Chelsea’s strikers have been among the quietest players in these early days of Sarrismo. Alvaro Morata, Olivier Giroud and Maurizio Sarri must find a way to incorporate the No. 9’s into a system built around not having players like them.
Over the three games of this season Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud have combined for 120 total touches. Jorginho and Eden Hazard each had more against Newcastle alone.
The learning process is a two-way street for the strikers and the coach. Maurizio Sarri has not used a traditional striker since his first season at Napoli. In 2015/16 Gonzalo Higuain scored 36 of Napoli’s 80 goals. Napoli’s goals were much more evenly distributed over the next two seasons as Dries Mertens centered the line as a false-nine, opening more goalscoring opportunities for the wingers. Mertens scored 28 of 94 goals in 2016/17, and 18 of 77 last season. The latter two seasons also saw an increase in the number of goalscorers, from 11 when Higuain led the way to 13 and 15 in the seasons with Mertens on top.
Maurizio Sarri, then, is readjusting to having two classic No. 9’s in his lineup. Olivier Giroud came on for Alvaro Morata in the last two games, but did not offer anything more nor anything different. This may come as a relief to Morata, who found himself overshadowed by Giroud in the second half of last season.
Sarri’s system does not require a large target man in the box in possession, nor as a hold-up option in transition. The key to Sarrismo is to move fast enough on the break that there is no need for hold-up play. In fact, it is antithetical to both the pace and the passing routes of Sarrismo for the centre-forward to have his back to goal with the ball while the wingers and midfielders swarm up around him.
The final stages of Sarri’s build-up in possession are low passes from very high up the pitch – almost to the end line. This minimizes the advantage of and need for two aerially adept strikers. Morata and Giroud will not be receiving crosses from Marcos Alonso this season, unless they come in hard on the ground.
Chelsea’s strikers, then, need to find new ways to make themselves valuable to Sarri’s XI. Morata has the advantage over Giroud because he is faster, more guileful and more adaptable than the Frenchman. Morata’s best option for Sarrismo is to make runs behind the defence to get on the end of those low balls into the box, and then clean up any rebounds or loose balls in front of goal.
Newcastle played so deep there was no space behind the backline for Morata to move into. Newcastle’s defence did not take the bait and follow him when he would drop deeper to receive the ball from the midfielders, which left Morata with the ball and nowhere to go outside the box. Without crosses coming in the air, Morata had little to work with. Still, he did many of the right things with his movement and physical play. So far this season he is truly fighting for his place, staying on his feet and grinding out a challenge rather than going down and looking for a whistle.
The second option is to take up position for a cutback pass. As Chelsea become more familiar with Sarrismo, one of the wingers or Marcos Alonso will have the ball on the edge of the pitch and at the edge of the box. The striker should be waiting around the penalty spot to take no more than two steps before a one-touch shot from the cutback.
Giroud and Morata can both fill this role equally well. But the player best suited for both – ironically, and by ironically we mean if only Chelsea had a technical director to realize such things – is Michy Batshuayi. The compact lines of Sarri’s formations work well for Batshuayi to explode off the defenders’ shoulders, whether in transition or in possession. He has the speed to contribute to the rush with Eden Hazard and Pedro. And, as he showed in his title-clinching goal against West Bromwich Albion and his stoppage time winner against Atletico Madrid, he has a striker’s instinct for positioning for a cutback or a ball behind the lines.
Maurizio Sarri is not one to adapt his system and tactics for the players on his roster. It would be a shame if he cut out Chelsea’s traditional No. 9’s, though. The Blues have two potent aerial crossers in Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta, and two strikers who know what to do with a ball coming towards their head. Both players can make significant contributions to the team as centre-forwards.
Olivier Giroud also showed at the World Cup how he can adapt the target man role into a more supporting function in support of speedy wingers. That can be easily translated to Chelsea if Sarri is willing to make the most of who he has.
The alternative, of course, is to play Eden Hazard as a false-nine as Sarri did with Dries Mertens. While that would be a waste of everything the Blues’ centre-forwards have to offer, it would be worth the meltdowns and contortions among everyone who excoriated Antonio Conte for playing the Belgian in the hybrid role.