Maurizio Sarri has agreed a deal to become Chelsea's new head coach with Gianfranco Zola coming in as his assistant. The appointment of the chain smoking, ex-Napoli boss has now brought to an end the farcical Antonio Conte saga which was a new low in the club's spell under Roman Abromovich. The Italian's tenure was brought to an end this morning as confirmed by the club in a statement which gave an all new meaning to curt which really is befitting of the pair's relationship, which has been under immense strain since the close of the 2016/2017 title winning campaign. The treatment of the record setting Premier League and FA Cup winning coach has been embarassing but that's a story for another day. Chelsea must look to the future and in new head coach, Maurzio Sarri expect no letup in the excitement, thrills, disappointments, which Chelsea Football Club has been accustomed to in recent seasons. Sarri is not without his faults, A series of misdemeanours - the most recent a 20,000 euros fine and two-game ban in January for alleged homophobic abuse of Roberto Mancini - looked to have steered the west London club away from appointing the 60-year-old. However he has now arrived and will leave no stone unturned in returning Chelsea to one of Europe's elite.
Pep Guardiola, Arrigo Sacchi and Eddie Howe - what do all these past and present managers have in common? They are all key advocates of the style of football Sarri has implemented at Napoli. Guardiola and Sacchi have spoke many a time about their love for the Italian's vision and method of playing the "beautiful game" while Eddie Howe was an early disciple of Sarri's flying out to oversee Empoli training many a time in the pre-Napoli years. "Going to [Napoli's training ground] Castelvolturno is like going to Palo Alto," Gianluca Vialli explained. "There's innovation, creativity." And it's now relocating to Cobham. Cigarette smoke aside there's a freshness now to the London club. Maurizio Sarri’s appointment finally indicates a willingness to risk it all again, akin to the days where Chelsea spent money wisely and well. They’re willing to throw the dice at Sarri’s vision of football, in which it’s golden glaze has captivated the hipsters of European football (and Serie A) in a trance. The football was captivating, "Sariball" will debut against Huddersfield, August 11th. What will also be of interest is who Sarri will pursue to get this show on the road; although Chelsea are in the Europa League, they look set to sign some of Serie A and Europe’s brightest stars such as Jorginho from Napoli. Chelsea seem to be in the market also for defenders- indicating a willingness to return to a back four- as well as revolutionising the attack following its desperate failures under Conte (with Morata and Willian highly responsible). The Italian will also look to secure the futures of several key start such as Eden Hazard, Thiabaut Courtois, N'Golo Kante and Willian. Sarri has landed, and so will a new style alongside new players to kickstart Chelsea’s race to return to the European and English elite.
Expect drones, tactical variations, fireworks and more. Ex-Napoli loanee and Watford midfielder; Nathaniel Chalobah in a recent interview with James Richardson came out with praise for ex-boss Sarri at Napoli. Sarri's attention to detail was such Napoli had 32 (thirty-two!) variations for throw ins. Sarri also had various corner kick and free kick routines whilst also conducted each training session with drones overhead so he could review the day's action come the close of the session. Most top-level teams maintain the practice of two formations: one while out of possession and one while in possession. This allows teams to push numbers forward and then retreat back into a more defensive pose when an opponent has the ball, but the transitional period creates a moment of vulnerability. What Sarri did at Napoli is to eliminate that transition. By starting off in a 4–3–3 in possession and switching to a compact 4–5–1 with heavy pressing out of possession, Napoli can maintain a relatively constant shape whether or not they have the ball. Napoli always started with Sarri’s preferred 4-3-3 formation. The system is so good because its very fluid and it allows Napoli players to interchange freely, especially the front 3. The two defenders are a perfect partnership with Albiol the technically gifted of the two and Koulibaly providing the pace and power although not without ball playing skills of his own. The two full backs are very complete in defence and in attack with Ghoulam always trying to overlap but Hysaj is a bit more stationary. (New Chelsea signing) Jorginho is the pivot in midfield, he is the controller who sets the tempo with his passing similar in style to Sergio Busquets. Allan is very good as a box to box midfielder helping out in both defence and attack with Hamsik an aggressive midfielder playing almost as shadow striker when Napoli have the ball and he often interchanges positions with Mertens when Napoli have the ball. The front 3 contain some dazzling players who rightly get most of the plaudits, Insigne is a skilful inside forward and playmaker. Mertens has been converted very successfully to a striker offering a different aspect in attack with his fluidity and pass. While Callejon is an out and out winger who is mostly stationary down the right side.
As stated before what makes Napoli so impressive is their fluidity and ability to interchange positions. Sarri has them drilled perfectly and every player knows exactly what to do at what point of the game. Napoli are always trying to play it out from the back and Sarri always believes in having the extra man to aid in keeping possession and because of the space it can free up on the opposite end of the field. When Pepe Reina has the ball the two centre backs push very wide and Jorginho drops in between them. The two full backs push forward to form a four man midfield and the two wingers cut inside. This means the team is set out in 3-4-3 formation during the build up of play from the back. One could see the triangles the Napoli players form which gives them a numerical advantage and allows them to keep the ball easily. This insane ability to play passes in such rapid succession comes in handy farther down the pitch, too. While most teams look to impose their attacking tactics once they’ve advanced into the final third, Napoli engage the opposition early on through their signature style of back-and-forth progression. They play vertical passes into traffic, and then, rather than trying to turn, the receiver will drop the ball back to an onrushing attacker. This forces the defence to engage the ball and prevents them from retreating into a shell. One must only look at their stats from the 2016/2017 season to see how important a component passing is to Sarri's preferred method of play. Napoli passed 11.5 times per percentage of possession last season, leading all 134 teams in the top flight of seven leagues in Europe (Bundesliga, Eredivisie, La Liga, Liga NOS, Ligue 1, Premier League, and Serie A). They play 28% more passes per possession than average (8.6) in these seven leagues. The number jumps to 39% if we only measure short passes. Interestingly, Napoli used very few dribbles: they dribbled once about every 40 passes, a number that ranks them 4th lowest among 134 teams. Therefore, Napoli used a lot of short passes without needing to dribble the ball to create chances.**
Every field player is involved in Napoli’s attack. Normally, this would leave a team vulnerable to a direct counterattack from a turnover, but Sarri’s team plays in a way that the attack benefits the defense. In order to ping-pong the ball up and down and across the field as they do, the team’s positioning has to remain compact and connected so the player receiving the pass has multiple options. Since all 10 players remain connected, when they turn the ball over, they’re then immediately presenting opponents with a unified front that’s difficult to break down—as opposed to a group of players scrambling from their attacking positions into a defensive structure. Due to the formation’s natural structure, the equidistant distribution of players across all areas of the pitch allows for groups of players to immediately press the ball. Another press-heavy side, RB Leipzig, utilizes the same concept with their 4-2-2-2. If Napoli don’t put pressure on the ball right away, they run the risk of a direct, long pass putting their backline under sudden pressure. They either encourage a long ball to be played right off the kickoff, which allows their athletic defenders and aggressive goalkeeper to close down the ball, or they ask the opposing attack to play through their clustered center. If you want to beat them, you have to produce something special.
Despite all the tactical brilliance of Sarri, it doesn’t work without the players. At Napoli, Albiol and Koulibaly were pretty close to near the best center back combo. Albiol could kickstart atatcks given his range of passing while Koulibaly was a pure athlete. David Luiz may see a return to the side under Sarri while Toni Rudiger could play a similar role to Koulibaly under Sarri. Chelsea have also been linked with Juventus' star Danielle Rugani who would be an astute signing for the Blues as the Italian is definitely one for the future. Either Luiz or Rugani would be able to direct Chelsea out of trouble while enacting Sarri's stategy of deep possession. Under Sarri, I expect Cesar Azpilicueta to revert to the right side of defence while January signing Emerson Palmeri to start down the left operating a similar role to that of Faouzi Ghoulam at Napoli who is certainly more athletic and quicker than Spaniard Marcos Alonso. In order to blur the lines between defense and attack, a team needs two-way midfielders, and Chelsea have plenty of those, too. With passing options all around them and defensive support also in full supply, Jorginho and N'Golo Kante will need to become incredibly effective midfielders. Jorginho, in particular, has put up gaudy passing numbers on a weekly basis for Napoli and similar will be expected of him at the Blues.
The third midfielder is likely to filled by one of Cesc Fabregas, Ross Barkley or the returning Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The club have also been heavily linked with Russia World Cup star Alexsandr Golovin. Sarri will be expecting whoever to fulfill a role that akin to Marek Hamsik at Napoli. The 30-year-old Slovakian was at the heart of the move that typically created that space for Callejón on the back post: the left-sided overload. By linking up with athletic fullback Ghoulam and Insigne, Hamsik formed a trio that combines to overwhelm and outnumber the right side of opposing defenses. Sarri will probably look for a midfielder of similar effect to contribute that possibly down the Blues' right hand side, thereby freeing the mecurial Belgian Eden Hazard on Chelsea's left. Sarri may although have different ideas for Hazard, like he had with fellow Belgian, Dries Mertens. Mertens was a winger before he met Sarri, who then turned him into one of the best strikers in the world. Because the defenders are often spread so wide because of Napoli’s aggressive fullbacks and constant ball movement, Mertens often finds himself receiving the ball while isolated on bigger, slower central defenders. With everyone else in light blue making runs in and around him, Mertens is free to score wonder goals or assist a teammate. In 2016/2017, he scored 34 goals while last season he netted just the 22. Failing that Sarri will be expecting more of record signing, Alvaro Morata who failed to impress in his maiden season in London. Although he has Olivier Giroud available and Juventus man Gonzalo Higuain has been widely tipped to sign for the Blues, I expect Sarri to give Morata his chance and hopefully succeed in replicating some of the Spaniard's early form last season. The other attacking position will be expected to fulfill the role Lorenzo Insigne did so well for Napoli that one of being a free-flowing shooter which could suit Willian to a tee. With Chelsea's play massively expected to be centered upon Eden Hazard next season I expect whoever takes up this position on the Chelsea right to be a significant goal-scoring presence to the team given opposition defender's focus on Chelsea's main man. Expect the frequent occurrence of this player peeling off to the back post, putting the ball in the net.
If Napoli last season were a testament to what an ideal marriage between philosophy and personnel can produce even without incredible resources, Manchester City, showed us what can happen if you have the right players, the right manager, and all the money in the world. Sarri will be hoping given some of Abromovich's resources his contribution can be of similar effect, albeit any success Sarri will have at Chelsea will be down to coaching and not lavish spending. Chelsea usually appoint a youthful, decorated, pragmatic manager yet today they have no. Sarri, the former investment banker is 60 and has won zilch. His appointment brings the foundations of a future from blueprint to construction. Make no mistake this is a paradigm shift and beautiful football will ensue, a far cry to what fans have become accustomed to from messr's Conte and Mourinho. For what it's worth Sarri is a beginning. He may not even win anything but he will. Materialism reigned at Chelsea once but no more, Sarri will bring back the swagger of yesteryear where attacking football was the Chelsea norm. A style that saw Peter Osgood adorned as the "King of Stamford Bridge" and one where the likes of Pat Nevin and the returning Gianfranco Zola were immortalized in the upper echelons of greats. His style will be one that starlets and stars want to become supernovas at Chelsea. Sarris' successor will be the one who reaps most of his era here. The romance of his Naples' revolution will endure, Sarri will be hoping for a similar legacy at the Blues.
** - http://outsideoftheboot.com/2017/07/30/breaking-down-maurizio-sarri-tactics/