The Sarri Thread

[Laylabelle 9,535]

3 hours ago, Special Juan said:

 

Just the way Higuain can take defenders away with a run can help massively, creating space for the wide attackers to hit space.

It won't change to a point we beat every team 4-0 but the fact he will make striker runs, run the channels and work hard for chances.

 

Nah but hopefully change these draws and losses around. We're good at aiming for the goalie and over. 

[Special Juan 28,141]

1 minute ago, Ledgi said:

So, our 'stars' didn't like the intense sessions under Conte and Mourinho and now they don't like the more laid-back approach from Sarri?

What would they like, no to come to training at all?

Over paid egotistical toss pots.

Caring for the badge is long gone and lost.

[!Hazard! 3,394]

15 minutes ago, Ledgi said:

So, our 'stars' didn't like the intense sessions under Conte and Mourinho and now they don't like the more laid-back approach from Sarri?

What would they like, no to come to training at all?

Doesn't matter who's the manager, this group of players would be unhappy. For once we should trust the manager and get rid of the unperforming players instead

Selling Hazard might not be the worst idea after all. He's at his peak now and honestly I think he's too laid back to be the number one player at any club. He's the complete opposite of star player like Ronaldo who would whip his whole team after a defeat. Great player of course but he shouldn't be the lone star attacking player at this club because people are expecting stuff from him that he will simply not be able to produce

[Special Juan 28,141]

What's going on right now with the false 9 bollocks is just driving Hazard away, he looks broken and he's playing as bad as his body language.

[Unionjack 7,531]

19 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

Over paid egotistical toss pots.

Caring for the badge is long gone and lost.

As my old dear would say 'They're a bunch of big girls blouses!'

[Unionjack 7,531]

5 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

What's going on right now with the false 9 bollocks is just driving Hazard away, he looks broken and he's playing as bad as his body language.

Poor poor chap!

Hes a fuckin millionaire diva that should suck it up and do his best whether he is in his position or on the bench waiting!

[Fernando 6,585]

52 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Same thing for any manager we have. 

And will be the same thing in the future. 

[Unionjack 7,531]

2 hours ago, Fernando said:

Same thing for any manager we have. 

And will be the same thing in the future. 

Doesn't anyone find these remarks amazing considering how they said training was fun and it made a nice change to what they had been doing before?

Our players get away with murder.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Another issue is that Sarri has made it clear to everyone that he only selects from a small crop when it comes to the League. It has created an environment where virtually half the squad are participating in training knowing there is little chance of a start at the weekend. It is not exactly a motivational tool.

One player was heard joking that he was not sure Sarri “even knows what my name is”. 😂😂😂

The grandpa's losing it big time.

[Special Juan 28,141]

This place will lose it's shit if Higuain signs tomorrow in time to face Spurs and Sarri comes out with "He's not ready to play our style of football yet"

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Quote

The problem facing Sarri-ball

Why isn't Sarri-ball working the way it's supposed to?

 

Chelsea aren't playing very well. Maurizio Sarri warned everyone back in September that he felt Chelsea were a year or two behind their rivals and it looks like he had a point.

 

Former manager Jose Mourinho summarised things nicely on a rare TV appearance over the weekend: "I'm not saying Chelsea's an easy team to play against... but it's an easy team to analyse".

 

With that in mind, what's going wrong?

 

How Sarri-ball works As has become all too apparent in recent weeks, Chelsea are predictable and easy to shut down. Sarri's team lineup in a 4-3-3, play a high defensive line and patiently wait for opportunities to score by passing, then passing some more, then passing even more, then passing even more than that.

 

The whole thing is structured around a deep lying playmaker, or 'six', acting as a link between centre-backs and midfield. On either side of him are two central midfielders - 'eights' - who play from box to box and operate in the halfspaces. The wingers are instructed to move inside the pitch, full-backs play high and overlap and the striker has to be able to attack crosses, run onto through balls and link play.

 

In defensive phases the shape can change to a 4-5-1 if the wingers do the defensive work required. The setup is very structured and depends on players who understand the tactical demands and are suited to their individual roles. Everyone knows how Chelsea play now.

 

Marking Jorginho

**In the first phase of build up, everything goes through Jorginho. He acts as the link in all Chelsea's passing, dropping between the centre-backs, offering a safe diagonal pass backwards for the two eights and able to switch play from deep to an advancing full-back to get Chelsea up the pitch.

All anyone need do to suss out how influential Jorginho is look at Opta passing statistics.

The solution is to mark him. In teams that play a 4-2-3-1, the 10 is the obvious choice for this because of the strata that Jorginho plays in ("between the lines"). Arsenal changed their formation to a 4-4-2 diamond for the win on Saturday, with Aaron Ramsey assigned the task of following Jorginho wherever he went. Ramsey stayed close to Jorginho throughout the match, tethered to him to disrupt Chelsea's buildup play

Everton were one of the teams who worked this out early (Man Utd the first) and apply their analysis successfully, having Gylfi Sigurdsson stay next to Jorginho or stand directly in his cover shadow, making a pass to him risky. Everton secured a 0-0 draw, Spurs marked Jorginho in the next match and won 3-1. Chelsea scored an average of 2.25 goals per game before the Everton match in November, and since, they've managed only 1.18 per game.

Jorginho was an essential part of Sarri's Napoli team too. He allows Chelsea to maintain this shape and these passing lanes:

If you remove that one link, all of Chelsea's play is forced into wide areas, as you can see from the average positions.

Arsenal vs Chelsea average positions Isolate Jorginho and Chelsea's first phase of buildup is ruined. There's no way Sarri isn't wholly aware of this but why would he compromise the system and shape that brought him so success he was offered the Chelsea job in the first place?

 

Curbing Chelsea's creativity The arrival of Sarri was good news for David Luiz, who has become one of Chelsea's most important creative players. Centre-backs aren't usually man-marked, which means they are free to distribute the ball as they wish - Luiz's long range passing is superb.

David Luiz is one of Chelsea's most important playmakers This exact pass put Pedro clean through on goal, played onside by Arsenal's left-back Sead Kolasinac. A possession-based side like Chelsea would usually depend on the creativity of the attacking midfielders to find openings, but a midfield of N'Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and a man-marked Jorginho needs a bit of help from someone with ideas.

Luiz is perhaps the only footballer in the team prepared to hit direct, vertical passes to catch out teams defending against Chelsea's never-ending horizontal passing. The solution to this is obvious too: force Chelsea to pass the ball to their right flank, away from Marcos Alonso and Luiz, towards Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger and Kante, who are less artistic distributors of the ball. That's exactly what Arsenal did.

Possession without penetration Opposition teams are entirely happy to let Chelsea have the ball because that's the best way to defend against them. With buildup play spoiled because Jorginho is marked and without a striker capable of causing damage, they're so predictable in the final third that teams can defend patiently behind the ball until Chelsea run out of ideas, try a shot from 20 yards or cross the ball into nobody, turning over possession. Chelsea's attacking shape leaves them vulnerable to counter-attacks, which makes sitting deep and waiting for the ball a safe option for success.

Eden Hazard is best when allowed to roam from his starting position on the left of a forward three but when stationed as a false nine, doesn't see enough of the ball. When he drops deep to get involved, Chelsea are left without a player to aim crosses to in the box and his natural inclination to drift to the left side means the centre of the pitch is left vacant.

And so, Chelsea work the ball wide either by choice or forced to by the defending team, reach the end of the corridor and then have no option but to pass backwards, then sideways, then backwards.

Chelsea's players are being marked out of the game, which means the most creative are being neutered by the entire team's predictability.

We've seen this happen to other managers in recent seasons. Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool employ the same shape as Chelsea, but move the ball through the lines more quickly and employ a more frantic forward press. It took Klopp several transfer windows and three seasons of coaching to get his side looking the way he wanted.

In the days before Naby Keita and Virgil van Dijk Liverpool had similar struggles in the Premier League, with teams like Burnley sitting back, denying space and coming away with 1-0 wins. With time Sarri can construct a starting XI in his own image too but that in itself is a problem to fix - will he be given time and money to buy new players to fit a system, or does he need to change the system to fit the players?

Is N'Golo Kante out of position? Kante is one of the world's great midfielders. He won the Premier League with Leicester and Chelsea as a central midfielder in a midfield two, running around the pitch with such energy and making so many tackles and interceptions that Claudio Ranieri remarked it was like there were two of him on the pitch.

Sarri's midfield three fundamentally needs a player who to set the passing tempo and who is able to receive the ball in tight spaces, turn a corner and bring others into play, hence Jorginho. The two eights must be in position to link passing through the middle, cover in defence and attack the halfspaces in the final third. Kante can't play as a six so he has to be an eight.

The thing is, Sarri cannot drop Kante because he is one of Chelsea's very best players. But Kante isn't the best at either of these roles...

Kante can play the box-to-box role asked of him in Sarri's system but creates chances by winning turnovers and barging his way past players. Without another midfielder on the opposite side of the pitch capable of unlocking a defence and with Hazard's creativity absent due to his positioning, there's no cutting edge in the final third.

This fundamentally alters the passing lanes and options for build up that Sarri wants. The 4-2-3-1 is a great counter-attack formation (Liverpool use it often this season) but Sarri wants control of the game by having possession of the ball. Switching to two sixes and a 10 doesn't suit this.

Most obvious weakness is that by moving a player from six to 10, buildup play cannot go through a central pivot and instead must be shifted wide or vertically.

Teams tend to defend against this shape by sitting at halfway or slightly deeper, crowding out the 10 and forcing passes out wide... sound familiar? Vertical passes often result in turnovers of possession, which means the attacking team doesn't have total control of the ball, which means a manager has less control over the outcome of a match. Sarri wants to limit variables since that's how his teams gain an advantage, never relying on the luck of a dice roll.

The system is fine, the players are at fault "This defeat was due to our mentality, more than anything else," said a furious Sarri in his post-match interview. "This is something I can't accept. This group of players are extremely difficult to motivate."

Arsenal were quicker to close down Chelsea, and from kick-off showed more energy and aggression all over the pitch. Without maximum effort or at least a matched desire to win, tactical setups can have little effect on the outcome of a match between two groups of hugely talented players.

When teams play with a high defensive line as Sarri's does, the first line of press is crucial but too often Arsenal were able to escape the attentions of Pedro, Willian and Hazard. Arsenal stayed narrow in their own half and had a striker stay wide to offer an out-ball - Sarri shouldn't have had to explain to his players how important it was to cut this pass out:

When players were caught out of position others failed to react and fill the gaps. Without that burning desire to hunt and win the ball back, Sarri-ball doesn't function as it should. The attacking shape leaves the defence vulnerable in transition - if the attackers don't defend with the right intensity in the right places, the building falls down.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/01/21/chelseas-tactical-headache-deconstructed-problems-facing-sarri/

[Unionjack 7,531]

1 hour ago, Special Juan said:

This place will lose it's shit if Higuain signs tomorrow in time to face Spurs and Sarri comes out with "He's not ready to play our style of football yet"

Needs help in the defence phase!

[Jase 43,479]

9 hours ago, gdlk said:

Well but you forget that Sarri won vs City and luck saved Liverpool to win there twice! 

Kudos to Sarri not trying to take City/Liverpool with an open attacking approach but ironically, we drew with Liverpool and beat City with a Mourinho/Conte-esque approach.

[Jase 43,479]

Meanwhile at Napoli...

 

[Tomo 21,751]

48 minutes ago, Jason said:

Kudos to Sarri not trying to take City/Liverpool with an open attacking approach but ironically, we drew with Liverpool and beat City with a Mourinho/Conte-esque approach.

We were maybe more cautious in approach but bar maybe the last 20 minutes vs Liverpool it wasn't the same from a tactical POV as Jose/Conte.

After the Liverpool game the Pool fans i was with that night and who's opinions i saw on forums and social media were widely full of praise with how we played with the ball and that we were probably the best team they have faced under Klopp to date in terms of how well we coped with their "gengen" pressing, a system that has even blown away Pep's finished product for perspective.

[Vesper 30,178]

37 minutes ago, Jason said:

Meanwhile at Napoli...

 

Ancelotti is one of the all-time great managers, one of only three to win 3 European Championships, along with Paisley and Zidane. Enraged me when we sacked him.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

33 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Ancelotti is one of the all-time great managers, one of only three to win 3 European Championships, along with Paisley and Zidane. Enraged me when we sacked him.

Me 2. I think he was our best coach of the Abramovich era. We were really close 2nd that season and would  have easiöy won if Lamps and Drogs had not been injured for half of it, which the club failed to make amends for in any transfer window instead replacing Deco and Ballack with Ramires and Zhirkov in midfield. Add to that the torres disaster when drogba was already fit again.

[Henrique 9,133]

5 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Me 2. I think he was our best coach of the Abramovich era. We were really close 2nd that season and would  have easiöy won if Lamps and Drogs had not been injured for half of it, which the club failed to make amends for in any transfer window instead replacing Deco and Ballack with Ramires and Zhirkov in midfield. Add to that the torres disaster when drogba was already fit again.

Debatable. Definitely the 09/10 team is by a country mile my favorite of the Abramovich era, but I think its really hard to go against Mourinho as the best coach of Abramovich era, as much as I hate the man.

[Vesper 30,178]

30 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Me 2. I think he was our best coach of the Abramovich era. We were really close 2nd that season and would  have easiöy won if Lamps and Drogs had not been injured for half of it, which the club failed to make amends for in any transfer window instead replacing Deco and Ballack with Ramires and Zhirkov in midfield. Add to that the torres disaster when drogba was already fit again.

He also has the 3rd highest win percentage (less than 1% point behind Mourinho, and of course behind Fergie) in EPL history. Had Mo stayed at Manure, Carlo would have passed him up, I am absolutely positive.

I so so hope we don't draw Napoli in the EL until perhaps the final.

[Vesper 30,178]

49 minutes ago, Henrique said:

Debatable. Definitely the 09/10 team is by a country mile my favorite of the Abramovich era, but I think its really hard to go against Mourinho as the best coach of Abramovich era, as much as I hate the man.

I still am partial to the 2004-5 first Mo team. But, yes, loved that 2009-10 squad. Great football.