Head coach Sarri was looking fit for dismissal after some pretty hefty thrashing damaged Chelsea’s performance and looked set to hinder their progress. When they met Manchester City, the suffered something of a humiliating 6-0 defeat, and despite looking good for a FA Cup win were trashed by close rivals Manchester United. The team at bonusbets.com investigates the story and looks at the progress that has now been made.
The problem was said to be the totally rigid management methods that were creating bad blood at the club, and Sarri was squarely in the frame as the reason behind the drop in performance. It seems the threat of sacking has made him consider things and make changes which defender Antonio Rüdiger says have really started to pay off. Speaking after a run of improvements he said “I think everyone has adapted to new things – also the coach. You saw the way we played against Tottenham and Manchester City. It was different to the way we played in the first three months. Everyone needs to adapt, everyone needs to learn, and it is good that it has happened in this moment.”
The consistent approach known as ‘Sarri-ball’ has been altered with a flexibility that seems to be paying off. He is now making better use of the squad and substitutes giving them just 2 points difference between themselves in 6th and Manchester United in 4th, the game has opened up, and the prestigious fourth spot really could go to anyone, Chelsea included. Technically there are enough games left that they could even reach third by the end of the season.
Another adjustment to Sarri’s tactics saw him start to use players that seemed doomed to spend their life on the bench and indeed not feature in the starting line up. This has seen Andreas Christensen, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Emerson Palmieri getting more pitch time and again this is a move that Rudiger approves of: “The thing is everyone can play. We have the young guys like Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Andreas Christensen. There are other players, players for the future and if they get a chance to play, they have to take it. It’s as simple as that.”
The manager has been at the club for less than a year having taken up his post on 14th July 2018 following the sacking of Antonio Conte, so there has to be some bedding in time, but we imagine that another manager sacking will be something the team want to avoid at this stage. His assistant Gianfranco Zola certainly believes in the Italian stating that a period of adjustment was needed and that the older manager was not too stubborn to make changes to his play “How do you know we are not making changes?” We are adjusting a few things, understanding that this is the Premier League, but without changing where we want to go. The direction is always the same.” A slightly obtuse quote but clearly something seems to be working as the team look to be on the up once more.
