Sunday’s humiliating defeat of Chelsea FC by Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City has thrown a lot of light into the failings of Sarriball, the obstinacy of Maurizio Sarri and why he is not the right person for Chelsea.

The obsession of Roman Abrahamovic, the Russian billionaire owner of Chelsea, to see his team play attacking football has led him to hire and fire managers who have fallen short of the standard set by the oligarch.

From the days of Claudio Ranieri to Antonio Conte, the club has never failed to pull the trigger whenever results go south. The only coach who had lasted more than two seasons was Jose Mourinho during his two spells at the club. For the likes of Felipe Scolari and Andre Villa-Boas, they were shown the door within a season (February and March respectively). This hire and fire approach or better put, “short-ism” despite it not being right, has brought about 15 trophies in 15 seasons for Chelsea with 15 different coaches.

The appointment of Maurizio Sarri on July 14th, 2018 was clearly a deviation from a tradition of appointing serial winners. He joined Chelsea from Napoli FC in Italy boasting only a brand of attacking football nicknamed SarriBall, a style named after him. His trophy cabinet was however empty.

With fairness to him, Chelsea had difficulty prising him away from Napoli, a delay which gave the 60-yeard old a limited preparation for the pre-season. However, he came and for the first 12 matches, his team blew hot and cold on his possession-retention brand of football, winning 8 and drawing 4 matches. Then Tottenham came along and shattered the whole concept of Sarriball.

The predictability and obstinacy of Maurizio Sarri is a cause for worry more than the players’ mentality he has come to question after a few defeats. Aftermath of the 4-0 drubbing at Bournemouth a fortnight ago, the gaffer openly said he would stick to his style, the 4-3-3 formation. His inflexibility led to Chelsea recording their worst defeat, 0-6, since 1991.

Every team that has stopped Chelsea from taking the maximum point this season have done so by man-marking the regista, Jorginho, the man whose SarriBall is centred on. After Tottenham, Wolves, Westham, Arsenal, Southampton, Everton and Leicester have all employed the same tactics and it has worked wonders.

Any supporter, who is worth his salt, can predict the starting 11 as well as the substitution to follow. Kovacic will always replace Ross Barkley or vice versa while Pedro will exit the pitch for Willian, depending on who starts between the two.

Sarri’s reference to Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp and his recent tormentor, Guardiola’s stability at their various club is a lame excuse to colour his own shortcomings.

Guardiola has tweaked his formations many times to suit the players at his disposal while Klopp has done same on various occasions depending on his opponent. Sarri has been the direct opposite of that, which nullifies his comparison with both managers. In addition, Pep is a serial winner who has a cabinet full of medals while Klopp has a trophy to his name from his days at Borussia Dortmund. Sarri has none!

Time is ticking and Sarri needs to make the most use of the players at his disposal. His insistence on Marcos Alonso over Emerson is really baffling, especially since the former has dropped form. Looking at the best pattern that suits the materials you have is one of the hallmarks of coaches who have made a name for themselves in the game.

Switching to a 4-2-3-1 formation does not stop your team from playing a possession-based football. Chelsea, after all, played one of its best footballs under Carlo Ancelotti. When the Italian discovered that teams had a solution to his 4-4-2 diamond formation, Ancelotti shifted between 4-3-2-1, 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 during that 2009/2010 season and ended with Chelsea scoring a Premier League record of 103 goals.

What I see in Sarri is a confused man who lacks the mental strength needed to succeed at Chelsea. I might be wrong though, but time will eventually tell.

https://www.makeitglobal.biz/opinion-predictability-obstinacy-maurizio-sarri-killing-chelsea/


cc: semid4lyfe honeric1

We are enjoying Sarri football oooo