Former Chelsea player Shaun Wright-Philips has pointed out that Portuguese gaffer Jose Mourinho tasked all the Blues players to wear shinguard at training due to the crunch tackles of Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien.
Wright-Philips mentioned that everyone was given his best at training and competition was very tight will all the players especially Essien going out in full force which made Mourinho to insists that each player should wear shinguard.
“The tempo was completely different when I moved to Chelsea. There was a real step up in quality as well. “It only got worse when Michael Essien joined because Mourinho was at the point where he was thinking about getting the players to train with shin pads on.” Wright-Philips told the Daily Star
“There were so many tackles flying in and training was really competitive so I don’t think we would have blamed him if Mourinho made that decision.” He added.
Essien spent eight successful years at Chelsea playing 256 games in all competitions, scoring 25 goals and providing eighteen assists.
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