Chelsea’s José Mourinho shows the strain at talk of facing Jürgen Klopp

Chelsea manager plays down uncertainty over future as he prepares to renew rivalry with German who humiliated his Madrid team in 2013 Champions League


José Mourinho’s reluctance to discuss all things Jürgen Klopp was obvious from the outset. The Chelsea manager had spent his week besieged by talk of crisis, a desperate predicament clear with his ailing champions languishing closer to those in the Premier League’s relegation zone than the European places. In that grim context it was always fanciful to assume he might linger at length on a rival whose team had so ruthlessly put his own to the sword the last time a campaign had been squirming away from the Portuguese. There were a few platitudes in praise of the German before he railed at one question too many. “I’m not going to speak more about Jürgen,” he offered through a monotone. “I’ve said enough.”

There was no spite in that response but this was no time to be reflecting on that game at Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion on 24 April 2013 when Mourinho’s Real Madrid had reached the point of no return. Memories of the first leg of their Champions League semi-final must still leave him shuddering. That was the night when Klopp’s Dortmund outpowered and outplayed a team who had been daring to dream of La Décima: when Ilkay Gündoğan was untouchable controlling the tempo and Marco Reus’s movement left Pepe dazed and confused. Real were supposed to be drilled on how to nullify Robert Lewandowski, “but too many of the boys had a bad night” conceded Mourinho at the time. The Pole’s four goals flew beyond a helpless Diego López to condemn the visiting manager to what remains his worst defeat in 130 games in the competition. His days at Real already felt numbered by then and, if his team flirted with a comeback in the return, his fate was sealed. Within five weeks a return to Stamford Bridge would be confirmed.

At least Klopp is not bringing that Dortmund side with him to south-west Londonon Saturday lunchtime. Chelsea, in their current delicate state, might have quaked at that prospect and Liverpool, at present, are a team still adjusting to the expectations placed upon them by their new coaching staff. Even so, rarely can a contest that pits the teams currently loitering in ninth and 15th have felt so potentially seismic. While the German’s enthusiasm dazzles across Merseyside, the recently appointed manager having flung himself eagerly into his first project outside the Bundesliga, Mourinho finds himself under scrutiny like never before. Chelsea have lost half of their 10 league games to date, every hint of a revival has been cruelly snuffed out in its infancy over a traumatic three months. There is no breakdown in relations with Roman Abramovich to blame for the tension this time round. No one saw this coming, with the manager as flummoxed as anyone by the dismal grind of setbacks.

There is a reluctance within the hierarchy to go down that well-trodden road of mid-season sackings but, for all that performances have perked up in the past fortnight, a record of one win in seven matches in all competitions does not yet suggest a recovery in progress. Mourinho has his own issues with the criticism aimed at him this term and the perceived “excitement” at the prospect of him losing his job. That, he suggested, has been as prevalent from “within” the game as from pundits and the media. Perhaps comments from out-of-work managers – whether from Guus Hiddink or Carlo Ancelotti, whose sabbatical will bring him to London on 12 November – have been interpreted as an acknowledgement of interest in a position yet to be vacated.

“It’s sad,” said Mourinho. “Look at Brendan Rodgers’ situation. He was the manager of the season [with Liverpool in 2013-14] and, suddenly, people were really happy and working hard until he was sacked. It’s strange. I don’t belong to that world. I’m too emotional and hate people losing their jobs but I’m not worried about that at all. Not at all. I don’t spend one second of my day thinking about it. I’m worried about the results, about winning against Liverpool, about qualifying for the next round of the Champions League, about recovering our position in the table, about getting Chelsea back to where we normally have to be. I’m not worried about my job, my future, about anything other than that. I’m not worried. I’m not worried. It looks like people want to put a lot of pressure on me in relation to that but they can’t. They can’t do it. They can’t do it.” By the end, the constant references to a lack of concern actually suggested something very different.

Mourinho is a manager working under almost unbearable strain. Some of the setbacks this season have been self-inflicted, from the decision to delay the return to pre-season training to the anguished outburst at his medical staff that could yet see Dr Eva Carneiro take the club to an employment tribunal for constructive dismissal. The club’s recruitment over the summer was not up to scratch, a factor perhaps the hierarchy would concede was outside the manager’s influence. But, over the past few months, everything the Portuguese has tried to cajole from his champions has failed, whether public criticism, breathers from the first team, or private shows of support. To have so many senior players labouring at once with brittle confidence has been unprecedented in his career. Instigating a revival remains a work in progress, although he remains utterly committed to instigating that renaissance.

The strain has shown, not least with the fury he has flung so regularly at the Football Association and officialdom over recent weeks. On Friday the various disciplinary issues he is contesting did not provoke comment. Instead, when Mourinho spoke of being “a fighter” he was not referring to himself. Attention had turned to the other elephant in the room since the tail end of last season but which, on some level, must have played a part in his demeanour. Rewind to 29 April and Chelsea’s victory at Leicester, a win that left them on the brink of the league title, and Mourinho had learned post-match that his father, José Sr, had undergone surgery relating to a brain haemorrhage.

He had returned to Lisbon on a private plane to be at his bedside, although the months that followed had brought further complications. “He had two strokes as a consequence of the surgery,” said Mourinho. “He went to levels where it was very doubtful and very difficult. The negative period went through until, I would say, September. But, in the last few months, the evolution and recovery has been amazing. It’s been good news for the last month. He’s almost ready to play.” That was said through a smile.

The club’s attitude to Chelsea’s toils this season have, in some small part, been shaped by sympathy for the personal issues Mourinho and his family have gone through. There have been trips back home during international breaks – his wife, Matilde, has been a more regular visitor of late – with the 52-year-old feeling an obligation to “focus on the job, my duties” back at Cobham.

Regardless, his father’s recent steady progress and return home must be a weight off the manager’s mind. “I know what life is about and I know that, in the end, what matters is family. We are a strong family. My father is winning his fight. And he’s winning it in a very secure way. A very secure way. I think he’s a bit of a fighter.”

As is his son. Football loses its significance in such context but Mourinho’s focus remains. He has still spied progress in the past few weeks, pointing to his players’ eagerness to demand possession where others might have sought to hide.

Chelsea have never endured a worse start to a campaign in the Abramovich era but their manager has no intention of shying from his own responsibilities. Liverpool’s visit, with Klopp at the helm, is merely the latest opportunity to kickstart the comeback.