Generally speaking, when it comes to issue I always take my time before coming to a conclusion or rather put it ‘’I’m not too fast to judge people’’. The coming of Maruizio Sarri to Chelsea with his style of play has been the best thing that has happened to Chelsea for two seasons now. Having gone 13 matches unbeaten record in his first premier league season which was followed by 3-1 defeat to Tottenham, many fans and pundit has jumped into conclusion about the Sarri system of football. Many questioned why Kante was moved out of his natural position to play at the final third where his efforts have not really being felt unlike against Manchester City.
I was not too quick to cast aspersion on the philosophy but recent development has made me question Sarriball and the mentality of hi players. In my last post https://scorum.com/en-us/football/@mr-sarriball/what-has-happened-to-sarriball, I was wondering if Maruizio Sarri has discarded this style of play to meet up with the physical nature of the league. However we saw Sarriball in play again with Chelsea having 72% possession of the ball against resilient Leicester side.
I quite understood very well that Chelsea head coach has gone tire of the club striker in Morata in particular who has failed in every opportunity given to him to prove his worth. Giroud has never been a sensational striker but has always being a super sub striker so to speak. His contributions to games in quite impressive but his legs are always not with him in the pitch. This has resulted to Sarrri to lose faith in the due while switching to Hazard as false nine.
Hazard on his part has never fancied the option of playing as top nine as it required much physicality that he likes. He is not a player that will want to win the ball jumping or in physical body clash and these are the limitations of Hazard in this position. Well, I don’t blame Hazard because this seems to be the best option for the team at the moment. Even though I never bought the idea of Hazard being a false nine, I knew it was a matter of time that the system will leak.
So far this season Chelsea has lost 3 matches and 4 draws which for me has been a bad result. What happened this afternoon at Stamford bridge was no surprise to me as I had earlier in the morning warn in my post that Chelsea must be above average to get a result against Leicester City and unfortunately for my dear club, luck was against them as Chelsea lost their first home game this season and for the first time against Leicester City since 2000. I wouldn’t want to point finger at any player in this defeat but Sarri need to look inward at his squad.
Top four has been the target right from the start of the season for Maruizio Sarri and any short of that can be seen as a bad performance. I look at the premier league table after half of the season matches have been played, Chelsea stands luckily with superior goal difference against Arsenal. even though some may may have different opinion, i will say the league table is taking shape already with much fight expected at the last last three teams of Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal.
The question that will be running in Sarri’s head is what the problem is and probably how to it. The problem of Chelsea top 9 must be on his list. Is it by going into the market next month or carry on till the end of the sea. Second issue will be if playing Kante up the pitch has been rewarding to his style of play and finally, if Jorginho has really live up to expectation at his new position at Chelsea. There are a lot of questions begging for answer.
In coming weeks as the premier league fixtures gets busy, how Sarri talks to his boys will definitely go along way to define his season and as a Chelsea fan I anticipate an improved Chelsea for the rest of the league season
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