Give Sarri time, says Barkley
Ross Barkley has come to the defence of Maurizio Sarri, pointing out that Pep Guardiola needed time to immerse his Manchester City players in his approach after a difficult first season, when the young English midfielder saw first-hand the Catalan’s struggles.
Barkley, who scored in Chelsea’s 3-0 Europa League win over Malmo on Thursday, was in the Everton team who beat City 4-0 on Jan 15, 2017, which left Guardiola’s team 10 points behind eventual champions Chelsea. Sarri’s future looks bleak at the club, with Wednesday night’s home game against Tottenham Hotspur key in deciding how much longer he has at the club.
Nevertheless, Barkley became one of the first Chelsea players to defend the head coach during a week in which they were easily eliminated from the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge by Manchester United.
Barkley is unlikely to make the starting XI for today’s Carabao Cup final against City. He has generally played second fiddle to Mateo Kovacic, who also started against Malmo. Jorginho is likely to come back into Sarri’s midfield today, with Barkley the most likely candidate to give way.
Despite the fans’ rejection of the “Sarri-ball” philosophy, Barkley believes the team are adapting. “He [Sarri] tries to improve every player,” Barkley said. “You can see at Napoli how well he did with the players he had, how well he improved them.
“You can see on the training pitch a lot of things improving in each individual. We went through a bit of an upand-down spell in the last couple of weeks, but we’re confident we’ll come through it and achieve success.
“We’re all top-class players and we all want to learn more. With the manager, we’re learning on a day-to-day basis. If you compare Pep Guardiola’s first season, they went through a bit of an up-and-down spell.
“When I was at Everton, we beat Manchester City 4-0. The Premier League is the most competitive in the world. It’s more repetition in training and results will come through.
“We’ve got ambition to be one of the best footballing sides in the world. We’re one of the biggest clubs in the world. The style of play the manager wants to play, it’s not where it’s at right now. Over time it will come.”