Paul Parker – League Cup Final defeat could be the end for Sarri and don’t rule out a City quadruple
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Updated 23/02/2019 at 16:52 GMT
Paul Parker previews the League Cup Final, says you can’t completely rule out a quadruple for Manchester City, and suggests a big loss could prove to be the end for Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea.
Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri (left) and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola are friends
Image credit: PA Sport
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Beating Manchester City at this moment in time would be covering up massive cracks at Chelsea, if they were to do that.
I think that’s going to be too much of an ask though – Chelsea are going to lose on Sunday, but the manner in which they get beaten is important. Is it going to be a 3-0 or 4-0; the sort of result that forces the hand of the people in charge to make a quick decision now about what they’re going to do about Sarri?
That’s going to be the key to how the rest of their season goes.
I don’t know what’s happening internally at the club, but amongst the fans it’s toxic. I was there for the Manchester United game and it’s clear that the fans have had enough. A project was thrown at them and they haven’t seen it work, even during the unbeaten run at the start of the season. I wonder how many of them really believed this was ever going to work.
Now people are starting to see Sarri as a man who has never won anything at all as a manager, he’s maybe produced teams who have shown good qualities, but they have never been able to sustain it. We saw that at Napoli in his last job where they fizzled out at the end when it really mattered, and we’re seeing the same at Chelsea. They are fizzling out with a massive decline in performances, results have deteriorated as well, and I don’t think there’s anywhere for them to go at this moment under him.
I don’t want to be backing the Chelsea fans, I prefer to back the knowledge of a manager usually, but in life I find it hard to back someone who is being stubborn.
In general I find it hard to appreciate people who refuse to shift from their own way, and in football it’s the same – Chelsea fans think they are seeing an Italian Arsene Wenger, somebody who isn’t shifting from his ideology at all. They just want to see him not put square pegs in round holes.
They’ve got two of the best players in the world in N’Golo Kante and Eden Hazard, but neither of them are being given the role to play the football that they want. When you’ve got Kante playing out of position, Chelsea aren’t getting the best out of him. He’s doing a good job where he is, scoring more goals than he’s ever scored, but it’s not the best use of him for the team.
The area where they are getting trampled all over is where they need Kante, because the player that Sarri bought in is not doing a good enough job. Jorginho is not playing in a slow-tempo Italian league week in week out anymore and he can’t quite handle it.
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A combo picture shows Chelsea's French midfielder N'Golo Kante (L) and Chelsea's Belgian midfielder Eden Hazard
Image credit: Reuters
Of course this isn’t all Sarri’s fault; you have to look at the players. The Chelsea fans have partly forgiven them for their role in Jose Mourinho’s tenure because he went somewhere else and did exactly the same thing, but now it’s yet another manager and you have to partly blame the players. But when the coach is putting square pegs in round holes he’s always going to shoulder the most responsibility.
I guess the big question is how Chelsea can change this pattern. Whether it’s with Sarri or a new manager, Chelsea have got to back him, let him bring in who he wants and get rid of whoever he doesn’t want. That would be a great way to get rid of the few bad apples in the barrel at Chelsea… and they are there, without a doubt. That’s a fact.
But what you can’t do is appoint a manager and then say ‘we’re going to bring in the tools for you’. You’ve got let him bring in his own tools so that when he does fail it is easier to accept.
At the moment it feels like Chelsea want to pick and choose players for the manager, but you can’t do that. It’s why you pay somebody so many hundreds of thousands of pounds a week – to manage and to coach the group of players in the way that he wants to.
Chelsea have some of the best youth teams in the country, which has been proven over the years by what they won. One solution could be for the club to give the manager licence to bring in a few of the younger players and maybe they will embarrass the more established players into actually following out the instructions of the manager.
I think City will win on Sunday, but when you hear people talk about quadruples it’s too far. But you can’t completely dismiss it because there’s still a chance.
People dismissed Manchester United in 1999 before they won the treble, so there’s always a chance, but at this moment in time all City need to do is keep beating the teams put in front of them.
That’s exactly what they did against Schalke. They weren’t right as a team, completely unbalanced with Fernandinho not looking good at all in central defence, but they still got over the line. That’s the kind of result that means you have to think they have a chance to do something big this season.
They could definitely win the Champions League, any of the top tier clubs could win that competition, but I think at the moment their priority should be on defending the Premier League title first and foremost. Doubles and trebles and quadruples are fantastic things to talk about, but you’re judged on being the best team in your country and that should still be City’s main aim.
- By Paul Parker (@realpaulparker2)
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