Jose Mourinho walked out of a Chelsea news conference after being irritated by questions about Kevin de Bruyne.
The boss said Juan Mata, recently on the periphery, will start Tuesday’s Champions League tie with Steaua Bucharest but De Bruyne had been left at home after failing to impress.
“You are for three weeks speaking about Mata, and now it’s De Bruyne,” he said.
“You have this tendency to only ask about the guys that are not selected”
“So you aren’t interested in the players that are playing? You are interested in the players not playing.”
Having faced questions about Mata’s absence in recent weeks, the Portuguese was unhappy to be asked about his reasoning for omitting the Belgian and he brought a swift end to the conference in Romania.
Spain international Mata, Chelsea’s player of the year last season, has started two of Chelsea’s six Premier League matches under Mourinho this term.
Fellow attacking midfielder De Bruyne, who last featured in the 2-0 Capital One Cup win at Swindon on 24 September, was omitted from Mourinho’s 18-man squad for Saturday’s 1-1 Premier League draw at Tottenham.
Mourinho continued: “He [De Bruyne] was not selected. It was my decision. Only 11 can play and 18 can be selected. I try to decide, by what they do on the pitch, when they play and what they do in training.
“I try to be honest with Juan and say that he’s going to play Tuesday, because of what he did in training and because of what he did in the matches he played.
“With Kevin, it’s the same. He’s not selected because I didn’t like the match he played against Swindon and I didn’t like the way he was training.
“But you have this tendency to only ask about the guys that are not selected. See you Tuesday.” BBC
