Chelsea should give manager Maurizio Sarri one month to steady the ship at Stamford Bridge before sacking him, according to the club’s record appearance maker.
The Chelsea boss faces big games in the coming weeks, with Manchester United in the FA Cup and Manchester City in the League Cup final among them.
Why is Sarri’s job in trouble? Five things you need to know…
- Sarri took over the reins at Chelsea following the sacking of fellow Italian, Antonio Conte.
- Chelsea started the season well, but performances have declined since, culminating in the 6-0 loss to City at the weekend.
- Part of the manager’s problem has been “Sarri-ball”: both his inability to successfully implement it and his rigid commitment to setting his team up to play it without adequate personnel.
- The clearest example of this has been N’Golo Kante playing away from his favoured holding role.
- Sarri has admitted he is rarely in contact with the ownership of the club, and that he didn’t know they had signed Christian Pulisic from Dortmund.
And former club captain Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris believes Chelsea need to offer Sarri an ultimatum to force a change in fortunes at the west London club.
Blues legend Harris told Love Sport Radio: “That’s for the powers that be [but if I were in charge] I would most probably have a chat with him and say ‘you’ve got until the end of the month to put things right and if not, you’re obviously in a precarious position’.
“The knives are out for the fella at the moment but it’s up to him now to get the players to rally round.
“Whether he can do that remains to be seen because they’re playing Manchester United in the cup, the League Cup final coming up and four or five games in the next couple of weeks so I think he needs to put it right otherwise he will be walking.
“If you look at their last two away performances, they’ve conceded 10 goals.
“In football, if you leak goals like we’re doing – we were doing it even before those games and I don’t think we look sound enough defensively – you don’t win matches.
“One of the biggest losses that Chelsea have had is John Terry. John was a leader on the field and he organised things.
“That doesn’t seem to be happening on the field at the moment. Once you start losing goals, you don’t win matches. Now, they’re going to have a battle to finish in the top four.”
Harris said of Sarri’s insistence on playing Jorginho in the holding role instead of Kante: “I would think that when you think what he did last year, he was head and shoulders ahead of anyone else.”
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Sarri’s looming crunch games
Chelsea face Malmo away in the Europa League on Thursday before facing Man United at home on Monday in the FA Cup fifth round.
Following on from there, the Blues play the home leg of their Europa League tie next Thursday before the small matter of the League Cup final on Sunday against Man City.
On the February 27, they have Tottenham at home, and on March 3 Fulham away. Games against Wolves and Everton follow that.
It’s a tough run of fixtures in what is undoubtedly a crucial part of the season for the blues, who have a big job on their hands to finish in the top four, with Arsenal and a resurgent Man United in the frame too.
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