10 Biggest Questions Surrounding Chelsea's Title Bid

4. Are Mourinho's Tactics Flexible Enough?

There's no doubt Jose Mourinho is a superb man manager and tactician. He's had success at every club he's managed and inspired unwavering devotion from many of the greatest players and the biggest egos in world football. Having him at the helm is about as safe a bet as it is possible to make in football to ensuring a certain level of success and when his return was announced last season, Blues fans celebrated not only for what he had achieved in the past, but also what he was expected to achieve in the future. As legendary a figure Mourinho is around the hallowed halls of Stamford Bridge, however, that doesn't mean he shouldn't be subject to the same scrutiny as every other manager to sit in the Chelsea dugout over the years. When observed objectively, it's hard not to conclude that last season was a bit of a disappointment for many reasons and some of Mourinho's decisions were chief among them. One of the biggest issues was the lack of creativity in the squad, which can be at least partially - if not entirely - put down to Mourinho's distrust of our two playmakers, Juan Mata and Kevin De Bruyne, for their supposed lack of defensive contribution prior to selling them in January. That left all the creative onus on Oscar, who may cover more ground than either of those two players but lacks their subtlety and ability to split a defence with a killer ball. His terrible form in the second half of the season certainly suggested the wrong call had been made. Mourinho's distrust of certain types of player typifies a manager whose career has been built on perfecting one successful style of play and sticking to it. Unfortunately, there were indications last season that football may be evolving a little faster than Mourinho has so far proven able to keep up. Despite his claims otherwise, the Chelsea squad he inherited was very strong, if a little unbalanced in places, and equal favourites for the title alongside Manchester City and (ho ho) David Moyes' Man United at the start the 2013/14 season. His decision to put all his eggs in the Wayne Rooney basket early on led to the Blues lacking a cutting edge striker and his inability to embrace the merits of a traditional playmaker like Mata left the team in trouble against mid-table teams content to sit deep for a point. All this is not to say Mourinho's system will not produce results, simply that his lack of flexibility in certain areas may ultimately work against him in attempting to regain the level of glory he previously brought to the club. The talent in Chelsea's ranks ought to be a guarantee of success under just about anyone, particularly a manger of Mourinho's pedigree, but we're increasingly seeing slow, possession-based football being overcome by teams pressing aggressively and countering quickly. This summer's influx of signings will undoubtedly solve many of last season's problems, but probably not all of them.