Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho says five defenders are not enough to be competitive in the English Premier League.
Branislav Ivanovic, Kurt Zouma, Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta and John Terry are Chelsea's only first-team defenders after the departure of Filipe Luis with Augsburg left-back Baba Rahman and Everton centre-back John Stones both linked with a possible move to Stamford Bridge.
The Portuguese declared that he is happy with the quality of his five defenders, less with the number of available defenders in his squad.
"Five is not enough. That's obvious," Mourinho told reporters.
"We cannot go to the Premier League with five defenders. That's our weakness. The quality is good, the numbers are not.
"The market sometimes has no rules. We, as Chelsea, we make our own rules.
"To make our own rules is to evaluate the players, and to know the players' value, and to know when we have to stop and turn to another side, and think in another option."
