Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea

Maurizio Sarri was confirmed as the new coach of Chelsea last week after months of speculation. Finally the club reached a deal with Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis. The deal brings not only one of Italys best coaches to England but also possibly the most exciting style of play in Europe. Over the last couple of seasons Sarris Napoli has really appealed to people across the continent. Theyve played brilliant football. Now it remains to be seen if Chelsea can too. This post will look at how Chelsea might set up under their new coach. I will broadly discuss the basis of Sarris style of play, which roles he wants his players to play, how Chelseas players fit into his setup and finally how a Chelsea team under Sarri might look. Ready? Lets go.

Maurizio Sarris preferred style of play

Sarri is famous for the short-passing combinations youve seen clips of all over Twitter over the last few years. Like a few other Italian coaches, Sarri loves these types of passing combinations. His teams are always looking for triangles to utilise the concept of the third man whereas Player A will pass to Player B which attracts pressure and creates space for Player C as he receives a pass from Player B. Sound simple? Its really not.

Sarris style isnt based on possession for the sake of it, however. His Napoli did control possession for the majority of their games but the focus is always to move the ball forward quickly through the use of rapid one-touch passing. To accomplish this he needs his players to set up in a specific manner. The attacking structure of the side sees them line up in multiple horizontal lines with each player in close proximity to another. Obviously, you cant play short-passing combinations if the players are 30 meters apart. By placing the players in different lines Sarri increases the possibility to move the ball forward at speed. For example, at Napoli, if the centre-back Koulibaly was in possession in the first line he could look for Marek Hamsik in the third. As Hamsik receives the ball he could lay it off to defensive midfielder Jorginho in the second who instantly could find striker Dries Mertens in the fourth. Mertens could then lay it off to the onrushing Hamsik who could spread it wide to the winger Insigne or an attacking full-back. Without the players occupying different lines, Hamsik would have been forced to go back to Koulibaly and it would have been easier to defend against. Now Napoli always managed to play within the opponents defensive structure which causes problems for every team.

In the final third, Sarri deployed a few distinct features. The most known is the movement of left-winger Insigne into the space between the lines before lofting a diagonal ball in-behind for the right-winger Callejon. This play caused problems because of how it attacked the weak side of the defending team after they had been forced to overload on Napolis left. Another way Napoli went about creating chances was by Insigne again moving inside to open up space down the left for left-back Faouzi Ghoulam who would then fire low, hard crosses into the space between the opponents defensive line and goalkeeper.

In defence Sarri has used a strictly positionally-orientated defensive system. This means the players move in unison according to the position of the ball and their teammates without paying attention to the positions of the opposition. This style of defending, if done right, gives the defending team control since they can largely decide where the attacking team are allowed to play. This makes this defensive style proactive, rather than the reactive nature of a man-orientated approach. Sarris teams also press high, with a lot of energy and intensity. In fact, their pressing has often been forgotten as its easier to appreciate their play in possession. But make no mistake, Chelsea will be tough to control possession against. At Napoli, Sarri played 4-5-1 in defence where one of the wingers would push up alongside the centre-forward to press. Ive illustrated how this might look for Chelsea below.

Formation and roles

Sarri became a big name in Italy thanks to his superb work at Empoli with whom he won promotion to Serie A. His style of play was the same at Empoli as it later was at Napoli but he used a 4-3-1-2 in Tuscany. That formation, of course, is perfect for the type of short-passing combinations Sarri loves. When moving to Napoli he initially tried to instill the same formation but after some struggles and the fact Gonzalo Higuain worked better as a lone striker he changed to the 4-3-3 hes used ever since. In England, given the huge wing-focus in the league, its unlikely he uses the diamond and instead continues with 4-3-3.

The roles in Sarris 4-3-3 at Napoli have been quite interesting. The goalkeeper has to be able to build from the back and be comfortable in possession as Napoli often restarted their attacks from the goalkeeper. He also needs a good kicking technique to loft passes out towards the full-backs to escape high-pressure. The two centre-backs need to be comfortable in possession as they are often in charge of initiating attacks and play passes through the lines of the opposition. Defensively they need to be very good in terms of positioning and have the pace to keep a high line. Sarri will work this extensively in pre-season, probably using a drone to film and correct the movements of his defenders. He used contrasting roles for his full-backs at Napoli; the left-back was always extremely attacking and linked up with the inverted movement of left-winger Insigne but the right-back often kept a more cautious position, remaining deep with the centre-backs to guard against counter-attacks. It will be interesting to see if this continues at Chelsea.

In midfield, Sarri loves a technically gifted passer at the base of his three-man midfield. He first brought Mirko Valdifi