Chelsea pulled off a 1-0 victory away to Crystal Palace. Job done, but it was not pretty and it sure was not Sarrismo as advertised or promised.
Maurizio Sarri said it would take a few months for his tactics to take shape. He was surprised by the hot start, but the matches since Burnley showed a stagnation. The victory against Manchester City blew some air back into the embers, but it has since cooled back off as the winter fixtures have piled up.
Chelsea is grinding out results and relying on moments of brilliance rather than anything planned or rehearsed. Some are understandably getting tired of the endless possession without penetration. Part of that is a failure by some on both sides to understand what Sarrismo actually is.
Sarrismo is not “possession based”. Possession is merely a means to an end. The ball must be moved not just quickly, but vertically. If it is not quick or vertical, it simply becomes what Chelsea is often showing: sterile possession with no penetration.
What Chelsea is currently playing is not Sarrismo. There are flashes of it from time to time and some players have totally bought in, but on the whole this is not what Sarri wants to see from the team. The buildup is often too high and too safe. Opponents need (and have plenty of time) to get into their defensive shape and wait. Chelsea has struggled to break down a packed defense for years and that has not changed.
Crystal Palace was yet another showcase of that. The South London side played the 90 minutes on autopilot. Perhaps they were looking for a draw but there was nothing special about how they set up. Chelsea’s slowness in possession allowed Palace to set up their defensive shape and wait for the Blues to give the ball away.
The only goal came from a long pass from David Luiz to N’Golo Kante in the box. Fast and vertical, it caught Palace unprepared (a tenet of Sarrismo) and the winning goal went in. The rest of the time? Chelsea slowed the play, got stuck outside of Palace’s block, and passed side to side without drawing Palace out.
There are simple solutions that Chelsea could have used, but did not. They could have built deeper in midfield to draw Palace out (like Manchester City like to do). They could have switched the play when they pulled Palace into the wide areas (like Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich and Barcelona liked to do). But they did not do those things.
Sarrismo has yet to arrive at Stamford Bridge. No performance this season has really looked like what Sarri built at Napoli. It is a work in progress that needs time but Sarri said it would take a few months. That time has passed and it has not arrived. It seems less of an issue with Sarri (unless he has changed how he implements his tactics) and more of an issue with the players.
So few of the current Chelsea squad seem to understand what they should look like. Fast and vertical requires players being confident enough in themselves to move the ball along by instinct. Furthermore, they need to be constantly moving to create space, but for years now there have been periods where the players off the ball have been static.
Chelsea enters 2019 in a good league position but without a truly appealing style of play. Grinding out wins, especially at this point in the season, is fine. But at some point the Blues will need to step it up before they come against someone they cannot grind out the victory against. Sarri is surely frustrated and the fans are becoming increasingly so. Something has got to give.