• FA Cup

Mourinho hints Chelsea squad players not up to scratch

Jose Mourinho was so disappointed with Chelsea's FA Cup defeat to League One Bradford that he dished out the silent treatment to his side in the dressing room before dropping a hint that his squad players are not up to scratch.

Mourinho was "ashamed" after watching his side go from 2-0 up to lose 4-2 and exit the FA Cup in an "unacceptable" performance which he described as a "disgrace".

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The manager left his players to stew afterwards, saying "not a word" to them. "It was not the moment to speak with them," he said.

Mourinho made nine changes for the clash, which fell between the two legs of their League Cup semi-final with Liverpool, with the Stamford Bridge game taking place on Tuesday night.

He has relied largely upon a tried-and-trusted starting line-up this season for the Premier League leaders. And he hinted at a frustration with the depth of his squad after players such as Didier Drogba, Loic Remy, Mohamed Salah and John Obi Mikel failed to impress.

"I don't make many changes. I try to keep stability in the team. Maybe now you can understand a bit better why," Mourinho said. "But I don't want to speak too much about it. This is our squad, I trust them and let's move on."

By Sunday night, Mourinho had softened his stance on one player in particular as veteran striker Drogba was honoured for his contribution to the game by the Football Writers Association, claiming the 36-year-old was his "best-value player" at Chelsea.

And despite his squad's struggles against lowly Bradford, Mourinho insisted he was not about to delve into the transfer market.

He added: "I trust my squad. And it's not because of this disappointment and this really bad performance that I'm going to change. I'm happy to go [until the end of the season with the same squad].

"This is Chelsea, always thinking and being proud of thinking about numbers and Financial Fair Play and so on. We cannot now go to the market and spend money. So I'm completely with the club. I share this idea. I don't think we are going to the market."

Mourinho suggested complacency might have been a factor for the poor second-half display.

"The way they arrived to the 2-0 looked quite comfortable," he said. "But the goal they scored minute 40-something brought them into the game. After that there are things difficult to explain. Goals we miss, goals we concede.

"At half-time we spoke about the danger of the situation. We spoke about the way they play. We repeated at halftime what we spoke about in the preparation.

"We prepared for the game the same way we prepare for a Premier League game. We respected them, or at least I respected them, in the way we prepared the game.

"But probably at halftime the players thought 'in the second half we're going to score, not them'. When they scored the [goal to make it] 2-2, after that the game became crazy."

Loic Remy was among the players who struggled against Bradford on Saturday © Getty Images

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