By his own admission, Maurizio Sarri has not taught and does not know how to motivate his players. If we thought he had any self-awareness we’d suspect he’s helping Chelsea justify his sacking.
“I’ve made a huge mistake.” Perhaps Maurizio Sarri is channeling Gob Bluth right now. Both have self-images detached from reality, both rely on a revolving cadre of sycophants for their self-esteem and both only seem to understand the consequences of their actions when their screw-ups affect them directly instead of just others. And now that the Beltway Blues have us seeing Gonzalo Higuain as an older Tony Hale, we may have the perfect framework for understanding Chelsea’s arrested development under their current coach.
We can save that for later, though. The real question for Maurizio Sarri, shifting to a different pop culture touchstone, is: What would you say you do here? For the second time this month Sarri admitted that he does not know how to motivate the players. He has also said that his players have not learned the absolute basics of his tactics, despite being six months under his tutelage.
In a word, balderdash. In two words, taurus excrement.
If Maurizio Sarri is correct he should be sacked immediately for rank incompetence. The major functions of any field sport coach are to train, organize and motivate his players. At face value, Sarri is confessing that in six months he has made zero progress on two of those three functions.
Moreover, throughout those six months he has continued to use the same players who are failing to absorb his motivation and training. We could be generous and say he is internalizing the responsibility, blaming himself for his shortcomings rather than lumping the blame onto the players. But he is not. The players are the only people he is blaming, even as he chronicles his own individual failures.
And since he has not done anything different with the players he is calling apathetic dunderheads, we can conclude he is going 0-for-3 on the coach’s job functions: he is not organizing his team for success.
But we know this is not the case. The players have absorbed some of his training because they are playing in a 4-3-3 and averaging 62% possession, with Jorginho at the base of the midfield. This group would not do this if left to their own devices, particularly given the often lacklustre and recently abysmal results. Someone has to be directing them to do these things because few people – let alone 11 experienced professionals – would voluntarily arrive at this consensus.
The proof of how well Chelsea are executing Maurizio Sarri’s wishes comes from their opponents. If Chelsea were not carrying out well-defined, well-rehearsed and deeply-ingrained circuits and tactics with Newtonian regularity, Eddie Howe, Roy Hodgson, Marco Silva, Javi Gracia and Mauricio Pochettino would not be able to counter them so effectively.
The manner of Chelsea’s losses betray just how much Maurizio Sarri has taught this squad.
So why the inartful dodging? Nothing in Maurizio Sarri’s past or present suggests he manipulates the media to win the press conference a la Sir Alex Ferguson or shape the narrative a la Jose Mourinho. Nor does he seem introspective enough to be laying bare his insecurities.
Perhaps at some level Sarri regrets taking the Chelsea job and is hoping he gets the sack to relieve him of the soul-crushing existence that has brought down so many stronger and more experienced coaches before him. Again taking his words at face value, he may realize just how far over his head he is being in a more competitive league with a squad he did not build and tactics that were stale upon arrival at Chelsea. He may agree with everything Roman Abramovich will one day say (or text) to him, and this is his way of preparing himself and maybe make it easier for Abramovich.
But unlike training, organizing and motivating, justifying his sacking is not his job. That is Roman Abramovich’s job, one at which he is quite adept through experience.
If the team’s current form leads to the sack, it will be because of – not despite – Sarri’s training and organization. He’s right about the motivation, though.
Abramovich will sack Sarri on his own timeline. When he does, the slim managerial market and the state of the club means he may turn to Chelsea’s most trustworthy sons: Frank Lampard and John Terry. Seeing the team in this state, they will realize they have no choice but to keep them all together.