Maurizio Sarri Officially Appointed

[Gentian]

Just now, Luca Vialli said:

It took 18 months before Napoli started playing as a cohesive unit. It's going to take time if we want to transition to a possession team that's lost our previous reliance on players and a defensive style.

I just worry we'll always be a stop start club because although we throw the idea that the board is quick to kill a manager the fans seem to have even shorter tollerance when it goes wrong of late.

What do we want? Short term success again and the weird yo-yo of good season/bad season? or to build something with someone who prioritises attacking football? 

or are you all convinced he's not the right person already?

Sadly, I am convinced that he is not the right manager for us the way we are playing at the moment. He is already shown that he is extremely stubborn and very one dimensional. I would love to be proven wrong though. 

Allegri apparently wants a new challenge at the end of the season and would love to have him here. 

[CFCCAN]

Images like this is why he needs to go...sooner rather than later

[Argo]

14 minutes ago, Luca Vialli said:

It took 18 months before Napoli started playing as a cohesive unit. It's going to take time if we want to transition to a possession team that's lost our previous reliance on players and a defensive style.

I just worry we'll always be a stop start club because although we throw the idea that the board is quick to kill a manager the fans seem to have even shorter tollerance when it goes wrong of late.

What do we want? Short term success again and the weird yo-yo of good season/bad season? or to build something with someone who prioritises attacking football? 

or are you all convinced he's not the right person already?

I was fully on the give him a second season train mid January, but the capilualations of late have been worse than anything even Wenger served up at Arsenal.

[shedpensioner]

If anyone thinks that this man has us on the right track, they’ve not watched us for the last 4-5 months. 

If I could see progress I’d be backing him, but we’re regressing and he’s looking more & more clueless. 

He’s that bad that all the Manc & Dipper loving press are telling us to be patient & keep him, because they know under him we’re no threat! 

The mans a joke, and his record is woeful.

Sarri out!

[Slojo]

Jorginho was found out for being a defensive liability in the Arsenal game when we won 3-2 at home, but we got away with it, people scapegoat Alonso in that game but all the mistakes actually came from Jorginho's poor man marking and covering. 

He was found out for being even more of a defensive liability in the Arsenal away game when Ramsey had the time of his life playing on him. The Jorginho situation imo is our biggest one right now, I do rate him as a player but this system isn't working properly at the moment. I think Kante does very little in offence, please Sarri make some adjustments and do not play Jorginho against City. 

[forbzy]

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

Jorginho was found out for being a defensive liability in the Arsenal game when we won 3-2 at home, but we got away with it, people scapegoat Alonso in that game but all the mistakes actually came from Jorginho's poor man marking and covering. 

He was found out for being even more of a defensive liability in the Arsenal away game when Ramsey had the time of his life playing on him. The Jorginho situation imo is our biggest one right now, I do rate him as a player but this system isn't working properly at the moment. I think Kante does very little in offence, please Sarri make some adjustments and do not play Jorginho against City. 

I think you are right but I would say there is zero chance Sarri drops Jorginho. He seems to be the one untouchable in Sarri's team and that may ultimately prove to be his undoing.

[Slojo]

53 minutes ago, forbzy said:

I think you are right but I would say there is zero chance Sarri drops Jorginho. He seems to be the one untouchable in Sarri's team and that may ultimately prove to be his undoing.

Sarri is very stubborn, he believes in the philosophy and I think a plan b would be admitting defeat for him, sadly this will be his undoing as you say. 

The results right now are just not acceptable, it's the scorelines and the way we are playing, we are getting demolished at the moment. I would actually be more confident of Huddersfield conceding less to City than we Chelsea FC when we play against them. Not a good environment right now, I don't want Sarri gone, but he has to make adjustments for the sake of his career here. 

[Raven8er]

31 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Sarri is very stubborn, he believes in the philosophy and I think a plan b would be admitting defeat for him, sadly this will be his undoing as you say. 

The results right now are just not acceptable, it's the scorelines and the way we are playing, we are getting demolished at the moment. I would actually be more confident of Huddersfield conceding less to City than we Chelsea FC when we play against them. Not a good environment right now, I don't want Sarri gone, but he has to make adjustments for the sake of his career here. 

THIS! Out of the "Top 6" actually, f**k that!, I'd go as far as saying "Top 10" clubs - we look defensively suspect out of the lot! Jorginho is now targeted every game because everyone knows how much of a liability he is, Alonso can't defend to save his life, Luiz - as much as I love him, he is is too up and down for me, and Dave has been out of form for awhile now. Couple all of that with Kante being played out of position, Barkley and Kovacic really not up to standard, Haz has one foot in Madrid, a past-it Higuain, and Willian and Pedro both stealing a living it's fair to say that Sarri has his hands full and a bloody big job to turn things around.

Surely he can see that what he is trying to implement is not working, so is it 1. "Sarriball" just doesn't cut it in the EPL? (especially now that teams have found us out) or 2. Sarri just doesn't have the squad to make it all work? If it's either of those 2 answers, surely you tweak and change things to play with what you have rather than sending the same f**king team out every week just to be played off of the park. Utilise what you have now by changing the system (even if it meant a slight change) then build what you are trying to implement with a proper pre-season and a proper transfer window (granted he is still around and the Board are willing to spend of course)

[chi blue]

On 12/02/2019 at 12:06, Sindre said:

Yet his heatmap v City looked more similar to Kyle Walker’s than that of a central midfielder. Same against Bournemouth.
It’s a disgrace how poorly he’s been used and we would look so much better in every way if he was central.

His proper position is being one of two players in a midfield pairing

 

Edited February 20, 2019 by chi blue

[Spiller86]

This has to be tweet of the year.

[Ewell CFC]

6 hours ago, Raven8er said:

THIS! Out of the "Top 6" actually, f**k that!, I'd go as far as saying "Top 10" clubs - we look defensively suspect out of the lot! Jorginho is now targeted every game because everyone knows how much of a liability he is, Alonso can't defend to save his life, Luiz - as much as I love him, he is is too up and down for me, and Dave has been out of form for awhile now. Couple all of that with Kante being played out of position, Barkley and Kovacic really not up to standard, Haz has one foot in Madrid, a past-it Higuain, and Willian and Pedro both stealing a living it's fair to say that Sarri has his hands full and a bloody big job to turn things around.

Surely he can see that what he is trying to implement is not working, so is it 1. "Sarriball" just doesn't cut it in the EPL? (especially now that teams have found us out) or 2. Sarri just doesn't have the squad to make it all work? If it's either of those 2 answers, surely you tweak and change things to play with what you have rather than sending the same f**king team out every week just to be played off of the park. Utilise what you have now by changing the system (even if it meant a slight change) then build what you are trying to implement with a proper pre-season and a proper transfer window (granted he is still around and the Board are willing to spend of course)

Silk purse out of a sows ear, trying to polish a turd.....

[ForeverCarefree]

11 hours ago, Luca Vialli said:

or are you all convinced he's not the right person already?

I know I am. 

Seven months in and the players look clueless about how to win against any sort of competent opposition. 

These are players that have won league titles, cups, world cups.

For as bad as things were at times under Conte last season, with a squad containing poor signings and bad relationship with the board we kept pace with the top four finishing 5 points behind a Liverpool side that had Salah scoring for fun and finished the season winning the FA Cup. 

Sarri's been given signings that are specifically for him and his brand of football, something we can't say Conte got and despite this we've arguably gone backwards. We look lost right now and I think Sarri's the main culprit for this. 

His football seems over-complicated at times. Players patting their heads, holding up fingers during set piece routines to me speaks of a manager micromanaging things when we're struggling to get the basics right. Rudiger, Luiz and Jorginho have some of the highest completed pass numbers in the league that's not telling a story of a possession based attacking team it's telling a story of side that doesn't know what to do with the ball. 

[enigma]

This is also a team that hasn't been an attacking team since Carlo. Funnily enough, even though Carlo has adapted Napoli a bit, they still play with a fair amount of Sarri's style.

I think styles like we are trying to play this season are harder to ingrain for players who have become accustomed to more defensive styles.

I think there's a fear in some of our players to play this way after so long having adapted to another. I do personally think that it's much more difficult to learn a new style than many make out.

It's not just as simple as going from Conte/Jose style to Sarri style. Even Pep or Emery had it simpler by coming to clubs with an identity in style for years. Man Utd players just needed letting off the leash to play more offensive. It's definitely not black & white. 

[ForeverCarefree]

2 minutes ago, enigma said:

This is also a team that hasn't been an attacking team since Carlo. 

But even a team that plays on the counter attack has to be good at attacking to win a game. 

Right now, as an "attacking" team we are struggling to score goals. 

This calendar year we have played 13 games and in 6 of those we have failed to score any goals. 

We've scored a total of 16 goals in those 13 games with 10 of those being scored against Huddersfield, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forrest.  

If Sarri is an attacking manager surely you would expect the attacking side of our game to be one of the first things you see an improvement in? Truthfully I can't think of a single thing that we do better under Sarri than we did under Conte, if anything I think we've gone backwards. 

[strider6004]

8 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

But even a team that plays on the counter attack has to be good at attacking to win a game. 

Right now, as an "attacking" team we are struggling to score goals. 

This calendar year we have played 13 games and in 6 of those we have failed to score any goals. 

We've scored a total of 16 goals in those 13 games with 10 of those being scored against Huddersfield, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forrest.  

If Sarri is an attacking manager surely you would expect the attacking side of our game to be one of the first things you see an improvement in? Truthfully I can't think of a single thing that we do better under Sarri than we did under Conte, if anything I think we've gone backwards. 

Under Conte we had Costa and teams had to come on to us this created the gaps for us to exploit.

Now we try to pass them to death further up the pitch and it's ponderous partly I think as Enigma says the style is too big a jump with these players in one season.

If we were to get 4 or 5 Sarri type players we might make it work yet our board does not seem to work that way and many Italians don't seem to want to come to England. Look what we got, Jorginho was on the bench and Higuaín is in his twilight years. Under Conte we could only get Zappacosta.

Edited February 20, 2019 by strider6004

[venom2011]

11 minutes ago, enigma said:

It's not just as simple as going from Conte/Jose style to Sarri style. Even Pep or Emery had it simpler by coming to clubs with an identity in style for years. Man Utd players just needed letting off the leash to play more offensive. It's definitely not black & white. 

This. Whatever you think of Sarri, Sarriball, his naivety etc - he would have had time if the team had goals. Even that injury-hampered United team on Monday had 4 proven goalscorers and 2 proven creators. Our best XI has 2 goalscorers (1 of which is brand new to the league) and 1 creator.  It's not going to matter whether you move Kante deeper, revert to an old system, or submit your soul to satan himself. The only difference will be giving up control of the game and being slightly more defensively solid.

Do I think Sarri is the perfect man for the job? No. But as long as we are not languishing near the relegation zone a la Jose mk.2, I think any manager should at the very least be given a full season. And as I've said before - If the club's philosophy matches the manager's (as we've been told), then we should be getting players to fit his system regardless. People also seem to forget that Sarri has been in this situation before, with the fans on his back as well. ADL backed him regardless and it eventually bore fruit.

[Jezz]

Can anyone name me a player who's improved under Sarri, because I can't think of one.

[enigma]

We have definitely improved at playing ourselves out of trouble under the press of the opposition. Under Conte we would often hoof it up the field when under pressure, whereas now we are very composed at playing out.

The problem I think we have at the moment is the players aren't pressing collectively enough; the movement off the ball is subpar; and we aren't playing the ball quick enough.

Sarri can teach this, but the players have to be carrying it out on the pitch. If it comes off it will be very effective, but when it doesn't then we look clueless, lime we have been.

Early in the season we were pretty much doing all the above, but for some reason it stopped. Even if we were "found out" we still aren't helping ourselves with not moving ball quick enough, not pressing effectively and not making sufficient movement off the ball. 

[bisright1]

1 minute ago, enigma said:

We have definitely improved at playing ourselves out of trouble under the press of the opposition. Under Conte we would often hoof it up the field when under pressure, whereas now we are very composed at playing out.

The problem I think we have at the moment is the players aren't pressing collectively enough; the movement off the ball is subpar; and we aren't playing the ball quick enough.

Sarri can teach this, but the players have to be carrying it out on the pitch. If it comes off it will be very effective, but when it doesn't then we look clueless, lime we have been.

Early in the season we were pretty much doing all the above, but for some reason it stopped. Even if we were "found out" we still aren't helping ourselves with not moving ball quick enough, not pressing effectively and not making sufficient movement off the ball. 

We also don't move the ball quickly enough 

Jorginho being targeted is a good thing for this system. As it means the opposition are pressing us. The issue is we aren't quick enough to pass around the pressure. It gets to willian or hazard and the ball stops moving. 

Citeh do the same thing, they did it to us. 

[Snedger]

1 minute ago, Jezz said:

Can anyone name me a player who's improved under Sarri, because I can't think of one.

What a great question, and one I can't think of an answer to.

A bit tenuous but the only 'Chelsea' player that I can think of who has possibly improved since Sarri got the job at Chelsea is Bakayoko.

[enigma]

5 minutes ago, Jezz said:

Can anyone name me a player who's improved under Sarri, because I can't think of one.

It's impossible to single out players who have improved because the system is nowhere near where it should be. If the team were playing like a well oiled machine then it would be easier to identify certain players who have improved, but so far the team aren't playing near full potential. 

[wallosh]

I think he’ll be sacked after the cup final if we were to lose it.
There are a few managers, Zidane included, who would be available to take over immediately and if Sarri were sacked it would be nice to see someone come in rather than an interim so that we can get a start on fixing the current mess. 

Am really scared about Zidane!

[EmeraldBlue]

I'm not sure about Plan B working either - Kante being another story. Most of the top teams set up in a predictable way but they execute it to the letter and it works. We are just awful at the moment, horrible to watch, too slow and lacking hunger. Unfortunately I can't see an improvement in the near future and next season looks like it will be a transitional one - transitioning to what I don't know.

[Tea Bar Boy]

4 minutes ago, enigma said:

We have definitely improved at playing ourselves out of trouble under the press of the opposition. Under Conte we would often hoof it up the field when under pressure, whereas now we are very composed at playing out.

The problem I think we have at the moment is the players aren't pressing collectively enough; the movement off the ball is subpar; and we aren't playing the ball quick enough.

Sarri can teach this, but the players have to be carrying it out on the pitch. If it comes off it will be very effective, but when it doesn't then we look clueless, lime we have been.

Early in the season we were pretty much doing all the above, but for some reason it stopped. Even if we were "found out" we still aren't helping ourselves with not moving ball quick enough, not pressing effectively and not making sufficient movement off the ball. 

they are knackered .... the pace in the EPL is too high and the EPL is to physical for it to work  . Italy is a level slower and play is broken down repeatedly for fouls which are not fouls in the EPL giving players time to re-position, catch a breath

I am also  beginning to believe a lot of players are of the thinking that running my f**kin nuts of for 98 mins to win 1-0 at best or get beat is bollocks and to get the ball 8 times in the possession phase and I have moved 4 meters forward and still no shot on goal whilst  I can see the opposition goal keeper taking selfies as he is bored as f**k too.....reckon the goose is cooked for me 

[Guest Sindre]

13 minutes ago, enigma said:

It's impossible to single out players who have improved because the system is nowhere near where it should be. If the team were playing like a well oiled machine then it would be easier to identify certain players who have improved, but so far the team aren't playing near full potential. 

Or his system just won't work in this league. It's too reliant on a slow and weak defensive midfielder who can't withstand pressure in this league for example. And there are countless examples of this but Jorginho is maybe the clearest indication that this just won't work here in England.
Sarri and Jorginho have been well and truly found out and Sarri himself has said he will not change so blueprint to beat that everyone has at this point will continue to be the way to beat us for as long as Sarri is here.