Jose Mourinho reckons the Chelsea second string doesn't hold a candle to his regular picks.

The Blues boss jabbed the finger of blame straight at his lower-order squad players following the calamitous FA Cup defeat to League One Bradford City.

Mourinho named a heavily changed side for the visit of the Bantams with Petr Cech, Andreas Christensen, Kurt Zouma, Ramires, John Mikel Obi, Mohamed Salah, Didier Drogba and Loic Remy all drafted in.

They took a comfortable 2-0 lead and then conceded just before the break. But collapsed like tents in gale to surrender three goals in 20 second-half minutes.

Low profile: The Chelsea bench watch their team lose to Bradford

He said: “I trust my squad. It is not because of this disappointment and this bad performance that I am going to change.”

However, in comments certain to cause ructions within the squad, he added: “It is easy for you to understand now why I play almost every game with the same players.

“I don't make many changes. I try to keep stability in the team.

“Maybe now you can understand a bit better why. I don't want to speak too much about it. This is my squad – let's move on.”

Chelsea looked rudderless during that second half spell, with John Terry given the weekend off by Mourinho.

Ram raid: Chelsea's Ramires celebrates scoring their second goal with teammates

But the Blues' boss said the decision to omit the captain was not a significant factor in the result.

“No,” he said. “We played lots of games without John.

“We played almost every cup game without John. We played Bolton, Shrewsbury and Watford without John and the team coped well with the situation.”

But it remains to be seen how the comments will be taken by squad players – several of whom are already said to be unhappy about lack of match time.

Challenge: Andreas Christensen takes on Bradford's James Hanson

Cech and Salah have been linked with moves. Remy and Ramires have struggled to find form in the face of little game time, and Mikel and Drogba have failed to set the Premier League alight this season.

Meanwhile, Christensen and Zouma are the latest faces among a progression of young Chelsea talent that rarely gets a look-in at first team level.

Mourinho said he did not even discuss the Bradford game with his squad on Saturday, preferring to go home and have dinner.

He drafted them in for training on Sunday ahead of Tuesday's League Cup semi final second leg against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge – a session during which he was expecting to be looking for answers following Saturday's capitulation.