Chelsea football Club, under Maurizio Sarri, have witnessed a transformation from the reactionary football seen under previous managers.
Gone are the days of the team depending largely on the speed of wing players to initiate counter attacks to stun opposition thus transiting from defending to attack at a blistering pace. A day after the sacking of Antonio Conte came Maurizio Sarri.
Enter Sarrismo.
Chelsea, for all their fluidity on the ball still have a lot to do to beat elite opposition. In the defence of their present style, one may point to the victory against Arsenal at the beginning of the season.
Arsenal at that time were a team trying to find their mojo. In an honest assessment of that game the result could have gone the way of Arsenal but for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mikhiaryan and Alex Iwobi somehow missing sitters.
Maurizio Sarri (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Despite the missed chances by Arsenal, the margin between both teams on the day was a solitary goal. Should Arsenal meet City in the form they’re presently in they would give the league leaders a run for their oil money and not the near training practice witnessed in August.
For one, it appears Sarri favours a slow build-up of play from the back. This can largely be attributable to the gameplay of the opposition where they favour a sit back approach.
This is in sharp contrast to the style of Chelsea in previous seasons as the team is set up for counter attack. Real Madrid and Liverpool are arguably the teams to best Chelsea in this department.
Also, the major point of this argument about Chelsea not having the better side of the top six teams is the predictability in substitutions. Any person with as little as an iota of an idea of how football works knows the changes Sarri will make in a giving match.
Why does Sarri do this, is it as a result of shortage of personnel? Why isn’t anyone talking about this?
It’s easy to get lost in the euphoria of an unbeaten run until the chickens come home to roost.
At the beginning of the season before Alvaro Morata found his scoring boots again, it seemed the starting berth for the striking role was between him and Olivier Giroud. Get a good game today, you start the next game – bar what happens in training which we aren’t privy to.
This seems to also apply to Ross Barkley/ Mateo Kovacic and Willian/Pedro. Until recently Fabregas wasn’t getting game time due to his injury, now when you see him on the touchline you know who is coming off – Jorginho.
Eden Hazard celebrates (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)
If the football fan knows what is in the mind of Sarri how much more the opposition coach of an elite team. There seem to be little or no imagination or dynamism to his substitutions.
It’s always a like for like change to execute instructions whilst maintaining the 4-3-3 shape of the team. This level of predictability can and will be capitalised on by opposition managers.
Is it any wonder why the games against Manchester United and Liverpool ended in draws? Some may not consider Manchester United an elite club presently, but a wounded or sleeping lion is a lion nonetheless.
Hopefully, to meet the need of individual games, this pattern of substitution will be tweaked. There might come a time where the team is in search of goals and require both strikers to be on the pitch at the same time, more defenders or another defensive midfielder (which in all honesty Chelsea are lacking) to defend a lead.
The latter is hugely a doubt.
This whole argument against this method could be thrown out on the basis of the club being the only team in Europe to remain unbeaten in all competitions this season – as the stats indicate.
In fairness to Sarri he has said on a number of occasions that the club is still behind the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City. For now, Tottenham and Manchester City beckons.
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