Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri’s attacking philosophy has beena highly discussed topic ever since the Italian became the coach of Chelsea. There have been so many discussions about his playing style that it has been given a term- “Sarri-ball”.
Sarri spoke to Sky Sports about his philisophy. Here’s what he said about his playing style.
“I like it when the team is in control of the match, I like very much the ball possession, I like to play in the other half. Ball possession, but at a very high speed. Mental speed, first of all, not only ball possession in my half. Maybe I’ve learned it from a lot of lost matches, I think!
I tried to play as a five-man defence six years ago, but for me it is impossible. Because if I want to press in the other half, if I want to look only at the ball with five defenders, I lose immediately the metres.”
“They are working well, trying to improve, working on the mistakes. We need to improve, and we want to reach our 100 per cent as soon as possible. “I think it’s easier for the offensive players. It’s usually three months, but my feeling is in this team there are a lot of intelligent players so I hope only two months.
It takes defenders longer because I want to defend by looking only at the ball, and some players have played for 10 years looking at the man, so you have to change the way of thinking of this player, and it’s not very easy. For a defender who is 18. It is easier, for a defender who is 30, it is more difficult.”
“I like it when the team is training very well, when they are trying to improve, and I like it also when they have fun. We can play, we can work very hard and at the same time we can have fun. Ninety per cent of the work is with the ball. So far, so good I think. But I know in the future I will have to face some difficulties.”
Sarri’s style has drawn praise from many highly reputed managers. Arrigo Sacchi and Pep Guardiola are among those who have praised Sarri’s style of play. About the praise from his peers, Sarri said, “[Arrigo] Sacchi and [Pep] Guardiola are friends, so I think they are speaking about me only for this, I think! Sarri-ball is a word from journalists, not from Sacchi or Guardiola.
But I am very, very proud of this, because I respect Guardiola as a man and a coach, for me he is the best in the world now. And what I do as a coach now is [because of] Sacchi.”
Chelsea play Newcastle United at Selhurst Park tomorrow.