Former Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio has warned Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri that he needs to be careful or he could risk facing the sack just like his predecessors Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte.
Up until two weeks ago, Sarri had the Blues playing an impressive brand of football and they were at the time the only undefeated team in all competitions across the top five Leagues in Europe. However, the Blues have since lost two out of their last three Premier League games following defeats against Tottenham and Wolves.
The losses mean that they now occupy fourth place in the table and are ten points adrift of leaders Manchester City and eight behind second-placed Liverpool. They will need to get back to winning ways and win their next couple of games or they may have to settle for challenging for a place in the top four this season rather than launching a credible challenge for the league title.
Sarri has done impressively since succeeding Antonio Conte at Stamford Bridge. However, the Blues board are very harsh. If he fails to steer the club into the Champions League next season and launch credible challenges for any of the major trophies on offer, it will not be surprising to see the Italian facing the sack.
He will also need to try to win silverware this season in order to secure the long-term future of Eden Hazard. The Belgian international has been strongly linked with a move to Real Madrid. Los Blancos failed to secure a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo after the Portugal international joined Juventus during the summer. The Spanish giants have been playing poorly this season by their standards and are likely to soon sign a marquee attacker; that could well be Hazard.
As quoted by Calciomercato, Di Canio has warned Sarri that he needs to rectify things as soon as possible at Stamford Bridge or his job could be in danger. The 50-year-old said: “Chelsea? The opposite would have been better: a slow start and continuous growth. Now the path has almost stopped and there is an involution. For players like Hazard and Willian, it is also difficult to pass the opponent. There are many games in this period and the other teams do not give up anything. Sarri will have to be careful.
“On Saturday there is City and Chelsea will face them after a defeat. You can lose against City, but if there is another defeat, they might find themselves fifth. The risk is that many players feel the backlash and do not believe in the growth process. Many of these players are the same ones who had given up on Mourinho and Conte.
“They have no reason to give up the championship with Sarri because I see that they love him and follow him. However, I repeat that Sarri must clarify some points in the tactical and technical process because those up front hold the ball too much for his way of thinking about football.”
