Maurizio Sarri’s League Cup loss one of the most promising for Chelsea

Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri entered the League Cup needing a win. He did not get one, but the match was one of the most promising all season.

Not all losses are created equal. They all still mean the same terrible thing at the end of the day, especially when it comes to a final, but they are not all created equal.

Chelsea’s loss to Manchester City in the League Cup final was nowhere close to what the 6-0 loss in the league was. In fact, whereas one seemed to have put Maurizio Sarri right on the edge of the cliff for the sack, the other may be worth pulling him back off the edge.

Sarri did everything right in the League Cup final. And though Chelsea did not win, they pushed the envelope enough to make it one of the most promising matches of Sarri’s tenure.

The lineup from the start caused some worry with Eden Hazard up top. But it worked last time Chelsea beat Manchester City and it helped to solve a lot of the issues Chelsea faced in the 6-0 loss.

Playing Hazard up takes a ton of defensive burden off of Hazard. It also allows the usage of two more defensively minded wingers to track back. And a slight change between the 2-0 win and this one was that the defensive shape was more of a 4-5-1 than Sarri’s usual 4-4-2.

The defensive shift had two major effects. One is that it made Chelsea far more compact between the lines (a big sticking point in the 6-0). This also allowed the defense to play somewhat wider as there was less chance of them being split. The second effect was that Chelsea created a ton of vertical space with so many bodies behind the ball.

For those keeping track, that has been something Chelsea has been very good at for well over a decade. But there was also the typical Sarrismo play in tight spaces to drag the opponent around. Sarri once again blended what Chelsea was already good at with what he wanted to see from them.

Sarri also knocked his substitutes out of the park for the first time in forever. They were still like for like swaps (bar Gonzalo Higuain for Willian), but they were dynamic. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi coming on added a much needed energy to the side and the crowd. With the crowd buoyed by seeing their own on the pitch, Chelsea turned up the heat and started to take control of the match.

And overall, the attitude of the side was great. No one looked bothered by the tactics they were using or overburden by too many instructions. Sarri trusted his guys to make the right decisions and they did almost every time.

Really all of this is what many critics have been asking for from Sarri. Just small adaptations to get the job done while also staying true to “his way”. The squad looked behind him and he looked like a man that was finally willing to work with his players instead of through them.

Of course, all of this can go away if the same trends do not appear against Tottenham. If everything reverts to as it was, it is only a matter of time before things get found out once again. And if anything, the Cup final performance showed that Sarri at least deserves the shot at Tottenham.

That one is, of course, still a must win. The League Cup is gone, the FA Cup is gone, and all that remains is the Champions League qualification. Europa League is one route, but the top four cannot be lost either. Anything short of a win against Tottenham could see top four out of reach.

But if Chelsea takes the same attitude from the League Cup final into the Tottenham match, they will be okay. This was Chelsea being Chelsea again and it could be a sign of better things to come.