Chelsea: Maurizio Sarri brought all this upon himself and the club

The only surprise in Chelsea’s slaughter at Manchester City was that it was only a six-goal game. Sadly, those six goals may not be enough for Maurizio Sarri to take action.

Chelsea gave up six goals against, with not a single response by the players nor the manager. Motivation is low, tactics are bad, and the team needs change in order to not fall apart in the next three months. However, if there is just one person who needs to adapt, it is Maurizio Sarri.

If we are going to begin today, let us start with the big question: what happened against Manchester City? An answer that would cover the entire 90 minutes would be: nothing at all.

Chelsea started the game with good intensity, great pressing, precise passing and fine movement off the ball. That lasted about four minutes, when Raheem Sterling opened the floodgates. After that, it was dreadful to watch, even more so than the rest of the season, because because of the contrast from Manchester City.

At the beginning of the campaign all the blame fell on Alvaro Morata, who never settled at Chelsea because he wasn’t scoring enough goals. However, when he did score, he was harassed so much he no longer felt like stepping on the pitch. Now, Chelsea have the manager’s golden boy, Gonzalo Higuain, who was one the few players who put some effort. But the problem, as we now see, is much larger than just the “striker issue.”

The manager has no game plan for attack or defense, and he is losing games every other week. Maurizio Sari is upset because the players lack motivation. But they lack motivation because there is no real plan of anything other than passing the ball. Therefore, Chelsea keep losing games, the manager keeps being upset and the players are not motivated.

This should make it clear to Sarri that Sarriball is not working and will not work going forward.

Compounding everyone’s frustration is how – for as much as Chelsea suffer in the attack – the defense is so much worse. Although Chelsea are notorious for being a defensive team, this season the team has no idea what they are doing in the back line. The defense have no protection from their midfield, and the manager only knows how to set up a team that keeps possession amidst minimal defending.

By trying to enforce Sarrismo as the team’s philosophy, Sarri completely neglects how it is more important not to concede than to score five goals a game and keep 90% possession. This is especially true if the team cannot score five goals every game, because then dominating possession means losing 4-0 off of counter attacks.

Maurizio Sarri is turning out to be that “same old – same old” guy who firmly believes that something can work, even if it has been proven time and again that it doesn’t.

Against City, instead of making substitutions at half time, changing some players around on the field and try to open the City defense, he made three substitutions in the second half who made no difference in the game. If the substitutes were to make an impact, the tactics had to change. But since the tactics didn’t change, Guardiola’s men scored two goals in the second half. Meanwhile, Chelsea only got close to pulling one back.

Certainly, the players did not show a back bone. After going just one goal down early in the game, the passing was obvious, the pressing ineffective, the defense a joke and the attack non-existent. However, one cannot expect a player to be motivated if, after losing 6-0 and possibly missing out on top-four for the season, a manager tells them “let’s keep practicing the same thing. I’m sure it’ll work next time.”

In contrast, Manchester City knew their game plan very well. They exploited Chelsea by making players run and chase the ball. Meanwhile the City players just waited in the open space with someone already open for the next pass. Add in a deadly striker like Sergio Aguero, who was hardly marked the entire game, and this result becomes unavoidable.

At this point of the season, Sarrismo needs to be pushed aside and the team needs to go back to the basics. Trying the same thing over and over will surely cost the club top four, the Europa League and any chance at a cup.

If this all happens, Maurizio Sarri will find himself looking for another job in May, Chelsea will lose Eden Hazard and the club can enter dark times all for a philosophy that never won a single trophy.