Blues to adapt completely to ‘Sarri Ball’ by October

Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri has hinted that it might take the Blues two months to get the drift of his footballing philosophy popularly known as ‘Sarri Ball’, a system of football similar to the Spanish ‘tiki-taka’.

The former Napoli and Empoli coach who has ditched predecessor Antonio Conte’s 3-4-3 system to the 4-3-3 system admitted that it normally takes his players between two to three months to adapt to his defensive requirements. In Chelsea’s case, however, he reckoned it would take them two months only to adapt since the team had lots of intelligent players.

Chelsea coach Sarri also disclosed that he would not be returning to a five-man defence with wing backs. He said:

“I tried to play as a five-man defence six years ago, but for me it is impossible. Because if I want to press in the other half, if I want to look only at the ball with five defenders, I lose immediately the metres.”

Chelsea will be hoping to keep up the pace at the summit of the Premier League if they can make it three wins on the trot for the new manager when they face former Napoli and Chelsea manager Rafael Benitez’s Newcastle side on Sunday.