Jose Mourinho believes that keeping his players happy will prove crucial to Chelsea’s success this season.

Chelsea began the season with questions being asked about the mood within their camp after Portuguese defender Ricardo Carvalho criticised Mourinho’s decision to drop him.

Given the depth of Chelsea’s playing resources Mourinho has a fine balancing act on his hands as he tries to satisfy the needs of his personnel.

The former Porto coach admits he must get that balance right if he is to emulate last season’s achievements.

“It is crucial,” said Mourinho. “Good players want to win championships and good teams win with this mentality.

“Of course I have to work on it, I can’t let players lose their confidence or commitment or lose their link to the group.

“I cannot leave a player 10, 12, 14 consecutive games without playing.

“I have to rotate to make people happy, ideally I would like everyone to be happy.

“They all want to play and that’s not easy, only 11 can do it.

“But we will be in four competitions at the same time and everyone plays.”