Chelsea captain John Terry was taken off at half-time for the first time under Jose Mourinho’s management in the Premier League, as his boss admitted it was a tactical decision. The 34-year-old has been an ever present for the Portuguese manager but didn’t appear for the second half at the Etihad Stadium, as the Blues slipped to a disappointing 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.
But it had nothing to do with Terry underperforming: it was purely tactical, as Mourinho explained in this post-match interview. Convinced that Chelsea would dominate the second half and push City back, he wanted to have more pace in defense, so brought on Kurt Zouma in Terry’s place.
The defender was replaced by Zurt Zouma and saw the impressive run under his loyal manager come to an end. Mourinho confirmed that his decision to take off his captain was a tactical one, as he wanted a bit more pace to deal with Sergio Aguero.
He told Sky Sports:
‘No (Terry wasn’t injured), it was just a decision, I know that Zouma is the fastest defender we have in the squad and in that moment Man City is going to play counter attack and they are going to play long balls to Aguero. ‘Zouma is a different player to John and Cahill and was proven completely right, Zouma was in complete control.
‘He’s [Terry] a player of my total trust, there is no doubt about it, with me he was never substituted but with other managers he was not even selected, he was not playing or people thought his career at Chelsea was over. ‘So if somebody has the free mind and are right to have these kind of decisions as a manager, I am the one because I am the one who gave him the chance to be what he is, which is a fantastic player and fantastic captain.
‘I left him out because tactically I have to make a change and when you make changes, sometimes you are right and sometimes you are wrong, I think I was proven right because we controlled the depth of the game and the counter attack.
‘The second goal is a corner where Kompany marker lost the duel with Kompany, and the third goal is a ball we have in control and one player loses it in a dangerous position. My decision was proven right and John is Chelsea captain for sure, John is a player with my entire confidence for sure.’
