Chelsea: Maurizio Sarri sets the tone by throwing players under the bus

Clubs are a reflection of their leadership. The tone they set is the tone the players cope with. And Maurizio Sarri threw Chelsea players under the bus.

In the early 2000s, Jose Mourinho was the world’s best manager. He knew how to say the right thing to get a player to run through a brick wall. But the players changed and he did not, and eventually the hard-nosed challenging approach he liked stopped working.

Antonio Conte was able to get players to match his intensity. As he showed the fire in his belly to the world, so too did his players. But a lack of support by the club and the media caused that fire to dim down and the players followed suit with some extinguishing their own and turning on the manager.

Now, Maurizio Sarri is trying to set his own tone. When he arrived, he tried to be the kindly father figure. But the loss to Arsenal changed him into an angry and distant step father who passes all blame to everyone but himself. Sarri has set the tone for the second half of the season now by throwing the team under the bus for his own failures.

Starting with the facts, that was not a team that had given up. The squad that played against Arsenal did not lack motivation, they did not lack ferocity. They followed the plan given to them. Arsenal’s plan was to counter that. To say that Arsenal’s intense high pressing in the first half was because of motivation or determination is a lazy excuse. It was simply because that strategy is known to work against Sarri’s tactics.

Speaking of tactics, Sarri says the issue was not tactical which is false. Chelsea was tactically outclassed for 90 minutes because they made no effort to change the plan. Plan A, if there even was a plan A, was the only way. Arsenal adapted their approach to conserve energy, not because Sarri had changed anything about what he was doing.

And as the players plugged away at the routine over and over again with the same result, Sarri sat on the sideline doodling in his notebook. He did not step out to make adjustments. He did not call a player over to whisper into their ear. No, he merely took notes without actually using them.

To blame the players mentality is one thing. To say they do not have the right mentality or the right ferocity is laughable. As Sarri was in a relegation battle with Empoli, Chelsea was frolicking to the Premier League title with many of these players. As Sarri was putting the pressure on Juventus, Chelsea was smashing Premier League records with these players. Even last season, as Sarri was putting pressure on Juventus, Chelsea was winning the FA Cup.

The problem is not the player’s motivation. The problem is a manager who thinks he plays no part in their motivation and who thinks (and who has fans who think) that his tactics are on par with Pep Guardiola’s and Jurgen Klopp’s.

“Patience” many will say. After all, Guardiola and Klopp did not make things work in the first season. But that fails to ignore the portfolio full of trophies they could point to and say “this works”. It fails to acknowledge how those two have players who would run through a wall for them.

Mourinho’s and Conte’s issue with the squad was not simply because the players could not be motivated. It is because it is very different to motivate a team to win something as opposed to defend a title. It is very different to motivate a team to chase down the top of the league as opposed to hold off opponents. Both failed to change how they were managing players.

But Sarri does not see motivation as his role. He also does not see how badly his tactics failed against Arsenal. When motivation is not enough, good managers fill in the remainder with good tactics and vice versa. Sarri only sees his tactics and does not see how it is his job to motivate.

This group of players is world class whether anyone wants to admit that or not. And there is no such thing as a player that does not need a manager to push them further.

Many will expect Sarri to change something on his end for the Tottenham match. That would be surprising given the tone of his presser. He does not see this as his fault. So expect the same formation, the same tactics, the same XI, and the same motivation.

But also expect the players to start to think that the emperor has no clothes. Chelsea got found out as far back as the Burnley match and minimal changes have been made. The team is getting worse not because of motivation but because the tactics are becoming fossilized.

And to top all of that off, Chelsea cannot split with Sarri anytime soon. They are backing him in the market and they are frankly short on other options currently. They will give Sarri the time to show himself. But given his current tone, do not be surprised if a failure to advance past Tottenham turns up the heat. And do not be surprised to see the eject button show up if top four becomes a doubt.

After all, last month Manchester United was a team of sub par players who lacked motivation. They sacked Jose Mourinho and hired Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Solskjaer motivated the squad and they have not lost since. Maybe a team that lacks motivation simply needs a different motivator to show their true selves?