Sarri But Not Sarri Thread

[Henrique 9,133]

23 hours ago, bakayokofan said:

Biggest problem that I see is that, he will have to "start again" next year. The only players I see staying beyond the summer are

Gks, rbs and lbs (which is an area for updation for sure), CMs (though need a back up or 2), none of the strikers, just 2 of the wingers who are both over 30 and just not good enough to win the PL or even challenge for it.

Add to that the fact that most of the prem has already figured out a way to play against "sarri ball", it just does not make a good viewing. 

Sarri has not set the world alight, but he needed time and most importsntly, "his" players in along with keeping the best ones. He will be getting the worst of both worlds the next season.

Let's hope for the best, but the Outlook is not that great.

 

Forget mate! Im pretty sure the 90% of the current players that are being used by Sarri will be around next season. With or without transfer ban. For one simple reason: during Abramovich era such squad overhaul as you suggested never happened.

The closest we had of a overhaul was right after 2012 UCL, when Kalou, Malouda, Drogba, Raul Meirelles and Bosingwa left at the same time, but if you look at 2012/13 season, only Hazard, Oscar and Azpilicueta were new players with decent playing time. In 2013 Europa League final, with Hazard out, the entire team was around in the previous season minus Oscar and Azpilicueta.

Next season I have no doubt this is going to be the most used players:

Kepa; Rudiger, Luiz, Azpilicueta, Alonso/Emerson; Jorginho, Kante, Barkley/Loftus-Chick; William/Pedro, Pulisic, Higuaín/Giroud.

With transfers available the club might get another u23 winger or CB, and thats It. 

Not sure why people are expecting a completely new team next season.

[Vesper 28,785]

On 13/03/2019 at 11:30 AM, Tomo said:

If we can't overturn the transfer ban then I am next to certain no player of even remote importance will be allowed to go anywhere.

You mean the non-deferral overturned. If CAS overturns that we will have a 2019 summer window and then (provided the 2 window ban overall is kept in place) we will not have a window until January 2021. January windows are very hard to do business in, so in reality summer 2021 would be our next true window.

IF we do get the deferral (and thus have the summer 2019 window) I absolutely expect Hazard, Willian, and CHO to be moved, as all 3 walk on frees in summer 2020, and we would, at that point, not only lose close to £200m in sale revenue, but be utterly incapable of replacing them, probably for a full year (perhaps we could do a desperation January 2021 buy or 2).

The only hope I have is that CHO, after seeing all his competition at LW sold, renews.

If we do get the summer 2019 window and do very little, the club, at that point is fucked for years. We will lose all 3 on frees in 2020 and not be able to do a damn thing about it.

The only option would be a disastrous breaking of our no multiyear contracts for 30 something rule and for us (even with a summer 2019 window) to sign Willian and Luiz to 3 or 4 year extensions (whuch is what both are demanding).

That takes them to 34, 35 years of age, and would absolutely guarantee CHO walks (as Willian will thus be embedded for years on a huge, long contract at LW.)

If that is the outcome, then surely the writing is on the wall in terms of Roman not giving a fuck about the club anymore. We cannot roll on to summer 2021 with basically the same players as now, minus Eden and CHO. By fall 2020 we would be in shambles. Our back 4, other than Rudiger would be a hot mess, as Luiz (turns 34 in middle of 2020/21 and Azpi (31yo the full season) will be truly well spent, and Alonso will also be 30. Only small hope there is that Reece James comes good, and AC and Ampadu take it to starter level (even if only 50% of the time.)

If we do get tge summer 2019 window and dont go huge, we also will be fucked at CMF and backup DH DMF, as well as at CF (surely we will not buy a soon to be, at that point, 33yo Higs perm) and also at winger, as we will only have Pedro (33yo then) and Pulisic, plus dregs recalled, like Moses or Kenedy. Even if we renew Willian (32 then), the wingers are probably fucked if we do nothing this summer. CF will be a nightmare unless Tammy comes good in a huge way.

I see some on here saying even with a summer 2019 window, nothing much will happen. We had all best hope to fuck these status quo pushers are profoundly wrong, as the club will truly start to fall apart from so many angles if they are correct.

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

On 13/03/2019 at 1:31 PM, pHaRaOn said:

This is misleading stat. Chance created = a pass that leads to a shot on goal. It doesn't take quality of those chances into account.

Let's look at big chances (a situation where a player should reasonably be expected to score) missed:

Man City - 58
Man United - 47
Liverpool - 44
Chelsea - 43
Arsenal - 42
Tottenham - 42

There's no big difference between us, United, Tottenham and Arsenal.

Fair enough misleading or not but if you look at the fact who those other teams have playing upfront/attacking positions as well as in MF and their goal /assists outputs its hugely better than ours. Obviously some teams have more depth than others but look.

Man City: 105 goals in 180 PL starts between these players. 

- Aguero 18 goals, 6 assists in 24 PL starts and 2 sub appearances.

- Sterling 15 goals, 9 assists in 24 PL starts and 3 sub appearances.

- Sane 8 goals, 9 assists in 18 PL starts and 7 sub appearances.

- Mahrez 6 goals, 3 assists in 12 PL starts and 12 sub appearances. 

- D. Silva 6 goals, 6 assists in 22 PL starts and 4 sub appearances.

- B. Silva 5 goals, 6 assists in 25 PL starts and 4 sub appearances.

- Jesus 6 goals, 2 assists in 7 PL starts and 16 sub appearances.  

Man United: 58 goals in 101 PL games between these players.

- Rashford 9 goals, 6 assists in 20 starts and 6 sub appearances.

- Lukaku 12 goals, 0 assists in 18 PL starts, 9 sub appearances.

- Martial 9 goals, 2 assists in 15 PL starts and 6 sub appearances. 

- Pogba 11 goals, 9 assists in 26 PL starts and 1 sub appearances.

Liverpool: 63 goals in 108 games between these players.

- Mane 16 goals, 1 assist in 27 PL starts and 1 sub appearance.

- Salah 16 goals, 7 assists in 29 PL starts and 1 sub appearance. 

- Firmino 11 goals, 4 assists in 26 PL starts and 3 sub appearances. 

- Shaqiri 6 goals, 2 assists in 11 PL starts and 10 sub appearances. 

Arsenal: 50 goals in 75 games between these players.

- Lacazette, 12 goals, 7 assists in 21 PL starts and 8 sub appearances. 

- Aubameyang 17 goals, 4 assists in 25 PL starts and 4 sub appearances.

- Mkhitaryan 6 goals, 4 assists in 13 PL starts and 4 sub appearances.

Tottenham: 57 goals in 119 games between these players.

- Kane, 17 goals, 4 assists in 25 PL starts and 1 sub appearance. 

- Son, 11 goals, 5 assists in 18 PL starts and 6 sub appearances.

- Eriksen, 5 goals, 9 assists in 22 PL starts and 5 sub appearances. 

- Alli, 5 goals, 2 assists in 15 PL starts and 3 sub appearances. 

- Lucas 6 goals, 0 assists in 18 PL starts and 6 sub appearances.

Then us: 59 goals in 142 games between these players.

- Hazard 13 goals, 11 assists in 25 PL starts and 3 sub appearances.

- Higuain 3 goals, 0 assists in 6 PL starts, 0 sub appearances.

- Giroud 1 goal, 4 assists in 6 PL starts, 14 sub appearances. 

- Pedro 8 goals, 1 assist in 17 PL starts and 7 sub appearances. 

- Willian 3 goals, 5 assists in 22 PL starts and 5 sub appearances. 

- Barkley 3 PL goals, 4 assists in 10 PL starts, 12 sub appearances.

- RLC 3 PL goals, 0 assists in 1 PL start and 14 sub appearances. 

 

The big difference for me is City, Liverpool. United, Spurs and Arsenal more than one guy who is on 10+ goals this season. We used to have that with Drogba, Anelka, Lampard, Malouda, Kalou etc all those years ago. If we had 3 players with 10 plus goals this season so far we'd probably be in the top 4 comfortably. Defence has also conceded some shocking goals this year fair enough but Napoli under Sarri scored a lot of goals. We don't have enough goalscorers in the squad. Pedro and Hazard are comfortably well ahead of everyone else in that regard. 

[communicate 2,703]

19 hours ago, !Hazard! said:

I hate him. There must be at least a dozen managers in Europe who would play more convincing football with the squad he has. Same problems were there last year when they barely won Spurs and got destroyed by Real in the first leg. Now they have Ronaldo so only god knows what they can achieve this time around but I'm still not convinced about their football in general

Juventus? 

They should have beaten real last year and they almost beat bayern a while ago while losing their first leg. This juventus team is really2 good. Allegri problem is sometimes he tend to be super conservative which weird looking at his squad. 

[communicate 2,703]

On 3/13/2019 at 6:44 PM, Muzchap said:

Exactly people forget we had Morata emulating Torres and Giroud for the best part of the season. 

We have wasted tons of chances, whereas Wolves score with one chance. 

If we had decent fullbacks we would be even more of a threat. 

Dont get me wrong Sarri annoys me with his selections - but every manager will annoy people at some point.

I don't think he's the fraud people are making him out to be - if we had the right players and a decent striker - we could have genuinely been challenging for the league. 

I still think player power is a huge problem - they don't care about the manager as they know the next one will be along shortly. The club need to back him publicly and say it's a 3 year project. We aren't going to sign another manager with transfer bans. It's just too easy to heap all the blame on Sarri - it needs dividing up to the club, the players, us the fans and the manager IMHO

 

Sarri is not a fraud.  But scoring wise it is still the same problem. We struggle to score against physical team with compact defense. It is the same problem. We have 0 clue on how to break down teams that park the bus against us. We cannot do pool way with two marauding fb. Trent and Robertson are absolutely fanstastic. Robertson engine is fantastic and Trent crossing is just brilliant. City spread team wide and use their two am in half space. But they have silvas and kdb. 

[Jase 43,479]

Not having Ampadu in the matchday squad today was a joke! 

[Vesper 28,785]

37 minutes ago, Jason said:

Not having Ampadu in the matchday squad today was a joke! 

yep

forced Jorginho to play (or Azpi, if Sarri would play Amps at RB)

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Not having Ampadu in the matchday squad today was a joke! 

Dont see the fuss.... we won 5-0, Ruben played, Calum played and scored. For the 25-30 minutes Jorginho and Azpi played it would hardly of made a huge difference if it was Ampadu or someone else or those guys who came on. Weve come away with a good win on a shit pitch with 0 injuries. 

[Jase 43,479]

40 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Dont see the fuss.... we won 5-0, Ruben played, Calum played and scored. For the 25-30 minutes Jorginho and Azpi played it would hardly of made a huge difference if it was Ampadu or someone else or those guys who came on. Weve come away with a good win on a shit pitch with 0 injuries. 

The point is, we were already 3-0 up from the first leg and that should have been the opportunity for Sarri to play players who haven't played much this season and rest those who have, especially when he complained about the bad pitch and players feeling fatigue. Not saying he should have changed the entire team but players like Ampadu should have been in the team. Why risk and play the likes of Jorginho, Azpi even if it's for only less than 30 minutes? What if they had gotten injured? 

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

33 minutes ago, Jason said:

The point is, we were already 3-0 up from the first leg and that should have been the opportunity for Sarri to play players who haven't played much this season and rest those who have, especially when he complained about the bad pitch and players feeling fatigue. Not saying he should have changed the entire team but players like Ampadu should have been in the team. Why risk and play the likes of Jorginho, Azpi even if it's for only less than 30 minutes? What if they had gotten injured? 

and he also played Kante and Rüdiger. Utter clueless selection once again. He could have easily given another youngster the chance. Sarri is not only bad for the present but also a catastrophe for the future of the club with the lack of squad development.

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

The point is, we were already 3-0 up from the first leg and that should have been the opportunity for Sarri to play players who haven't played much this season and rest those who have, especially when he complained about the bad pitch and players feeling fatigue. Not saying he should have changed the entire team but players like Ampadu should have been in the team. Why risk and play the likes of Jorginho, Azpi even if it's for only less than 30 minutes? What if they had gotten injured? 

 

21 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

and he also played Kante and Rüdiger. Utter clueless selection once again. He could have easily given another youngster the chance. Sarri is not only bad for the present but also a catastrophe for the future of the club with the lack of squad development.

What if they has gotten injured could occur to any of the 22 players who started for both teams and any of the subs who came on.... it was 3-0 after the first leg yea but I think Sarri was right not to throw out a hugely changed team. We need momentum running into the remainder of the season to keep on winning and playing decent. 

Ampadu could have played yes but instead of who to start with? Rudiger and Christensen have shown they are a decent partnership together and with no Luiz, Rudigers aeriel ability and physicality was needed. Kovacic played instead of Jorginho and the last time Ampadu played that number 6 role he was poor giving the ball away a lot and slowing it down too much, against much weaker opposition too. Sarri played Callum, played Ruben but is still criticized for not using young homegrown players. And Kante for me should start every match he can because he is our best midfield player comfortably and offers so much. Theres no point in complaining that Ampadu didnt play or that player x did or whatever. We won 5-0. There wasnt a lot of negatives tonight.

[Jase 43,479]

14 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

 

What if they has gotten injured could occur to any of the 22 players who started for both teams and any of the subs who came on.... it was 3-0 after the first leg yea but I think Sarri was right not to throw out a hugely changed team. We need momentum running into the remainder of the season to keep on winning and playing decent. 

Ampadu could have played yes but instead of who to start with? Rudiger and Christensen have shown they are a decent partnership together and with no Luiz, Rudigers aeriel ability and physicality was needed. Kovacic played instead of Jorginho and the last time Ampadu played that number 6 role he was poor giving the ball away a lot and slowing it down too much, against much weaker opposition too. Sarri played Callum, played Ruben but is still criticized for not using young homegrown players. And Kante for me should start every match he can because he is our best midfield player comfortably and offers so much. Theres no point in complaining that Ampadu didnt play or that player x did or whatever. We won 5-0. There wasnt a lot of negatives tonight.

Sarri could have just left Azpi back home, for instance, and used Ampadu as back up for RB. Instead, Ampadu was nowhere to be seen and Azpi was forced to play the last half hour. It might not be a big issue but it's still poor squad management from Sarri, especially when he himself has complained about the bad pitch and players being tired etc.

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

Sarri could have just left Azpi back home, for instance, and used Ampadu as back up for RB. Instead, Ampadu was nowhere to be seen and Azpi was forced to play the last half hour. It might not be a big issue but it's still poor squad management from Sarri, especially when he himself has complained about the bad pitch and players being tired etc.

A man never known for rotation or using young players doesnt rotate or use a youngster ahead of a senior pro. Not really a surprise. Just being picky. Id love to see us play 4 or 5 youngsters every opportunity but its never gonna happen here realistically. Poor squad management and Chelsea goes hand in hand.

[!Hazard! 3,394]

6 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

A man never known for rotation or using young players doesnt rotate or use a youngster ahead of a senior pro. Not really a surprise. Just being picky. Id love to see us play 4 or 5 youngsters every opportunity but its never gonna happen here realistically. Poor squad management and Chelsea goes hand in hand.

Sarri is not the type of manager who complains about his squad or the transfer market which is exactly why Marina was so keen on getting Sarri. If we want to see youth players then we have to simply sell the experienced players. I don't think Sarri has a problem playing Reece James, RLC, CHO, Mount etc next season if they really are the best we've got for those positions. He's a coach after all who loves to work with what he has and develop his players rather than moan about lack of transfers.

[Jase 43,479]

16 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

A man never known for rotation or using young players doesnt rotate or use a youngster ahead of a senior pro. Not really a surprise. Just being picky. 

Just because Sarri is known for not rotating players, it doesn't mean it's okay for him to continue doing so and/or we should be okay with it. His lack of rotation is what has caused fatigue in the team and some injuries 1-2 months ago. 

16 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

Id love to see us play 4 or 5 youngsters every opportunity but its never gonna happen here realistically. Poor squad management and Chelsea goes hand in hand.

Perhaps the board do a shit job in hiring managers that don't know how to fully utilize the squad properly. 

[Unionjack 7,531]

44 minutes ago, Jason said:

Just because Sarri is known for not rotating players, it doesn't mean it's okay for him to continue doing so and/or we should be okay with it. His lack of rotation is what has caused fatigue in the team and some injuries 1-2 months ago. 

Perhaps the board do a shit job in hiring managers that don't know how to fully utilize the squad properly. 

we all knew exactly what we were getting and what to expect long before Sarri came.

NOTHING he has done up to now should come as any surprise to any of us.

I'm still up for backing him 100% but with no transfer windows and the lack of support from the board in the winter I can't see it happening any time soon.

I still blame our players to a large extent for the shite we are in. Not only are they not right for this type of football but our attitude,commitment,attitude,urgency is piss poor for many many games.

I'm not saying that Ive agreed with all that Sarris done cause Ive shouted ny fool head off at some of his decisions in team selections/subs.

But Ive decided that me bitching and whining only effects my moods and doesn't make a bit of fuckin difference even if the board did give a shit what we thought. So I'm just going to TRY to SUPPORT  us even if next season we will be full of loanees amd 30+'s

58 minutes ago, Jason said:

Perhaps the board do a shit job in hiring managers that don't know how to fully utilize the squad properly. 

Perhaps the board is just SHITE in general.

They are fuckin useless at supporting managers of late. If they had backed Conte we wouldn't have been moaning about Sarri.

And if they had backed Sarri we wouldn't be moaning about our next manager to go thru the revolving managers doors

[Vesper 28,785]

I think Simeone may bail on AM

[Jase 43,479]

Sack Sarri. Hire Nuno Espirito Santo.