Mourinho lost his job because the Chelsea squad lacked motivation - Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti says a lack of motivation in the Chelsea camp led to Jose Mourinho's sacking

 

CARLO ANCELOTTI believes a lack of motivation from within the Chelsea camp contributed to Jose Mourinho's sacking.

 

The Portuguese boss was given the boot by Roman Abramovich last week following a disastrous start to the season.

The decision to sack Mourinho has led to a number of Chelsea fans booing the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa and blaming them for the 52-year-old's departure.

Mourinho publicly criticised his players in the wake of their 2-1 defeat to Leicester, insisting they had "betrayed" his work.

 

And Ancelotti, who is set to take over at Bayern Munich next season, believes the loss of motivation from Chelsea's poor run of results left Mourinho fighting a losing battle.

"That is the most difficult job for a coach because within a group, both one that is doing well and one that is doing badly, there are always problems to resolve," Ancelotti told Goal.

"When things are going well, there is a risk of relaxation; when things are going badly, obviously there is a loss of confidence. 

 

"The coach must always keep a good balance in that sense, lifting the confidence levels particularly when things don't seem to be working. 

"It's a little of this that Mourinho paid for, the fact that the team had not started like last year, when they had a tremendous desire to do well after a bad year. 

"This year it was exactly the opposite; he paid for the lack of motivation among the players."

Guus Hiddink's first game in charge on Boxing Day sees Watford travel to Stamford Bridge (3pm).