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Cracks begin to appear in Chelsea’s Sarri-Ball

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November 27, 2018
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Saturday’s late-night clash in the Premier League saw Maurizio Sarri’s men beaten 3-1 in Wembley by Tottenham Hotspurs. The visitors were all over the ground. Son, Dele Alli and Harry Kane scored for Spurs while substitute Giroud was the only one to find the net for the visitors. Now as we know, Sarri and his preferred style of playing was famous in Napoli due to which Chelsea boss, Roman Abramovich bought Sarri and his playmaker Jorginho to Chelsea. Chelsea had been phenomenal this season but Saturday’s clash saw them being defeated first time this season. So, what actually went wrong for Sarri and how Pochettino managed to pull it off?

Sarri had previously warned after tight victories that the club needs certain areas in which it can improve. After the match, Chelsea boss revealed that he believed this was a result waiting to happen. “I knew very well we had some problems. Today we have seen that.”  The question that arises is where did Sarri ball go wrong?

Failed center back pairing

David Luiz has looked terrible in a four man defense line and is partly responsible for two goals being scored. Luiz just cannot pair up with another center back in back 4 formation which affects others around him. Anthony Rudiger was also over the place in Wembley due to his questionable defending.

Alli on Jorginho

Pochettino made the cleverest decision to follow Everton’s blueprint and made Dele Alli to sit on top of Jorginho though out the whole match. Pochettino’s 4-3-1-2 ensured Spurs dominated in every area. By playing three central midfielders and a front three that alternated in dropping deep, he made sure the visitors were constantly swarmed and overwhelmed by at least four bodies. Jorginho found too many men in white shirts whenever he received the ball.

 Switching Kante off

Perhaps the greatest mistake in Sarri’s part in Saturday’s match was playing Kante in a much more forward position. Sarri’s determination to accommodate Jorginho and N’golo Kante in the same midfield makes sense because they both are world-class players. However, by giving Kante more license to get forward, he is denying Chelsea the qualities of their best defensive midfielder. This move made Chelsea too much open in the back. Sarri could have let Barkley operate in the number 10 position with Kante and Jorginho operating from the back. Kante is better off in the engine room because he likes to win tackles or dispossess people and then burst forward, as opposed to being more advanced anyway and receiving the ball higher up the pitch.

Dry Forward line

Although having a world class team, the only place that Chelsea lack is an ambitious forward line. Both Giroud and Morata aren’t being able to perform. In the past, Chelsea have boasted the likes of Didier Drogba, an impressive and prolific goal scorer. But nowadays as the goals are during up in front, the cracks are beginning to show up.

Sarri definitely has to have a Plan B every match when things are going wrong.

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