Chelsea must answer John Terry’s rallying call

There was only one way to put it: John Terry was coming out fighting for his manager, and implying he’d be willing to do the same behind closed doors.

When it was said to the Chelsea captain that one squad-member had privately remarked they would “rather lose than win” for Jose Mourinho, Terry couldn’t have been more emphatic.

It was said with a laugh but also a very serious point.

“The player wouldn’t be let out of the dressing room, let’s be honest,” Terry responded. “It wouldn’t go down too well, would it?”

Terry’s entire press conference would surely have been a rare comfort for Mourinho, however, in what is by far the worst spell of his career. The Portuguese couldn’t have planned a better public backing from one of his players, but the reality is he badly needed it. The contrast between captain and manager was so pronounced, and it says much Terry’s strong words completely overshadowed Mourinho’s meekness.

While the player was combative and self-assured, even in offering that he himself had been well below the standard required, Mourinho was as downbeat and as self-pitying as he’s ever been seen. A voice that is usually so certain only sounded subdued.

It was remarkable, and so conspicuous that he didn’t really have the necessary responses to pretty much anything.

With so much going wrong for Mourinho individually — from Dr Eva Carneiro deciding to personally sue him to so many FA sanctions — he was forced to repeatedly face questions about a squad turning against him, those accusations about a player preferring to lose, and the prospect of very soon losing his job.

Mourinho tried to give answers, but it all sounded half-hearted.

“I’ll be here a long time,” the Chelsea manager said, insisting he’d reach the end of his recently-signed four-year contract, before then trying to remind everyone of his excellent record by saying he’d waited a long time for a period as bad as this.

“This is new for me. That’s why I’m a good one. I’ve not experienced this before. Yesterday, a friend sent me some quotes of my press conference after the Champions League final [victory with FC Porto] in May 2004. I’d completely forgotten about it. I said that, one day the bad results will come and I’ll face the bad results with all the same honesty and dignity that I’m facing now as a European champions. May 2004. So, 11 years later, I resisted well to the nature of my job and the nature of football. It took time, but it’s come in a moment when I’m stable and strong to face it.”

His team, however, look anything but stable and strong. They look prone to collapse any time they suffer a single setback, such as the Philippe Coutinho equaliser in extended first-half stoppage-time of the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool — Chelsea’s sixth in just 11 league games.

That remains the biggest worry. They look so low on confidence they don’t know how to respond to even one big thing going against them.

Mourinho doesn’t know how to arrest this. He might have predicted it, but that doesn’t mean he can handle it. It is surely one reason why he hasn’t wanted to face the media, as he reportedly said to his staff after the game on Saturday. Mourinho just doesn’t know how to explain why things have got worse, and has run out of excuses. Even his deflection tactics have deserted him. That could be seen yesterday. When asked about the player who would “rather lose” — and after Cesc Fabregas had denied it was him — Mourinho could only call it “sad”.

So, enter Terry. He seemed to have made it his mission to demolish the idea that the squad had deserted Mourinho.

The captain took the lead, accepting near total “responsibility” on behalf of the players for the form, saying they were “100% behind the manager”, describing Mourinho as the best he’s ever worked with and declaring himself “adamant” Chelsea would “turn it around”.

For all the criticism Terry receives, it was a genuinely impressive show of solidarity, and one that might even generate some empathy with his drive-by attack on Robbie Savage as a pundit.

Yet, out of the strong stance Terry was taking, there were still some give-aways. He hinted at Mourinho’s true mood by saying he had seen the manager “devastated” after defeats. There’s also the notion that, if you’re actively calling for togetherness — “it’s going to take a dressing room that stays together, sticks together” — that itself implies that it’s not there.

The starkest reality is that nothing brings togetherness, and the confidence required, like consecutive wins. Mourinho knows this. It is the one thing he’s banking on.

It says much about where Chelsea are that they can’t bank on a win against Dynamo Kiev tonight, the sort of victory that would usually be routine.

Instead, it is going to be another anxious occasion.

Mourinho needs his players to actually stand strong on the pitch, and to provide a proper response of his own. They’ve got to come out fighting.