Lampard set for dream deal
The Chelsea boss believes the club will offer Lampard a dream deal which will tie him to the club for the rest of his career in a bid to warn off increasing interest from Europe.
Lampard has three years left on his current Stamford Bridge contract and the player insists he has no desire to leave west London.
“I believe before his contract ends, Chelsea will offer him an agreement until the end of his career,” said Mourinho. “I don’t think there is any chance of Frank joining Barcelona. He has the kind of deal which I doubt any club in the world could beat. We don’t need to sell players and he loves Chelsea.
“I would not change him for anyone. His performances from the beginning to the end in any circumstances are incomparable.”
Mourinho also made it clear that he wants to keep versatile French defender William Gallas, who has been consistently linked with Juventus.
“Gallas is an amazing and consistent player, who can operate in any position in defence,” added Mourinho.
Mourinho will rest a clutch of his regular first team players in tomorrow’s FA Cup tie against Huddersfield. He could also blood new signing Maniche, who completed his loan deal from Dynamo Moscow on Wednesday.
Mourinho believes Maniche will turn out to be the last piece of his midfield jigsaw this season.
“With Makelele, Lampard, Essien, the kid Diarra and the adaptation of Joe Cole or Eidur Gudjohnsen if necessary, Maniche will be the final piece in the stability of the central zone,” said Mourinho.
Looking beyond the walls of Stamford Bridge, and though Chelsea fans won’t agree, their manager likes the look of Spurs.
“There have been several teams that have surprised me this season” Mourinho told Portuguese newspaper A Bola yesterday.
“Wigan are doing excellent work. Bolton are a competitive side and hard to beat. They play in a way that means they can beat the big sides, but I can’t say I’m crazy about their style of football. Tottenham are playing good football and I like them more.”
The big surprise for the Chelsea manager this season, however, has been Arsenal.
“Yes, I really am surprised. When teams have great managers and great players they always hope to do better. Last season it was Liverpool that surprised me in finishing 30-odd points behind us.
“But I still think Arsenal are a great team and I wouldn’t be amazed if something similar happens with them as happened with Liverpool, who finished up badly placed in the championship but were successful in the Champions League.”
Liverpool continue to impress him, and Mourinho warned his Portuguese readers that Benfica will find it hard to break them down.
“Benfica have a chance of going through, and with the players they are signing they are competitive. Look, if we were playing Benfica, I would be saying to my players that we are better, that we ought to win - but also watch out because we could also lose.
“Liverpool defend very well. They are team that don’t give you space between their lines. Also the full-backs play very, very much inside, almost side-by-side with the central defenders. This means there is a lot of cover in the central area of the pitch.
“They have players who are physically strong, at set pieces they defend zonally, but their zonal marking is extremely effective, and they press well - so in all they are a team that is comfortable defensively. It is very hard to score goals against Liverpool.”
Mourinho is less impressed by the Liverpool attack because “they find it hard when they are up against a team that can play a long way from their own goal.”
However, defending deep against Liverpool is dangerous. “It allows them to play the ball forward to Crouch and Morientes and from there they can provide lots of second balls to players coming from behind. It’s a very strong combination.”
Playing Liverpool requires intelligence more than passion, he says, arguing that a team that plays “with the heart rather with the head” may not score and is always likely to concede from a counter-attack.
“If you look at our own results against them, it seems to me that the lesson we can provide is about how not to concede.
“When it comes to knowing how to score on the other hand we ourselves haven’t been that clever. The one occasion we did score four goals against them only came about because they fell behind and needed to challenge us all over the pitch, so the distance between their lines became stretched, they gave us space on the flanks, and it was us who were able to score on the counter-attack.”
But Mourinho says he won’t offer to help Benfica, even though he obviously would like them to win. “I enjoyed it when Benfica beat Manchester United of course. For me it was a bad thing that they went out because of the Premiership. I wanted them at least to be in the UEFA Cup, and have more games to play, more weariness, more injury problems, more travelling. But on the day I was like a fan, supporting the Portuguese team.”
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