London: At Chelsea they demolish and rebuild according to the theory of every manager who passes through and while this frantic cycle of renewal has yielded mostly success, it never fails to be a daunting prospect when the dial goes back to zero and the process begins anew.
Maurizio Sarri was left to contemplate it against the most formidable Premier League side of the past decade, a precise, exacting manager who by the end of a hot afternoon at Wembley was making substitutions just to see what happened. When the final whistle blew on a chastening defeat, he will have patted his pockets for cigarette and lighter and headed off in search of a quiet part of Wembley’s concrete corridors where he could smoke his way to a few early conclusions.
His predecessor, Antonio Conte, also started slowly two years previous, eventually tearing up convention in October with his 3-4-3 formation that proved so successful that a version of it became the system of choice for England in their best World Cup in 28 years. Conte’s approach was radical change — big names left out, lesser lights co-opted into new roles — and now the question facing his successor is how he administers the same kind of tonic.
Sarri’s record for innovation, and his single-minded pursuit of an idea of playing, makes him a strong candidate to do so, even if a comprehensive defeat by last season’s runaway champions at Wembley highlighted the scale of the problem. This is the long tail of a 12-month decline and the question begs itself whether all Chelsea’s players are ready for another tactical regime change. Not all will have a place in it and not all will have the mental energy to fight for their places anew in whatever Sarri is planning to build from the foundations of what was bequeathed to him.
Conte’s three-man defence and wing-backs that transformed English football are gone at Chelsea and in their place came, among others, David Luiz, pulled out of storage like the proverbial comfortable armchair. Sadly — in the case of a once fine player — with occasionally the same levels of mobility.
The first of the Brazilian’s two spells at Chelsea began under Carlo Ancelotti and he has played under every one of the eight permanent, interim and temporary managers since — reborn and then rejected by both Conte and his predecessor, Jose Mourinho.
Back went Luiz into the centre of defence, found wanting when Bernardo Silva slipped in Sergio Aguero for the second goal, and later seen grasping desperately at the shoulder of Gabriel Jesus. Luiz was preferred to Andreas Christensen, back on the bench again. The captain, Cesar Azpilicueta, went to right-back. Marcos Alonso went from wing-back to left-back. Victor Moses went back to the bench.
A new era is beginning and no one is quite sure of their place in it. The future of Thibaut Courtois has yet to be resolved and Sarri later chuckled when asked whether he would respond to the goalkeeper’s agent Christophe Henrotay’s demand that Chelsea do a deal with Real Madrid. Sarri pointed out that he has still not seen six of his players, with Eden Hazard and N’Golo Kante among those yet to return from their post-World Cup finals holiday.
There is no way of justifying the sale of Hazard given the obvious need for an established world star in this current assortment of players, not that the club ever felt that selling the Belgian was a realistic prospect.
Chelsea will be a different proposition when their biggest names are back and they do have many good players, although finding the best way of accommodating them is the difference between sixth place, or second, or even better. Asked to lay out his philosophy afterwards, Sarri said that he wanted his teams to press, but conceded that Chelsea had not always done so in the right way against City. He said that he wanted his teams to control matches, but conceded that this was not a match that they could say they had controlled.
In Naples, he said it took “three to four games” before the penny dropped, although then he had started pre-season at the beginning of July. If it takes Chelsea three to four matches to start playing the Sarri way, the club will consider that an excellent outcome.
He has players at so many stages of their development, on different career arcs and varying levels of fitness that who knows what the composition of this squad might finally look like.
As things stand, Jorginho and Ross Barkley looked off the pace. Pedro’s reaction to being substituted after the hour was not that of a man who felt at peace with his afternoon’s work.
Callum Hudson-Odoi, one of the pre-season standouts, had some bright moments up against Kyle Walker in the first half, then came off after an hour. Alvaro Morata is still not yet the player Chelsea want him to be.
Beyond that there are others like Willian, Danny Drinkwater and Tammy Abraham — all of them coming off the bench — whose futures are uncertain.
Luckily for Chelsea, in the past they have thrived in this kind of chaos, with their most successful managers able to make quick decisions about who they need and who they do not.
However badly Conte’s era might have ended he was the best when it came to the shock therapy required for a squad low on morale and coherence.
There is a team in there somewhere and Sarri knows that the next few weeks will be about making the hard choices that help him reach that point sooner rather than later. Chelsea may have more professionals than any other English club, a great diaspora that stretches from the first-team stars and beyond to the army of loanees in perpetual orbit of the mothership. It can look like chaos at times, but the trick of the most successful managers has been to cut the squad down to size, and drill 23 players in a certain way.
Mourinho, Ancelotti, Conte — they have all done it at different times in the past. No point fighting the system, as Sarri will know. The trick is making it work for him.
