Sarri raps Kante
MAURIZIO SARRI has accused his Chelsea stars of lacking determination in Saturday’s defeat by Tottenham – and has held a series of face-to-face showdowns with players to find the answers.
The Chelsea manager remarkably singled out midfielder N’Golo Kante for criticism – accusing the French star, now the highest-paid player at the club after signing a £290,000-a-week five-year deal last week, of not being “technical” enough.
Sarri said: “I want a very technical player as a central midfielder – a Jorginho or a Fabregas. I don’t want Kante in this
position. Kante against Tottenham wanted to solve the match after the first 15 minutes but in the wrong way.
“He lost his position. He attacked the other box too much. This is not one of his best characteristics.
“Maybe it is time for him to understand what I want. He has to stay near to Jorginho, especially when the ball is on the other side.
“If we’re attacking on the left, I don’t want him going forward.”
Chelsea face PAOK tonight at Stamford Bridge having already qualified from their Europa League group, and Sarri is expected to make at least seven or eight changes.
But he demanded a reaction after the debacle at Wembley, when Chelsea were lucky to lose only 3-1.
The Chelsea boss, still seething yesterday, said: “I have to think about everything because on Saturday
Vwe played very badly, without determination.
“We have to understand why. I want to see a reaction. I want to see that we have learnt our lessons.
“I talked to them player by player, five or 10 minutes. It’s very difficult to understand why we played without determination in such an important match. If you don’t have that, you have no motivation. Then maybe you don’t have clear targets in your mind.
“The targets are very clear in my mind: in the short period to win something. And in the long to become the best team in Europe. Their problem was with the approach to the previous matches.
“If you go on to the pitch with that approach and the opponents are very strong like Tottenham, that is why they were able to destroy us in 15 minutes.
“It was difficult for the players to tell me why. Maybe the international break was a problem for them to be immediately ready at 100 per cent. I don’t know.”
Olivier Giroud, who scored Chelsea’s consolation against Spurs, defended Kante, left. “N’Golo can play every single position in midfield,” he said. “He just needs to adapt to what the manager wants.”
CHELSEA (4-3-3):