lead in turning away from the self-styled ‘Special One’.

Mourinho fell out with Iker Casillas at Real Madrid  Photo: EPA

Getting Chelsea winning again will have a huge bearing on whether Mourinho wins his authority back, but he must also think about the way he alienated certain players while in Spain, and how to avoid making the same mistakes at Stamford Bridge.