WHO’S SARRI NOW?
I WAS watching the Carabao Cup final last weekend, and I must admit my first thought at the horror of Kepa Arrizabalaga refusing to go was: “What are you doing... who do you think you are?”
He was cheating – that much was clear. Timewasting, and Maurizio Sarri (below) must have been the only person in the stadium who didn’t realise it.
It’s not the only thing the Chelsea manager missed that day – he basically has blown the chance now to show everyone at that club who is in charge there, who is the boss.
There’s another point too, and one most people missed. To me that was a perfect opportunity to show he’s a coach who can get into opposition heads.
If he’d actually been strong enough to drag Kepa off, then can you imagine what would be going through the Manchester City heads?
They’d be thinking, ‘Christ, their manager thinks Willy Caballero is so good at pens he’s prepared to do this to get him on’.
They’d also remember he saved three penalties in the 2016 League Cup final for City against Liverpool... and got carried off on their shoulders at the end!
Not only that, he has a 42 per cent success rate on penalties, which is remarkable for any keeper.
And City knew he’d saved five for them in a year, including ones from Neymar and Eden Hazard.
Now that is psychology, and Sarri could have put that thought in every City player’s head. Managers have to take those decisions, they have to show that strength.
And he failed.