The focus on Maurizio Sarri’s struggles recently have almost all been tactical – he needs to move Kante deeper, he needs to drop Jorginho etc.
But there have also clearly been issues with his man management style. From the moment he took his first press conference in English it became clear that he was not a born communicator, and that can be forgiven.
But his issues in motivation the players is more pressing, and deeply connected. He seems all too happy to criticise his charges in a way that most managers wouldn’t.
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That lead to some really interesting comments from Mark Schwarzer, speaking on Sky Sports’ website, where he discussed at depth how Sarri had been acting, and pointed out that he thought he’d probably learned his lesson:
“If you look at Chelsea, the history, particularly in the last couple of years, we’ve had managers who have come out and been quite vocal towards the players, criticised the players at times,” the former Blues stopper said.
“It’s had varying results, most of the time negative results… Sarri has tried it multiple times this season. I don’t think he’s going to get the results or response that he wants.
“I’m sure he has realised: I’ve got to take a different approach, put more of an arm around them and maybe not be so vocal publicly,” the Australian went on.
We really hope he’s turned the corner now, because he might not get many more chances to switch up his methods, if things continue as they had been in the last couple of months.
