Chelsea: Sarri’s Premier League XIV stand apart from his Europa League 6
By George Perry
Chelsea have played 18 games in all competitions under Maurizio Sarri. At this point, each player knows exactly where he stands in Sarri’s hierarchy.
For a man who arrived only five months ago without his full complement of players on site, Maurizio Sarri quickly settled and sealed his squad management decisions. Most first-year coaches in the top six – Antonio Conte, Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Tinkerman redux Unai Emery – experiment from week to week to find the (dare we say it) best suit. They use the lesser competitions to test out new combinations and tactics. Then the festive period arrives, scrambles everything and sets the process back. Only after their first full transfer window will they know for sure – pending injuries and calamitous performances – who goes where.
Not so Maurizio Sarri. After matchweek 12 in the Premier League he has established his Premier League XI plus three substitutes. Six other players make up the core of his Europa League squad, complementing a few overworked souls from the best XIV. Willy Caballero has a well-defined role, leaving only two players truly adrift.
Chelsea’s goalkeeper, four defenders and two midfielders are the foundation of the Premier League XI. Because of their high density of playing time in the Premier League, those six players are swapped out almost to a man for the Europa League 6. The Premier League defenders, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante spend little time in the Europa League or the EFL Cup.
The third (attacking) midfielder’s Premier League minutes would be divided almost evenly between Mateo Kovacic and Ross Barkley, if not for a brief entree from Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The attacking midfielder’s playing profile – like his tactical usage when Sarrismo is at its best – is closer to the forwards’ than the other midfielders’.
Just as Sarri has three (2.5?) midfielders for the final spot, he has three wingers for two spots and two strikers to be the one No. 9. Because no one player dominates the minutes in each position in the Premier League, they play more minutes in the lower competitions. The forwards and the attacking have a more balanced profile across three competitions than the defenders and the other two midfielders.
But, because the offence-oriented players are regularly involved in the Europa League and EFL Cup, their overall playing time tracks with that of their Premier League colleagues. On average, the Premier League XIV have only 40 fewer Europa League minutes than the Europa League 6. With four games in the competition, that means the average player in the Premier League rotation gets only a 10-minute reprieve midweek.
Olivier Giroud is the closest thing the Premier League XIV has to an outlier. His overall minutes are closer to the Europa League 6 than to Ross Barkley, who has the 13th-most minutes on the team. With the exception of Giroud, the Premier League squad and Europa League corps have more in common with each other than they do with anyone in the other group.
Willy Caballero, Victor Moses and Callum Hudson-Odoi are the true exceptions. Caballero and Hudson-Odoi are the only two players to play in exactly one competition each. Caballero has played both EFL Cup matches, giving Kepa Arrizabalaga his only nights off. Hudson-Odoi has had two short appearances in the Europa League. And Victor Moses has played in all three, but with fewer Europa League minutes than Hudson-Odoi and fewer Premier League minutes than Cesc Fabregas.
Maurizio Sarri’s personnel management is an outlier against every backdrop except his own past. Chelsea have not had any coaches use so few players overall or in the individual competitions. Nor have they faced other top-six clubs competing in three or four competitions do anything like this. Most managers distribute their minutes more evenly, at least among their substitutes if not among their starters. Then again, most managers also change their formations and tactics more than Sarri does.
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Chelsea literally have an exceptional coach. We’ll find out before long if his practices and his squad can withstand four competitions and the festive period. So far he has not shown any inclination to adapt to anything other than abject necessity. Premier League football has a way of making that a part of life.