Chelsea: Maurizio Sarri could learn success through simplicity from nat’l teams

Chelsea’s internationals may wish this international break would not end. Playing for their national teams is a respite from the repetitious drudgery of Sarriball.

England scored five goals in both of their European Championships qualifying games in this international break. It’s easy to dismiss the combined 10-1 margin as “It was just the Czech Republic and Montenegro,” but it’s always “just” the Czech Republic and Montenegro until it’s “just” Iceland in the Euro Round of 16.

Chelsea’s English internationals made the most of their opportunities. Ross Barkley had two goals and an assist against Montenegro, and Callum Hudson-Odoi assisted his second goal. Hudson-Odoi went, in the course of the week, from his first U21 call-up to having only nine fewer minutes as a full England international than he has had in the Premier League all season. His performances in both games belied his youth and status under Maurizio Sarri.

Elsewhere in Europe on Monday, Olivier Giroud scored against Iceland in a game where N’Golo Kante charmed his way out of several bookings, bossing his way through midfield with his lovably innocent smile. Chelsea’s World Cup winning pair were equally in control a few days earlier against Moldova, in which Giroud scored as well.

In yet another inauspicious sign of things to come, Maurizio Sarri said in one of his first press conferences that he did not watch much of the World Cup because there is so little to learn about the players in international football. If he felt that about teams like Spain, Uruguay and Portugal, surely he will not give much thought to how his Frenchmen played against just Iceland or Moldova, or his Englishmen against just Czech Republic and Montenegro.

But if Sarri were to condescend to watching international football he might realize a few things about coaching players like those he has at Chelsea.

Sarri is right in thinking that international football is tactically simple compared to club competition. The players have barely a month to prepare together before major tournaments, and maybe 1-2 sessions before each game in an international break.

National team coaches cannot introduce complex circuits, arcane formations or delicately poised spatial schemes. Nor can they play ego games by benching some players or using others in awkward, suboptimal positions. They have to organize their squad as simply as possible, allowing everyone to do what they do best where they do it, and then trust and motivate them to do exactly that.

International team football – tactically and managerially – is the anti-Sarriball. No wonder Chelsea players are flourishing in their two weeks away.

Coaches like Gareth Southgate and Didier Deschamps are succeeding with England and France because they are not forcing anything on their players. They set the tone and the culture for the team, while finding the tactics, organization and personality that bring out the best in the players they have.

The national coach’s job is to keep things as simple as possible to achieve the team’s goals. Any complexity and beauty of expression comes from the talent of the players and the rhythm the coach facilitates their achieving.

Therein lies the irony. Maurizio Sarri imposes Rube-Goldberg circuits upon his players. Sarriball introduces mechanical complexity where none is needed. Sarri demands they learn and implement sequences that require extensive memorization, not creative application (remember my inversion of Williamson’s First Law: Everything is complicated when you don’t know a f***ing thing about it). What they produce is as predictable and hackneyed as a cops-and-lawyers procedural.

National team coaches like Southgate and Deschamps have minimal time to train, yet their teams produce football equally at home in a textbook and a highlight reel.

Maurizio Sarri should recognize how his situation is similar to these coaches. Like any national team coach, he has a team of full international players. They are at Chelsea for the same reason they receive call-ups from their country: out of an incredibly small pool of highly talented players, they are among the very best. Yes, they can and must be trained and developed. But that starts with simply organizing and trusting them.

Chelsea’s players – from regulars like N’Golo Kante and Eden Hazard to under-utilized players like Callum Hudson-Odoi and Olivier Giroud – are thriving on international break because they are playing in systems suited to them. Their success is not because they are playing “just” Iceland or Moldova or Czech Republic or Montenegro. It’s because they are just playing football, not Sarriball.

Perhaps we spoke prematurely up above. Before Maurizio Sarri can condescend to watch international football he would first have to condescend to learning something about the game, his players and himself.