Thibaut Courtois talks José Mourinho, Eden Hazard and his own form

With Chelsea now out of contention for any silverware this season, it is time for the team to start thinking about what went wrong. From a late preseason start to a lack of adjustments on and off the pitch, many of factors have influenced our current situation, and hopefully the Blues will avoid them going forward.

For goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, one of the mistakes made by Chelsea was how the team's preseason was set - something that was a factor in  José Mourinho's dismissal in December last year.

"Without doubt we needed a change at that moment. Our preseason was very short. We started on July 16 and straightaway we had a tour in the United States. Maybe physically we weren't in good shape. We started the serious action with a defeat against Arsenal in the Community Shield and then there was a negative spiral that set off."

This lack of fitness seems to have gotten better as the season went on, as was predicted, but it was already too late to salvage anything by the time the problem was solved. Maybe if the board were a bit faster in making changes in the backroom the club could have had a chance to turn things around earlier.

Chelsea's problem isn't to blame solely on fitness, though, as many players also looked shot in terms of confidence, and therefore don't yield good results on the pitch. One of them is Eden Hazard, whom Courtois defended by claiming that for him, he's still the same player as last year in training sessions.

"Against PSG and in other matches before that, Eden was really strong and did the dribbles that I saw him do last year. But in those weeks they didn't lead to a goal or an assist, so they didn't show them afterwards and it's easy to criticise him."

"People were annoyed with him because he swapped shirts too but it was Di Maria who asked him. I see Eden every day in training and he's the same player as last year."

Courtois himself hasn't been immune from criticism since his current form isn't too inspiring either, especially when compared to where he was coming from last season. But the player recognized that could do better on some goals conceded by his side.

"We've had a lot of draws recently and we've conceded a lot of goals too easily. I could have been better on some of the goals we conceded. As soon as you make a mistake, you're killed by the press."

-Thibaut Courtois; Source: RTBF via ESPN FC

A lot of adjustments need to be done by the team if their intention is to return to the Champions League. There might not be a need to revamp the entire squad, but it would be a great start if we manage to get someone to bring our underperfoming champions back to the world-class level they showed during the 2015/16 season.