Maurizio Sarri Disappointed With Chelsea

Maurizio Sarri is not happy with the way things have unfolded in his debut season with Chelsea.

The Italian had hoped to have implemented his philosophy better than he has after a year at Stamford Bridge. He gave us a breakdown on what truly went wrong between him and the players.

“On a purely tactical level, I am really disappointed that I haven’t been able to work on the defensive line as much because tonight’s Eintracht goal was entirely avoidable. There are many players in England who are talented, but they like to hold the ball, so it takes a while to get them to move it quicker and pass it more often.

“They also have these forwards who have a very specific way of attacking and it’s difficult to get them to change their ways. They want the ball passed right to their feet and often go into one-on-one situations. At that point, it’s counter-productive to force them to go against their nature.

“Clearly, Chelsea have more individualistic players than ones who will follow a system like at Napoli.”

“You run into some pretty strong cultural differences, in terms of mentality, food and doing things, so to a degree you have to show respect and adapt, which means cutting down on training sessions,” the former Napoli boss added.

“English players are accustomed to playing continually. It’s a high level, it’s not so different a style of football from ours now, seeing as almost all the Coaches here are Italian, Spanish, French and German, so they are starting to play a more tactically-evolved style, but while maintaining the intensity and tempo of English football.”