Jose Mourinho calls on Premier League to listen to Frank Lampard

Jose Mourinho has hit out at the Premier League ahead of Chelsea’s west London derby against Fulham on Saturday on the back of their midweek Champions League exploits.

The Blues face Felix Magath’s rejuvenated Fulham side at Craven Cottage after Mourinho’s Chelsea squad dug deep to secure a battling 1-1 draw with Galatasaray in the first leg of their last-16 tie in Istanbul on Wednesday night.

And Mourinho was unhappy that his players were being asked to carry out the difficult job of playing a high-octane London derby at 1500GMT on Saturday rather than Sunday.

“My legs are fresh from the last match. I didn’t sleep much,” Mourinho told his pre-match media conference at Stamford Bridge.

He added: “It makes a player’s job difficult but not my job. I don’t play. I can play a match every day. It isn’t a problem for me or the people who make the fixtures.

“They don’t run, I don’t run. It’s different for the players.

“We arrived [back from Istanbul] at 0600 in the morning. Yesterday, we didn’t train and we didn’t train today. We don’t play Sunday, which would be difficult, we play Saturday which makes it even more difficult.”

Why do we play on Saturday instead of Sunday?

Jose Mourinho

Mourinho called on the Premier League hierarchy to take note of Frank Lampard’s complaints after the Chelsea veteran claimed that England’s European representatives aren’t helped by the scheduling.

“Someone like Frank Lampard. He’s played unbelievable amount of matches with this club and his country,” Mourinho added.

“He isn’t a man who speaks a lot and isn’t a player who is trying to show or express his feelings.

“When a player and a man like him expresses his feelings about that, this country should listen.”

Asked whether the Premier League should hold games on Friday, like in Portugal and Spain, Mourinho replied: “[It happens in] Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany… Everyone.

“If somebody tells me, Friday no, because Friday has some implications at different levels we accept that.

“What we don’t accept is why do we play on Saturday instead of Sunday?”