Maurizio Sarri admits the Chelsea job is harder than he thought but insists ‘we need to lose matches’ and that he is sticking with ‘Plan A’.
Sarri accused his Chelsea players of not adjusting to his ‘Sarri-ball’ style after their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Bournemouth on Tuesday, while the former Napoli boss has faced calls to adopt a ‘Plan B’ when his famed approach is not working.
Maurizio Sarri admits the Chelsea job is harder than he thought but insists ‘we need to lose matches’ and that he is sticking with ‘Plan A’.
Sarri accused his Chelsea players of not adjusting to his ‘Sarri-ball’ style after their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Bournemouth on Tuesday, while the former Napoli boss has faced calls to adopt a ‘Plan B’ when his famed approach is not working.
“I didn’t attack the players,” he said at a Press conference for Saturday’s Premier League match against Huddersfield Town, football.london reports.
“I talked to them because I needed to understand, and then I went to my home immediately because I wanted to review the match. There wasn’t another reason.
“No [I didn’t criticise them at the Press conference afterwards], because I said that, probably, I am not able to motivate them. I said this.
“But if we have some mental problems, I think that the reason could be the players, could be the technical staff, could be the club… but I can’t think about the club.
“I have to think about the players and the staff. Probably, we are doing something wrong. The staff first of all, the Coach first of all.
“So I said that, probably, I am not able to motivate them. In another match, I said that, probably, it’s very difficult to motivate them. But I have to find the way, of course.
““It’s a part of my job, of course. But I want, first of all, to change the mentality. So it’s a very long way.
“I think that my football is about cooperation, so I have to speak to my players and involve them in my football, more than we are doing in the moment.
“Now we have the mentality for doing the match, but we need to improve in the reaction. We need to improve in the offensive phase.
“Because we have a lot of individual players, it’s not easy to change in four or five months. For example, in the last match, I think we built up the action very well in the first half.
“Then, we were able to close spaces ourselves because we stayed too tight with the three offensive players. So it was easy for the defenders to defend.
“Sometimes, we need to stay very high and wide. We have to go inside to receive, not to stay inside. So we need to improve.
“I need to change completely the mentality because they were used to playing on counterattacks, so they could drive the ball. Now we have to change. It’s a long way, but I’m trying to change the mentality.
“I want to be in control of the match, I want to score, and to have the right reaction if we concede a goal. We have only to play.
“We were in control of the match for 45 minutes, but conceded after only two minutes in the second half. We have only to play. To kick-off and play again.
“Plan B? First of all, I want to do Plan A very well. I don’t want to change some things that, at the moment, don’t work very well. First of all I want to see my football played very well. Then we can go and change something.
“Will I stick with Plan A? Of course. Because everybody, 10 years ago, knew very well Barcelona, and Barcelona won everything because they played their football very well. So, first of all, I want to play very well my football. Then I can change.
“I want to remember that, in the first season, Tottenham and Liverpool were in the middle of the table. The situation in England is very clear.
“There are three teams above the others. In one, the coach arrived five years ago, in one four years ago, and in the other three years ago. So the situation is very clear.
“The English football is in the hands of these teams. They had a plan and were really patient. So we need to change mentality and go on. The situation for me is really clear.
“Assurances from the club? I don’t mind, because I am a dreamer. I want to play my football. But if I arrived here starting in a professional team, it’s because I am a dreamer.
“Tougher job than I thought? Probably yes, but I knew very well that it would be very difficult. Very difficult because, here, the level is very high. It’s very difficult because this team played another football.
“It’s very difficult because this team won with another football. So it’s really very difficult. But we can do it, I think. We can improve, we can change mentality, we can play our football. It’s not easy.
“As I said in the press conference after the match, first of all, we have to say sorry to them. Because the result was a disaster. I can understand them very well.
“They have to be patient with us at the moment because we are trying to do something great. It’s not easy.
“We have to work, we have to improve, we need to lose matches… but we are trying to do our best.
“Every day, I see the training and, in training, they are improving. We lost the last match very badly but the last match was different: we lost confidence after the goal.
“But, at the beginning, we entered on the pitch with the right mentality. We made mistakes with the reaction, not with the approach.
“The approach was very good because we wanted to be in control of the match immediately.
“Now we have some problems to score, and we are working on this, of course. I said, before, the reason in my opinion.
“Because we played with four or five players with their backs to the opposing goal. We have to go there not to stay there.
“We have to go there to receive the ball on the run, not receiving it with our backs to goal. So we have to improve on this. But this is not a big problem. Only a tactical problem.
“I like it very much when I can speak to my players about tactical problems. I don’t like speaking with them about mental problems.”