Sherwood says Sarri made a mistake by blasting the players publicly
Football pundit and former England midfielder Tim Sherwood claims that Maurizio Sarri didn’t do himself any favours by blasting the Chelsea players publicly following their disappointing performance in the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal.
Sarri switched to his native Italian in the post-match conference to communicate his displeasure, claiming that the players lack the attitude and mental aggressiveness on the pitch.
The former Napoli boss, who has come under immense criticism for his tactical rigidity and Chelsea’s recent slump, aimed a dig at the players by claiming that they are very difficult to motivate.
Sherwood, however, believes that the manager’s comment might lead to unrest in the dressing room, alienating him from the players.
“You need your players onside,” Sherwood said. “There’s a possibility he might have lost some of them from that.
“Hopefully for their sake he hasn’t, but I did it myself at Stamford Bridge when I was Tottenham manager and I wish I’d not done it. The results weren’t too bad afterwards, but it was purely to get some frustration out for yourself but it’s not about that.
“It’s about the team, getting the best out of the individual players, and there’s a big game coming up against Tottenham on Thursday and he needs to make sure they’re all pulling in the same direction because I’m not sure it will have helped.”
Sarri restrained himself from taking any names in his post-match conference and aimed his criticism at the entire bunch of players, which, according to former England defender Joleon Lescott, wasn’t the right thing to do.
“You’re tarnishing everyone,” Lescott said. “It’s almost better to name individuals. I never did that but they all feel like they’re all part of the same team which they are. I don’t think it helps him, I think it’s an error of judgement he wishes he didn’t make.
“The game has changed now, you cannot manage how you want to manage any longer. He might have done it in the past and got away with it, but you have to do it a different way now. They’re all millionaires, don’t really have that real hunger to go there and go that extra mile, it’s a little bit of an error in my opinion to do that.”
