José Mourinho defended his tactics, which have been criticized in the media as merely "parking the bus" to achieve results for Chelsea.

Chelsea defeated Liverpool 2-0 during the weekend despite only moving forward in counterattack.

"At this moment, football is full of philosophers," Mourinho said. "People who understand much more than me. People with fantastic theories and philosophies. It's amazing. But the reality is always the reality. A team that doesn't defend well doesn't have many chances to win. A team that doesn't score lots of goals, if they concede lots of goals, is in trouble. A team without balance is not a team.

"I remember in my first period here, if you have a goalkeeper like Petr Cech who puts the ball in the opponents' box, and a striker like Didier Drogba who wins everything in the air, why play short? Because you are stupid?

"If your opponents are very fast on the counter and want space behind your defensive line, if you give them that space you are stupid. So when a team plays strategically and [a manager] thinks about his team and the qualities of the opponent … 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 'good teams, intelligent teams'. In this moment – depending on the coach and the club obviously – the critics speak."