Sacked Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari has admitted that he had no relationship with his players away from training and matches.
In an interview with France Football magazine, given before he was fired by the Stamford Bridge outfit on Monday, the Brazilian gives an insight to his reign at Stamford Bridge.
“There are egos in the dressing room, but that is normal, isn’t it? We all have egos,” he said.
“But my relationships with the players are good on the pitch. It is true that they are not the same as the relationships I had with my players in Portugal, but I spent five years there.
“In Brazil (as a club manager) it was also easier. I knew everything about the players. Here, I don’t have a family relation with the players. Everything is on the pitch. Outside, there is nothing.”
Scolari also felt that the club lacked a creative spark who could unlock opposition defences, with Chelsea’s summer move for Robinho hijacked at the last minute in the summer by Manchester City.
He said: “At Chelsea we don’t have the player who can make the difference by himself by producing something magical on the pitch.
“We miss that. I don’t know why. In the past (Arjen) Robben was at Chelsea and he could make the difference. But now there is no-one.
“Robinho could have been this player. He is not afraid to dribble, to take a risk, As a Brazilian, I like this.
“My team isn’t Brazilian enough. It is a ‘bureaucratic’ team. That’s the style of my players. That’s why Robinho would have done a lot of good for the team.”
Scolari went on to explain why he left striker Didier Drogba out of his starting XI even when he regained fitness after injury, and suggested that France winger Florent Malouda was also a shadow of his former self.
He added: “Drogba lacks a lot of confidence at the moment. After two or three big injuries, he is missing something. Drogba doesn’t have enough confidence, so I choose (Nicolas) Anelka.
“Malouda, at Chelsea, isn’t the Malouda from Lyon. He is OK, but he isn’t the same that he was with Lyon. He doesn’t make the difference in games any longer.”
