Mourinho was absent from the Britannia stadium as he served his one match stadium ban but reports suggest that he still remained in contact with his players and backroom staff.
Jose Mourinho received the Stadium ban on Monday following misconduct after the 2-1 loss to West Ham.
Kurt Zouma has come out to say Jose Mourinho was in contact with the team at half-time and congratulated them after the loss to Stoke.
The French defender said: “The pre-match chat happened at the hotel and when we arrived at the ground, he was no longer with us.
“It is the other coach (Steve Holland) who took charge and at half-time they spoke by messaging – they swapped text messages or they called each other I think.
“The assistant told us what he had said and then he (Mourinho) joined us after and told us we had played a good match.
“He was disappointed, like everyone because we lost. I think we could have won that match. We deserved to win it, I think, but we lost. So we were all disappointed.”
And Zouma insisted the under-fire coach still has the full backing of the players and management. “We have to keep him, we have to,” he told French TV.
“I don’t think the dressing room has abandoned him. On the level of performances, it is not like last year for sure. But mentally we are still all together, we are a group.
“The coach has always been behind us and we are behind him just like the supporters are. I think that is still the same situation.
“It is bizarre because last season we finished as champions and three months later we have started badly. Maybe we were relaxed mentally too much. In the last few matches we have played better and then we were unlucky but the confidence is still there.”
The loss against Stoke was Chelsea’s seventh loss of the season, and they find themselves at 16th on the table with 11 points from the 12 games already played.
The Blues are currently 3 points away from the relegation zone and losses in subsequent games could see them drop down to 18th in the league.
Mourinho will be keen on getting Chelsea’s season back on track and he will be looking to further strengthen the side as the January transfer window approaches.
Kourt Zouma shouldn’t have revealed the fact that Mourinho kept in touch with the team during the game as it could possibly attract unnecessary attention to the Blues boss and Jose has definitely had enough of bans and fines this season
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