Jose
Mourinho says Chelsea midfielder Oscar has ‘evolved’ into a player capable
of controlling matches such as the one at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The Brazilian scored an excellent free-kick after six minutes to put Chelsea
on their way to a 2-1 win at Selhurst Park that was their seventh victory in
eight Premier League games.
It was a different type of midfield performance to the ones with which Oscar
made his name last season before the Blues’ title challenge tailed off
towards the end of the campaign.
Mourinho now does not regard Oscar as simply a playmaker, and says his game
is improving all the time.
"Oscar, in this moment, is not a number 10," the Blues boss said.
"He had an evolution, a mental, tactical evolution that allows him to be a
fantastic player. Can he physically improve? Of course. People forget that
he is still so young."
When Cesc Fabregas, who scored Chelsea's second, was the subject of close
attention against Palace, it was Oscar who dropped deep to fill the
Spaniard's role.
Mourinho added: "He's not a number 10 that plays with the ball at his feet,
he's a number 10 that looks back, looks to the side, analyses the game and
sees where the team needs him to move to get the ball and also to create
balance.
"In the first half when they had (James) McArthur playing man to man with
Fabregas, I was so happy with that.
"Fabregas was taking McArthur from the central area and Oscar was dropping
back to play.
"And Oscar and (Nemanja) Matic controlled the game completely for us."
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