MOURINHO- ‘I’m very happy with his first week

Jose Mourinho says the arrival of Radamel Falcao offers him different options up front because of the Colombian’s style of play.

The striker, on loan from Monaco, joins Diego Costa and Loic Remy as options for leading our line this season, but as the manager showed during pre-season he has the possibility of changing the team’s formation to play two frontmen together.

During our tour of North America, Mourinho spoke about making his champions more unpredictable this season. Playing with two strikers instead of the one deployed last term is one way of doing that.

‘In the last 20 minutes against Barcelona we played with Loic Remy and Falcao,’ Mourinho said.

‘They did very well not just to bring the team forward but also with one less player in midfield they closed the spaces in front of the midfield line. We can play with two.

‘We were losing against Barcelona and I took Eden Hazard off because I was not worried about the result otherwise he would have played the whole game. Falcao came on and suddenly the team was direct and objective. They closed the lines and played in the opposition half. Falcao held the ball up very well.’

It is now 10 days since Falcao first met up with his new teammates in New York. Ahead of tomorrow’s game against Arsenal when he could make his competitive Chelsea debut, Mourinho explained why he has been a success so far.

‘I’m very happy with his first week. I like him a lot as a player. The team play very well with a striker of his quality. He’s not just a guy that can score a goal; he can also contribute a lot to the quality of the game.

‘I was not expecting him to come here, play 20 minutes against Barcelona and score three goals,’ continued Mourinho.

‘I was waiting for his determination to work, to help the team and to understand the way we play football. For the moment we are happy.’