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Official: Chelsea Appoint Maurizio Sarri as Head Coach
Droy was my hero replied to Sir's topic in The Chelsea Forum
Read his autobiograpy about the time he arrived - came across as very arrogant. Bragged about how he had been advising RA how to play more attacking football (with a very clear anti-JM inference). He then started telling people he was going to be the new PSG manager a month or so before the outgoing manager was sacked. The press loved him, I doubt anyone else did. And lets face it, since 2010 he has been a massive disappointment in terms of results. Sarri gets headhunted by Chelsea but the best CA can find is Napoli. To be fair we actually sacked him after a very poor 2nd season when we got 71 points. It might have been 2nd but was the lowest points total for RA then. Indeed every RA manager getting less than 80 points has been sacked (but I suspect Sarri may be the first exception). -
Couldn't disagree more. I am sorry, but this is the most simplistic understanding of our problem that I have come across on this forum. Our problem is not a striker. It is goal creation. None of those strikers would make a substantial difference. Our system of play is useless. It creates nothing unless David Luiz sends a long diagonal pass that completely bypasses the midfield. Strange that you have already moved on from Higuain.
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Drogba wanted to leave.................. But this is a red herring because of the news stories today about the Conte/Club arbitration over his wages. Everytime the papers cover this they talk about Chelsea being unhappy about the text messages. I really doubt this is even true (we had bought Morata by then, Costa moving on probably was policy) but it is not the kind of thing the club talks about on or off the record. So I feel quite sure that the real issues the club had with Conte were different - if still unknown.
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The first thing to say is backing Sarri (or AVB) doesn't matter. This squad has only one purpose - a re-build not winning titles. Any stable lad can take this horse out on its paces, it doesn't need Lester Piggott. The second is that Conte clearly has ego problems and is going to be in conflict with clubs in the future too. All the stuff exaggerated about JM applies in Spades to Conte. Yup This
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(And Paul's reply) I'm still happy with Kepa, and can forgive the first one because of Pedro's interference (better making an attempt than not as Paul says). But the 2nd, the pen, is hit so softly. He is down before the ball gets there and this is not a hard shot that bounces off him but a weak shot that dribbles down his body length and it is a knee jerk, bringing his knees up to chest that shoots the ball out again. What is the phrase, talk Quietly but carry a big stick. That was Conte/Chelsea in 16/17. We made little noise collectively as a team, never put numbers up front, but did get an enormous lot of goals because we had Costa, Hazard and 2 guys still in their 20s Pedro/Willian. We also had Fabregas with 5 goals and 12 assists in 13 starts and some sub appearances and we even had Matic, who as ever was a defensive liability but played the ball around nicely. I lost count of the games comfortably won by 2 or 3 where I struggled to identify how we were better than the oppo. Finishing was pretty much all of it. And of course we may have been set up to defend, but we actually conceded quite a few. More than in any other title win by us. Comparisons with JM's 3 title winning sides - His sides generally really could defend, did concede just 15 goals one season. And they carried a bigger stick, if rarely used. The site of Chelsea destroying good teams that had dared not to concede for the first 60 mins was wonderful. Well worth waiting 3 or 4 easy victories for. The words "Essien has moved to Full back" still have an effect on me.
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I know we could go back and forth for days on this , I am happy to concede that he could have handled the Costa debacle differently but would counter with the fact in the press conference after the fall out he really truly did not look like a bloke who'd got a telling off over it , he laughed uproariously at the suggestion that Costa was blaming him! Also , maybe my senses are dulled but I honestly do not remember the football being as boring as everyone else does , for sure it was a bit uninspiring and the City game was a travesty but given the players at his disposal I think he did as well as could be expected . Particularly when he apparently didn't want half of them anyway ! A good few posters blamed Conte for the loss of points at Huddersfield (?) and the players got off scott free , but how are we to be certain it wasn't the players taking it a bit easier so they could be sure of not injuring themselves in the run up to the cup final? Shifting the balance , again , moot point , he felt he had to play 3-4-3 / 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 if it helps to get the best out of the players in hand , it's perfectly feasible to suggest that to do so he needed players in the defensive positions to cover for injuries , he'd just won the league with a squad he thought were not up to much so it's unlikely he would buy players to fulfil a different formation when he believed the formation he'd picked was the winning one. Sarri I will also concede has been badly served by the board , there's no real quality there , there's two stellar players , one who could well be off regardless and an awful lot of padding I am just reticent to get behind someone who may well be leading us all up the garden path with this panacea of attractive football . I'll take successful winning football any day of the week , particularly with this board and this budget . Pep wanted ten new signings to play "his" football , Sarri has had 2/3 with one on the way which is unfair to him in my opinion when he is tasked with changing the entire philosophy of the club , I'm just uncertain given the restraints we are under that that is the philosophy we should be following , we can only ever be second best to City on those terms.
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With equal respect, I disagree that is true*, or at very least there is a consensus about it. There's only about 6 regular posters here, and we're all locked in a back and forth about it! Conte definitely played a role in not qualifying for the CL, in Costa leaving, in player recruitment shifting in focus (in a way that has transpired to be unhelpful), and in boring football. Same way he had a role in a PL and FA Cup win and some really good performances. What I've seen is one or two posters absolutely refuse to accept he played a part in anything that went wrong and say those things were the club's fault, and for me it is surprising that those one or two posters seem to finger point at Sarri and not the club now. * Unless we're talking about the match day threads or the small number of trolly posters who only ever say negative things, but surely no one reads that?
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Yeh, Conte walked the talk in terms of adopting a style of play which fitted his players for sure. HIs blemish, which proved to be decisive and terminal, was the Costa fiasco. I can understand his, (Conte's), frustration with the player's attitudes and the baggage he often brought, but, if the story of what happened is to be believed, Conte mis-managed that totally I'm afraid.
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Quite.
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Yes, it's true it was essentially reactive, but still executed with verve and panache I thought and therefore extremely engaging and exciting. With reference to your comments about the players at his disposal, I'd say that, whereas this season Sarri has been trying to get his squad to adapt to a style which many of them seem naturally unsuited to, in contrast, once Conte, (very quickly and to his great credit), tweaked his approach to the 3-4-3 which became the norm, that system clearly suited the capabilities and talents of his players perfectly. Yes, once again I'd have to say that a lot of the difference in our team's respective achievements was and is down to players being comfortable with and happy in the way they were and are being asked to play.
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I think that Candreva over ZappaCosta would have been rewarding a manager who'd just taken the squad from 10th to Champions at the first attempt , equalling the consecutive win record along the way for a job well done instead of thumbing their nose at him and telling him he should know his place. Maybe that tiny concession would have enabled the pair of them to work together in greater not lesser harmony and maybe that would have been reflected on the pitch . I agree wholeheartedly with Costa being a big loss but he didn't want to be here and Conte did get the season out of him before allowing him to return to AM. Also again , other than letting Costa go , the issue of incompetent strikers can be laid firmly at the board who seemingly ,whatever they do get a pass from some people , Conte made the best out of getting Morata who has not looked any worse than Higuain has to be honest.
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It tells me that we didn't replace Costa properly. In the 2016/17 Costa had close to 20 league goals by Janaury, by which time we had a healthy gap at the top to protect. do you think signing Candreva over Zappacosta would have made a blind bit of difference all the while we had incompentent strikers?
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I see the board have finally woken up to the fact that it doesn't look like the ban will be suspended, so have decided to extend players contacts.. Luiz and Willian are first on the list, pity they didn't think it was worth keeping Fabregas and giving him a 2 year extension, (but Sarri didn't want him), even though he won't be here next season. We need to let Hazard go (try and get as much as possible, nothing less then 100 million pounds), as this might convince CHO to stay https://www.teamtalk.com/news/chelsea-loanee-kovacic-opens-door-on-move-to-fierce-prem-rivals let him go as well
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Costa wanted to leave , he asked to leave three times , Conte let him go , the club even had a press conference where Conte and the press officer laughed it up together , now Conte has got the hump the board are pretending it was an issue. He didn't leave us with what we currently had , the board did by not backing the manager with the players he wanted but players of a similar ilk that he didn't want and rarely played (his fault entirely imho) , once more , the board employed someone to do a job and then actively made that job harder to do . On purpose. I remember he wanted Candreva , he's old and finished was one of the comments used to demonstrate what an idiot Conte was , Sarri has been gifted Higuain (later than he initially wanted , yet more board based disembling) it's difficult to see why Candreva (vastly superior to Moses) was an issue when Higuain is not ( I like Higuain by the way but the point remains )
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The board supposedly met on Monday, reported by Sky around 16:30... does anyone know what happened, as it's all gone quiet. I hope they ain't going to wait until it's impossible to finish in the top 4 before they act, on the hope that we win the Europa league. This would be dangerous as keeping Sarri on he is not going to change his ways. He will continue to pick his favs no matter what, continue to play players out of position and when it's too late, Hazard will go, along with a few others, CHO will still want out, and rumours that Kante has had enough
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Provided Atletico don't take up their option on Morata of course. Even then, I wouldn't want Morata back transfer ban or not. Not for the first time has a player been unhappy with their playing time this season. I'd also like Giroud to stay, he does fill a specific role although he certainly wouldn't be first choice, he is however still handy to call upon at times. Abraham, Batshuayi and Giroud would offer a bit of everything. While it looks increasingly likely the club won't prolong Higuain's deal either.
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That tells you he inherited a far better squad than Sarri, shame he went on to dismantle it and leave us with what we currently have.
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I've said this time and time again but it falls on deaf ears. Swap our strikers with any one of our rivals and we would be comfortably top 4. Stick Costa in our side and we probably would have finished top 4 last season and again be comfortable this season. I blame Sarri.
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With less players Conte won the league the season before the board did for him. What does that tell you ? You're right the players are and always have been limited , Conte reorganised them so their frailties weren't as apparent, take a look at them now. I'm not saying he was perfect but he's been practically written out of history for getting the hump!
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I don't want to go over old ground Mark but it wasn't just the style of football with him it was everything, starting with Costa which was the beginning of the end for him. He may have won the league and FA cup but the damage he caused has set us back years. Nothing to do with Sarri, he's just not good enough and never has been, something I stated when we were first linked with him and got royally criticised for.
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Well, Sarri is going to end up with almost the same number of points as Conte last season. What does that tell you? Players aren't up to it, in particular, at no9 Stick any one of Kane, Aubangayang, (sp), Aguero, Jesus, Rashford, Lukaku, Salah, Mane, Firmino maybe even Lacazzette into our squad from day 1 and I reckon we would be anywhere from 6-12 points better off.
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The first one, Pedro got in his way - not blaming either, I'd rather people went for it than watch it go in, just one of those things. That's ignoring the bloke had a free header in the first place Secondly.....It's a penalty kick. Blame the clumsy foul. One of those weird ones if Sigurdson had hit it well, he probably saves it and pushes it away, but because it was struck so poorly, he effectlively dives past it, and pushes it back into the danger area. Again, one of those things. Either way, both goals pail into significance because we sould have been 3-0 up at half time, and then once they scored, we weren't going to. Bigger issues than blaming the GK for 2 goals, both of whom have bigger blame attached elsewhere.
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With the transfer ban, who will our strikers be next season? Abraham, Batshuayi, Morata? We don't own anyone else. I'd give Giroud another contract but it doesn't look like he'd accept.
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Official: Chelsea Appoint Maurizio Sarri as Head Coach
chiswickblue replied to Sir's topic in The Chelsea Forum
Ancelotti was another manager we sold down the river after he'd been incredibly successful in his first season. The roots of failure lead to the top. Although he did show himself to be a limited strategist when things started to go against us. -
With all due respect , Conte has been appointed the sole cause of our failure to get into the Champions League , the architect of the Costa falling out , the purchaser and identifyer of sub-standard players and purveyor of the most boring football ever seen , regularly and literally on this board , you may believe they have been stripped of nuance but they have not it was said plainly and accusingly at the time . I remain constant here in my opinion that whatever we think of him as a person , as he is undoubtedly flawed , he remains a far , far better and more successful coach than Sarri will ever be favouring winning football over aesthetic football . We backed the wrong horse.
